Wrestler Asbjørn Riis dies at 69 after cancer battle
Tuesday 4th August 2026 on 21:00 in
Denmark
Asbjørn Riis, the wrestler, entertainer and strongman who brought wrestling to Danish television, has died at the age of 69 after a battle with cancer, Danish broadcaster DR reports.
“It is with great sorrow and longing that we announce that Asbjørn has passed away peacefully after a hard-fought battle against cancer,” his family wrote.
Riis travelled to the United States in the early 1990s to train with Arnold Schwarzenegger, achieving one of his major ambitions. He later worked to popularise wrestling in Denmark, including through the TV3 programme “Bjørns Wrestling” in the mid-1990s.
His catchphrases included “U-BEHAGELIG” and the slogan: “Keep fit, eat healthily and believe in yourselves.” His red bandana also made him a familiar sight on Danish television in the 1990s, including appearances on “Robinson” and “Fangerne på Fortet”.
Riis also appeared in the Hollywood film “The 13th Warrior”, playing the Viking Halga opposite Antonio Banderas. His line, “Only an Arab takes a dog to war”, became one of his best-known lines from the film.
After his television career, Riis opened a training centre in the village of Flade on Mors, which lies in the Limfjord between Thy and Salling. He built much of the equipment himself, drawing on his training as a blacksmith.
The centre influenced many strength athletes in northern Denmark, including Mikkel Leicht, a former six-time Denmark’s Strongest Man and one of only three Danes to have competed in the World’s Strongest Man competition.
“It all started at his centre on Mors 15 years ago. I was just a teenager, and he helped me from the beginning,” Leicht said.
He said Riis built equipment for athletes who needed it and encouraged them to believe they could achieve more than most people.
“He believed in you 100 per cent. That you could go all the way. There was no Jante Law,” Leicht said, referring to the Danish cultural idea that people should not consider themselves better than others.
Asked whether he would have become a strongman without Riis, Leicht replied: “I probably would not have. He opened the door to it.”
Riis is survived by his wife and four sons. In a joint Facebook post, the family wrote that he had left “a great void in all of us, and shoes that no one could ever fill, literally as well”.