On November 11th through 15th, 25 of the strongest men on the planet will convene in Bradenton, Florida, to compete to become the 2020 World’s Strongest Man (WSM).
BarBend has received the exclusive list of competitors officially invited to compete. The list is below:
Note: Since the initial iteration of this roster, several changes have been made. Mateusz Kieliszkowski, Konstantine Janashia, Wesley Claborn, and Martin Forsmark have all withdrawn from the competition due to injury or a positive COVID-19 test. The roster below has been updated to reflect those changes on Nov. 10, 2020.
- Adam Bishop — Great Britain
- Aivars Smaukstelis — Latvia
- Bobby Thompson — USA
- Brian Shaw — USA
- Trey Mitchell — USA
- Ervin Toots — Estonia
- Evan Singleton — USA
- Eythor Ingolfsson Melsted — Iceland
- Gabriel Pena — Mexico
- Gavin Bilton — Great Britain
- Graham Hicks — Great Britain
- Jerry Pritchett — USA
- JF Caron — Canada
- Kevin Faires — USA
- Luke Richardson — Great Britain
- Luke Stoltman — Great Britain
- Mark Felix — Great Britain
- Maxime Boudreault — Canada
- Mikhail Shivlyakov — Russia
- Nick Best — USA
- Oleksii Novikov — Ukraine
- Patrick O’Dwyer — Ireland
- Robert Oberst — USA
- Terry Hollands — Great Britain
- Tom Stoltman — Great Britain
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Great Britain and the United States will be the most represented countries at the 2020 WSM with seven strongmen each. Canada will be the second most represented with two strongmen.
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Early in September, the 2019 WSM champion Martins Licis confirmed he will not be competing at the 2020 WSM competition due to a need to recover from injuries sustained from being hit by a car while riding his bike. Additionally, the 2018 WSM champion Hafthor Bjornsson confirmed back in May that he would not compete at the 2020 WSM competition and has since announced his official retirement from the sport of strongman following his tenth consecutive Iceland’s Strongest Man victory. This came after Bjornsson’s 501kg strongman deadlift record.
The 2020 WSM competition will prohibit on-site fans from being in attendance. All 25 competitors will be entering into a “bubble” prior to competition as a safety precaution amidst the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
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With the 2017 WSM champion Eddie Hall also no longer a competitive strongman, the winners of the WSM competition of the last three years will not be in attendance in 2020. However, the 2016 WSM champion Brian Shaw will be competing and has the opportunity to tie Mariusz Pudzianowski’s record five WSM titles should he win this year.
“I’m super excited to compete at World’s Strongest Man in Florida after an extremely irregular year. It’s great that we as strength athletes get to do what we do best, and I can’t wait to compete against my fellow athletes and friends,” said Adam Bishop, Britain’s reigning Strongest Man who will be making his fifth appearance at the World’s Strongest Man Championships in 2020.
“While there won’t be a crowd present, we’ll still put on one hell of a show and try to bring some positivity out of what has been a difficult year for everyone across the globe.”
Feature image from The World’s Strongest Man Instagram page: @theworldsstrongestman
