Geoffry Lewis Capes was born as the seventh child of Eileen Capes in Holbeach England. It was here that he lived for his childhood and attended school. In his youth he joined the Holbeach Athletics Club where he was a fine athlete in basketball, football and even cross country. In addition Geoff was a notably good sprinter with a respectable 23.7 sec 200m. Inevitably, however Geoff found his best event in throwing the shot put.
Geoff had his first major competition in 1970 in the Commonwealth Games. He would finish fourth, then improved to become the champion in 1974 and 1978. Geoff also found great success int he European Indoor Championships, which he won in 1974 and 1976. He also competed in the Olympics three times, but never found much success there despite having thrown the best distance of the year, 21.68 m (71 ft 3.5 in), surpassing even the Olympic record, prior to the competition.
Geoff was extremely disappointed by this result, as well as the issues revolving around his career. Geoff had worked with the police for 11 years, a necessity for the athletes of the time before sponsorships. He had to end this due to the ban at the time on service members being allowed in the 1980 Olympics, due to the Afghanistan war.
Now on shaky financial ground Geoff needed a new career to support his young family. Geoff officially retired from amateur sports and began competing professionally. Geoff's dominance at the Highland Games began in 1981, where he would take first place and continue to win until 1987.
Geoff also competed in strongman competitions, starting with Britain's Strongest Man in 1979, where he would defeat Bill Anderson. Capes then won Europe's Strongest Man, earning him an invitation to The World's Strongest Man 1980. A solid showing earned him third place, behind Bill Kazmaier and Lars Hedlund. He would improve this position with a win in 1983, where he would defeat a young Jon Pall Sigmarsson.
Geoff would be regularly plagued by a nagging shoulder injury, which would cripple him in Crucifix Hold, forward hold and pressing events. Despite this, however Capes never fell below fourth place and achieved two second place finishes, two third and a second win in 1985. Geoff also won many other competitions in this time including World Muscle Power 1985, Battle of the Giants and Strongman Challenge 1987.
Goeff's career came to an end in 1987 where he would compete in the legendary Pure Strength competition, a three man war between Kazmaier, Sigmarsson and Capes. Capes had just recently come out of the hospital for a strained trapezium. Geoff performed admirably, but was forced to retire from the competition and the sport due to injury.
This was not the end of Capes's career in sport, however. He would go on to be a coach for many young athletes including World's Strongest Man competitor Adrian Smith. He was also a mentor coach of the British Olympic shot put team. Impressively, in 2006 he competed in and won a fell race in Cumbria.
Capes even continued competition after his retirement in sports. He has won world championships in bird breeding related competitions. He also co-ran a security company for a time and appeared on two British reality shows. He played Darth Vader in a few scenes in The Empire Strikes Back. Capes is a special sight for many people and is one of the most decorated British athletes in history, with more international caps (appearances) than any other male British Athlete. He also won the Queen Elizabeth II Silver Jubilee Medal in 1977 for his work in the community. He even had a game called Geoff Capes Strongman made in 1985 for the Commodore 64.
With all of his achievements across strongman, athletics and more, Capes has proven himself a great British champion.