Vince Brasco, a dwarf bodybuilder that be crowned as the world’s shortest firefighter by Guinness World Records

News24xx.com - 27-year-old Vince Brasco – a ripped dwarf bodybuilder now set to be crowned the world’s shortest firefighter by Guinness World Records. 

Vince, who prefers to be known as a dwarf rather than a little person, bagged the accolade for his career in the life-saving role, and also has 40,000 fans on Instagram. 

He was born with acondroplasia, the most common form of dwarfism, and stands at just 4ft 1in tall. But despite his height Vince, from Greensburg, Pennsylvania, learnt how to be the proverbial bigger man from an early age after experiencing years of nasty comments by cruel bullies in high school who called him ‘midget’. 

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To prove his tormentors wrong and show he was capable of achieving just as much as anyone else, Vince got into weightlifting and soon began developing some seriously-impressive muscles. After eight years of bodybuilding, Vince, who has been nicknamed the ‘Mini Hulk’, can bench press almost three times his body weight and has stepped on stage in front of huge crowds at several bodybuilding competitions.

Vince is the only member of his family to be born with acondroplasia, or any form of dwarfism. The condition affects only one in every 25,000 births and is caused by a genetic mutation.

His short stature led to Vince being bullied by classmates throughout his school years and often endured name-calling because of his height. But Vince said he never got angry or retaliated and instead used to correct those who chose to make fun of him. 

He said he prefers to be referred to as a dwarf, a person with dwarfism or the increasingly common ‘little person’ and has discouraged anyone from using the word ‘midget’. Vince landed his job at the Greensburg Fire Department in 2007, aged 15, initially as a junior firefighter and following three years of rigorous training earned his stripes as a senior firefighter at the age of 18. 

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A year into the job Vince deciding to make the brave decision to join his local gym, which he admits was a ‘scary’ step for him to take as he feared people would make fun of him. Happily, Vince’s positive personality saw him quickly make friends with the gym’s most dedicated bodybuilders, who taught him how to lift heavy and get big.

Over the course of the last eight years Vince has dedicated himself to training five times a week to build muscle and try to lift the heaviest weights he can. 
Vince’s greatest achievement in bodybuilding so far came at the Pittsburg Pro competition, in 2016, where he cliched 2nd place in the bantam weight class after going toe-to-toe with regular sized men. And later this year Vince will be handed yet another accolade, he said, when he’s crowned as the Guinness World Record holder for being the world’s shortest firefighter.