A Toast to a Real Strongman
By JASON GAY
SEPTEMBER 15, 2011
There are athletes with nine-figure contracts and seven-car garages; athletes with Hollywood spouses and political ambitions. There are athletes who leap, throw, run, swim, kick and punch, and a few known to fly.
But aren't too many athletes out there who can do what Rogelio Juarez does.
Juarez, 49, is a rising New York star in the tiny but transfixing sport of Masskrugstemmen, an endurance competition in which athletes—and they are athletes—try to hold onto an enormous beer for as long as they can.
Yes, exactly: Masskrugstemmen is the greatest sport ever invented.
The game is far more popular in Germany, where it is played in beer halls and outdoor festivals. Contestants line up, extend one arm parallel to the ground, grip a one-liter beer, and try not to spill. Drop any brew, and you're eliminated.
"It's pretty much a Bavarian strongman contest," said Lars Halter, general chairman of New York City's German-American Steuben Parade, which kicks off Saturday and includes a national championship-style Masskrugstemmen in Central Park.
That's where Rogelio will be, facing rivals from states like California, Wisconsin and Florida. I'd been reading about Rogelio in my neighborhood newspaper, The Brooklyn Paper, for a while—the quiet busser at the Der Schwarze Kölner beer garden in Fort Greene who made a Cinderella run to last year's national competition.
I met up with him the other day. Rogelio, who is originally from Mexico, wore a black T-shirt, olive shorts and running shoes. He's not tall, but he's stocky, though you wouldn't call him a muscleman. He speaks some English, but mostly Spanish. One of his co-workers, Greta Acosta-Black, helped translate.
Rogelio outlined his beer career. Last year, when Der Schwarze Kölner had its own local competition, a staffer signed him up without his knowledge. Rogelio was thrown in without any practice, and after several minutes, everyone was stunned to see him standing there, unflustered, his beer steady.
"He came out of nowhere," Greta said. "We were all like, 'Oh my goodness, Rogelio is still up!'"
"The first time I did it, it was for fun." Rogeliio said in English. "But I won. Incredible, right?"
Masskrugstemmen is much tougher than it looks. One liter of beer in a glass stein weighs about five pounds, and most people can't last longer than a couple minutes. Last year's Central Park champ went almost ten. Halter has heard reports of a 24-minute record overseas.
"I talk to people who tell me that they train in the gym," Halter said. Fred Schumacher, the president of Hofbräuhaus of America, the beer sponsor for the Central Park competition, thinks Masskrugstemmen is "absolutely" a sport. "It's a physical event," Schumacher said.
Rogerio said he doesn't train. A former plumber, he suspects he developed arm strength breaking walls to install pipes. He recently injured his hand slamming it in a door, but he insists he'll be fine for Saturday.
"He's not scared of the competition," Greta said.
It was time for me to try. I'd given myself an advantage—I drank half of my beer. I extended my arm. Greta glanced at her watch. "Go," she said.
It felt easy. Masskrugstemmen wasn't as grueling as I'd been told. I was so strong! Maybe I was a prodigy.
Suddenly, pain tore in. My shoulder burned, my elbow sagged. Finally, when I couldn't take it any longer, I slammed the beer down to the table. "Forty-two seconds," Greta said, smiling.
It was pathetic, but I still had a beer.
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