Even a world record weightlifter is no match for Bart the grizzly bear when it comes to the King of the Mountain challenge on Man vs. Bear. In a PopCulture.com exclusive sneak peek of Wednesday’s new episode of the Discovery show, the athlete who set a bench press world record at just 19 years old is knocked completely off his feet as the 1,400-pound bear on the other end of the rope shows off his natural skill and strength.
Mike is clearly intimidated by Bart when walking up to the start line, and with good reason.
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“We need to restate, not just the force and the ferocity of Bart, but the possible damage that he can inflict to the shoulder,” Brandon Tierney, Emmy Award-winning sports commentator, reminds the audience. “If that thing is tugged in the wrong direction, that could pop.”
Wildlife expert and filmmaker Casey Anderson chimes in, “That’s what bears do out there. They don’t often make an efficient kill, they destroy, they take things apart.”
Mike gives the challenge a valiant go, even gaining a little ground on his platform before the raw power of Bart knocks him violently into the water. That very ground Mike gained, however, could have been the reason behind his quick downfall, Anderson revealed to PopCulture.com ahead of the series premiere.
“They’re a predator, they’re an animal that has to have some kind of innate competition instinct,” he explained. “You try harder, it makes the bear try harder.”
Tapping into the bears’ innate desire to explore and play with the challenges designed for Man vs. Bear, Anderson added that the experiences were always “very positive” for the bears, if not as much for their human counterparts.
“Even if you take all the safety precautions, it’s still scary standing on the same ground as a 1,400-pound grizzly bear,” Anderson noted. “The only tool we have is our brain, and that’s the one thing you see is for [the athletes] to strategize. …Never to really win, but to last the longest or lose the least.”
Man vs. Bear airs Wednesday at 9 p.m. ET on Discovery and catch up with the series on Discovery GO.
Photo credit: Discovery
