Each year, every strongman fan on the planet counts down the days until World’s Strongest Man. It’s easily one of the biggest events in strength sports — 2017 winner Eddie Hall sees the title as the “ultimate alpha male” — and BarBend has received the full list of this year’s athletes from our sources at the World’s Strongest Man.
The qualifying rounds will be held from April 28th to May 1st and barring any injuries or drop outs, this is the final list of the thirty athletes and their countries, presented in alphabetical order.
Matjaz Belsak – Slovenia
Nick Best – United States
Iron Biby – Burkina Faso
Adam Bishop – Great Britain
Hafthor Julius Bjornsson – Iceland
JF Caron – Canada
Adam Derks – United States
Johan Els – South Africa
Mark Felix – Great Britain
Martin Forsmark – Sweden
Johnny Hansson – Sweden
Graham Hicks – Great Britain
Terry Hollands – Great Britain
Konstantine Janashia – Georgia
Rob Kearney – United States
Rongo Keene – Australia
Mateusz Kieliszkowski – Poland
Dennis Kohlruss – Germany
Marius Lalas – Lithuania
Vytautas Lalas – Lithuania
Martins Licis – United States
Peiman Maheripourehir – Iran
Robert Oberst – United States
Krzysztof Radzikowski – Poland
Zydrunas Savickas – Lithuania
Laurence Shahlaei – Great Britain
Brian Shaw – United States
Mikhail Shivlyakov – Russia
Aivars Smaukstelis – Latvia
Luke Stoltman – Great Britain
A few things worth noting: despite some rumors, Eddie Hall most certainly is not returning to World’s Strongest Man this year. He was a little indecisive about his retirement, announcing it immediately after last year’s event and then later changing his to stance to “pondering on it.” He’s contracted to compete as a strongman until 2019 so there’s always a chance we’ll see him then, but not this year.
But we do have a lot of greats on this list, including four-time champions Brian Shaw and Zydrunas Savickas, who was last seen beating his world log press record while training for the upcoming Europe’s Strongest Man. Fifty-one-year-old Mark Felix is also making his first appearance at the event since 2015.
So, will this be the year that Hafthor Bjornsson finally takes the title? With Hall out of the running and with a recent win at the 2018 Arnold Strongman Classic, one could argue that The Mountain is primed to do so. But with multiple previous world champions and so many hungry up-and-comers, it’s harder than ever to make predictions.
The 2018 World’s Strongest Man’s qualifying rounds run from April 28th to May 1st and the two-day finals will be held on May 5th and 6th in Manila. For now, these are the events:
Heats (Qualifiers)
- Load and Drag
- Load and Farmer’s Walk
- Truck Pull
- Overhead Press (Dumbbell)
- Overhead Press (Log)
- Arm Over Arm
- Toss
- Squat with loading barrels
- Deadlift with loading barrels
- Atlas Stones
Finals Events
- Frame Carry
- Car Deadlift
- Loading Race
- Truck Pull
- Max Overhead
- Atlas Stones
Good luck to all the competitors.
Featured image via @shawstrength and @savickas_bigz on Instagram.
