Once Called the World’s Strongest Child, Giuliano Stroe Grew Up Away From the Spotlight That Made Him Famous at Five

Giuliano Stroe was born on 18 June 2004 in Piove di Sacco, Italy, to Romanian parents. From toddlerhood his father, Iulian Stroe, a former boxer and gymnast, took him to the gym. By the time Giuliano was five, videos of a small boy with an adult’s musculature — handstands, rings, weighted walks — had made him an internet phenomenon and the unofficial “world’s strongest child.”

The training mixed gymnastics and strength work. In 2009 he entered the Guinness World Records for the fastest 10-metre hand-walk while holding a medicine ball between his legs. In February 2010, live on Romanian television, he set another mark: 20 consecutive 90-degree push-ups, an exercise in which the feet never touch the floor and the body is held in a near-vertical press. He later increased that number in unofficial attempts. His younger brother Claudio trained on a similar path.

The same clips that brought applause also brought an argument that has not fully gone away: how much resistance training is appropriate for a preschooler, and what it does to growing joints, growth plates and a child’s relationship with sport. Paediatric specialists and commentators questioned the load, the hours and the public display. The family said Giuliano wanted to train and that play was not excluded.

As an adult Stroe has stayed in Italy with his family. He boxes and still trains, but the presentation on his social accounts is closer to an ordinary athletic life than to the “strongest child” brand of 2009–2010. The records remain in the public record; the controversy is what he has stepped back from.

His childhood was unusual by design. What followed is quieter: a young man who still lifts and fights, without asking the world to watch every repetition.

Sources

Wikipedia, “Giuliano Stroe”
Contemporary news: Aftonbladet (2009); South China Morning Post (2012); The Sun (2023 update)
Guinness-era coverage of the 10 m weighted hand-walk (2009) and 90-degree push-ups (2010, Romanian television)