“WORLD STRONGEST MAN 2020” 11th - 15th November in Bradenton Florida!!!!!
1: Ervin Toots @ervin.toots
2: Terry Hollands @terryhollandswsm
3: Eddie Williams @eddiejowilliams
4: Graham Hicks @grahamhicksuk
5: Luke Richardson @lukeerichardson
6: Maxime Boudreault @max.boudreault23
7: Tom Stoltman @tomstoltmanofficial
8: Robert Oberst @robertoberst
9: Evan Singleton @evan_trex_strongman
10: Brian Shaw @shawstrength
11: Rob Kearney @worlds_strongest_gay
12: Mateusz Kieliszkowski @kieliszkowskimateusz
13: Martin Forsmark @forzmark
14: Adam Bishop @adambishopstrongman
15: Oleksii Novikov @novikov_strong
16: Jerry Pritchett @jerrypritchettstrongman
17: Konstantine Janashia @konstantine_janashia
18: Kevin Faires @kf_strongman
19: Luke Stoltman @luke.stoltman
20: Mark Felix @markfelixwsm
21: Ari Gunnarsson @ari_gunnarsson
22: JF Caron @jfcaronstrongman
23: Mikhail Shivlyakov @mikhail_shivlyakov
24: Vytautas Lalas @vytautas.lalas
25: Iron Biby @ironbiby
Alternate/Reserve: Trey Mitchell III @berserkerlifter
Alternate/Reserve: Ole Martin Kristiansen @olemartinkri
Alternate/Reserve: Eythor Ingolfsson @eythormelsted
Eddie Hall Presenter
Magnus Ver Magnusson @magnusvermag
Head Referee
Colin Bryce @colin.bryce Tournament Director
Main Sponsor @sbdapparel
repost @https://www.instagram.com/worldsstrongestfan/
this is where the magic happen where monsters collide with each other batting the title WHO is the strongest man. The World’s Strongest Man competition is about more than just force: it is about stamina, skill, tactics, training and strategy. Every event below is designed to push the Strongmen to their absolute limits, challenging not only their physical strength, but their agility and mental toughness too. there are variety of events that the test the competitors and they are :
Pulling a phenomenally heavy object along a course may not sound like ground-breaking event territory in the world of the Strongmen, but there’s a twist for the Arm Over Arm Pull: the athletes have to remain sitting, and stationary, with their feet resting against a solid base at all times.
Using a rope, the Strongman must then pull an object down a course in the fastest time possible. It appears that the Arm Over Arm pull is, at first, about upper body strength, but actually depends more strongly on leg strength and grip. Most athletes will bend their knees, pull the rope tautly, and almost complete a leg-press style movement to gain speed and traction during the pull. Legs are much stronger limbs than arms, and this technique gives the Strongmen more power and more force behind their pull. In fact, it’s their grip that often causes them to fail at this event, as the roughness of the rope means keeping a tight grip becomes virtually impossible. Especially, when the items they’re pulling range from planes, to boats, to giant tyres.
The Atlas Stones are often regarded as the signature event in the WSM contest. As the final event of the whole competition, this event often determines the winner.
Introduced in 1986, the Atlas Stones are five heavy, spherical stones which increase in weight from 100 to 160 kg. They need to be placed on top of five high platforms that span a 16–33 ft. long course. In the early years of this event, it was extremely rare for competitors to be able to lift all five Stones, but now the expectation is that all will be lifted, and it’s the time it happens in that now determines a winner.
Originally, the Stones were lifted onto platforms at waist-height, but over the years the event has evolved and the Stones have increased in weight, and the platforms in height.
This iconic event is strongly associated with some of the biggest names in WSM history: Marius Pudzianowski, Magnus Samuelsson, Magnús ver Magnússon and Žydrūnas Savickas have all conquered the event, and emerged as WSM title holders.
The Keg Toss is inspired by the long tradition of Highland Games. Based on the idea of a weight-for-height competition, the Keg Toss relies on pure power to succeed. Competing Strongmen have to throw kegs of increasing weight over a 4.42 metre wall, clearing it in one throw.
There have been several historical variations to this event too: back in 2003 and then again in 2006, concrete blocks – not kegs – were the objects that the athletes had to toss over the walls. During these years, the height of the wall, not the weight of the object, was what increased.
With the kegs – which are now used exclusively over blocks – ranging in weight from 15kg to 24kg, clearing the walls in one go is no mean feat.
Anvils, anchors and chains are carried over a fixed distance. The Strongmen compete five at a time, and have to carry two anvils first, before dragging an anchor over the same distance, attaching a chain to it, and dragging it back to the starting point.
An anchor and a chain are carried to the end of a set distance, where they must be attached to each other and then dragged back the same distance.
Visually impressive and impossible to take your eyes off, the Carry and Drag event is gruelling for even the most accomplished Strongman.
Weights: Anvils 130kg each Anchors and Chain 300kg.
First launched in 1983, the Farmer’s Walk is one of the most well-known and most iconic WSM events.
It originally made its debut in Christchurch, New Zealand, but back then was known as the Fergus Walk. Initially, wooden implements weighing 80kg were carried by the athletes and it was the thickness, rather than the weight, that caused competitors the most problems. When this event launched, the emphasis was on the distance the Strongmen could travel with their weights. Whoever made it furthest around the oval track was declared the winner.
Today, the re-named Farmer’s Walk focuses on covering a set distance within a certain time limit and the apparatus the athletes carry can be dropped and picked up without limit. As the objects become heavier and heavier over the years, the event has come to be known as the Giant Farmer’s Walk – with each item tipping the scales at 160kg each…
That means since the event’s creation in 1983, the weight of a single object is now the same as the old combined weight, showing that each year really does bring with it a new calibre of Strongmen!
One of the newest events in the WSM competition, Fingal’s Fingers was first launched in 2000 and takes its name from Fingal, a mythological Gaelic hunter-warrior. The event revolves around a series of hinged poles – or fingers – being lifted, starting from a horizontal resting position and flipped over to the other side. The poles get progressively heavier and longer as the event progresses, making the challenge to flip the fingers tougher and tougher as the timer counts down. The event is scored by time and by how many of the poles a competitor was able to flip over.
It’s fast, tough and unforgiving and as a result is used frequently in WSM competitions, both in the Heats and in the Finals. With weights ranging from 200kg to over 300kg, athletes are pushed to flip all five fingers with the pressure of the clock ticking as they do so. Turning all five isn’t enough, it’s whoever can turn all five the fastest who will be victorious.
No standing in front of an open fridge door, wondering whether to have seconds or not here as the Fridge Carry sees Strongmen compete to carry two fridges along a 30 metre course. A yoke and a crossbar are used to stabilise the fridges, weighing between 415kg / 904lbs.
The athletes then have 60 seconds to complete the course… a phenomenal test of strength which has grown to become one of the most-recognised, and iconic events in the world of the Strongmen.
The Giant Dumbbell press seems like one of the more straightforward WSM events, but that doesn’t mean it is any less grueling to succeed in.
In order to compete, the athletes have to lift single-handed dumbbells from the ground and onto their shoulder which they then must raise vertically over their head whilst fully extending their arm upwards. With four dumbbells weighing between 100 and 115kgs this is no mean feat. Scoring – and winning – the competition is dependent on the time taken to successfully lift as many dumbbells as possible.
Giant is definitely the right word to describe this event as it’s an entire tree trunk – not just a log – that the Strongmen have to lift to conquer this part of the competition. The tree trunk is erected horizontally onto a stand which has handles built-in at one end. The athletes have to grip the handles with their backs to the trunk and lift it over their head as many times as possible within a set time limit.
The challenge here is the number of repetitions that can be achieved before the timer runs out. With the average trunk weighing 380kgs (830lbs) the athletes need stamina and strength, as well as an iron-clad grip to smash this event.
This event was first introduced into the WSM events repertoire in 1992. Legend has it that the stone was originally crafted in Iceland over 200 years ago and used by an Icelandic pastor to help keep one of his stable doors open. The stone is still kept in Husafell, Iceland, at the site of Pastor Snorri Björnsson’s stables.
The stone itself is a flat, somewhat triangular rock weighing 182kgs. The challenge for this event is to carry the stone held high across the chest over a set distance whilst being timed. During the three years in which the WSM competition was held in Africa, a newly shaped stone was crafted in the shape of the African continent and the event was temporarily renamed as the Africa Stone.
Five objects, each weighing between 100–164kg, are loaded onto a truck bed or a similar platform over a course of about 50 ft.
Anchors and chains, sandbags, anvils, lobster pots, masts, blocks of ice, wine casks and beer kegs are some of the items that have to be lifted. The athlete who manages to load all of these objects onto the platform in the fastest time is declared the winner. The weight of the objects – surprisingly – isn’t the defining factor in this event: the overall shape of the objects, their dimensions, and the terrain (which can range from rubble to sand to snow) the athletes have to cross to get to the loading bay are all more significant than weight alone.
Twists to the event’s structure have been introduced up over the years, challenging the Strongmen in new and ever more inventive ways. The 1992 Loading Race had five 90kg barrels as the loading objects, which the Strongmen had to wade into a lagoon to retrieve before returning them to dry land. Other variations over the years have seen the Strongmen wade through Bahamian sand, to boats in the Ocean, and through Icelandic snow, to retrieve items to load onto the platforms.
The Overhead Log Lift was introduced into the WSM event series in 1980. Originally, the Overhead Log Lift was about lifting the maximum weight possible, but today athletes compete by lifting a wooden log from the ground then raising it overhead as many times as possible within the time limit; returning the weight back to the floor in a controlled fashion each time before attempting to do the next lift.
The Overhead Log Lift began life as a beer barrel lifting contest before the logs were introduced. The first winner of the Log Lift in 1980 was legendary Strongman Bill Kazmaier who powered 157kgs from the floor over his head. He won the event over the next two years too, setting world records with each lift. The current world record holder is the incredible Žydrūnas Savickas with a lift of 212.5kgs.
The mythological tale of the Pillars tells us that Hercules, having to cross a mountain on his way to the garden of the Hesperides, used his superhuman strength to smash it into two pieces rather than climb over it. When these two pieces of the mountain fell into the sea they formed what we now know today as Gibraltar and Monte Hacho. Ever since, these two halves of the mountain have been known as the Pillars of Hercules.
Our Strongmen may not be smashing mountains in two, but they are our modern day Hercules… and for this event they prove their strength by standing on a raised platform, in a fixed position, and using chains to keep two huge pillars either side of them upright. Each of the pillars weighs 160kgs, and there is no time limit, the event will be over when the Strongman is no longer able to support both pillars.
Whilst a few flights of stairs leaves most of us huffing and puffing and longing for the lift, Strongmen are powering up stairs carrying a selection of three humongous items all the way to the top. Power and speed are necessary to conquer this event, as the items range in weight from 182–273kgs and are lifted all the way to the top.
Moving from step to step requires speed and strength, and it’s not necessarily the tallest athletes that have an advantage here. The Power Stairs are designed to test every element of the athletes’ ability, and require stamina and skill to conquer.
The Squat is one of the original events from the very first WSM contest. Still going strong (if you’ll pardon the pun) today, this event first began life with women suspended in giant metal birdcages being lifted up as the Strongmen squatted down to lift the bars that the cages were attached to.
Although the competition has evolved since 1977, it is still spectacular to watch and tough to complete as the Strongmen now lift items that weight up to 400kgs… including concrete blocks, tractor tyres, cars and even people.
The challenge is to lift the objects as many times as possible whilst remaining in a fixed position, with only the strength they can put into their squat to help them.
As the WSM contest has continued to grow and evolve, the keg and barrel squats have become more prominent, with Mariusz Pudzianowski and Laurence Shahlaei performing some incredible Squats. In fact, Shahlaei has built a reputation for being one of the most powerful Squat competitors in WSM history, often becoming the only competitor able to squat the heaviest weight. No mean feat, considering this event remains one of the oldest, and toughest, ones to compete in.
Few WSM events are more impressive than the vehicle pull. Introduced in 1977, it’s the jaw-dropping one-to-watch as vehicles such as trams, boxcars, buses and planes are pulled across a 100 ft course, by hand, in the quickest time possible. Originally, the Strongmen would wear a pulling harness, but today it is more common for them to have a harness and a pulling rope. The old harness-only system did see to give an advantage to the competitors with the strongest body weight.
The vehicle is often chosen to reference a previous winner or the current host city of the current competition. The 2007 competition featured a fire truck in a nod to 2006 champion Phil Pfister, a professional firefighter, and the 2008 qualifying rounds featured a coal truck, a reference to the coalmining industry in West Virginia where the competition was held that year. The terrains also change yearly too, with vehicles being pulled on snow, ice, sand and concrete. Other variations to the competition also include filling a tram with passengers for the Vehicle Pull in 1979, meaning the total vehicle weight actually topped 4535kgs.
It’s double WSM Title winner Bruce Wilhelm who holds the record for the first ever pull in the contest’s history, completing the 21 metre course in exactly 14 seconds and proving that this event is about more than just size and strength; that it’s about stamina, strength and skill.
