The 2021 World’s Strongest Man (WSM) competition is underway. The entire event will occur from June 15-20 in Sacramento, CA. The first three days of WSM will be the qualifying stage, where the 25 athletes are broken up into five groups. The top two me in each group will advance to the 10-man Finals.
Day One has just wrapped, and WSM announced the results on its Facebook Live show: World’s Strongest Man: BACKSTAGE LIVE Presented By SBD. (You can purchase the seven-episode live show for $2.99. It’s hosted by 2019 WSM winner Martins Licis and former BarBend Editor Nick English.) Below, you’ll find the three events and the results of each group.
Related: 2021 World’s Strongest Man Leaderboard and Results
2021 WSM Day One Events
Here are the three events that took place during day one of the Qualifying stage.
Loading Medley
- All groups
- Athletes load two barrels and a 275-pound anvil and then complete an 825-pound frame carry.
Squat Lift
- Groups One and Three
- Max reps with 318 kilograms (700 pounds).
- Groups Two, Four, and Five
- Max reps with 350 kilograms (750 pounds).
Here are the results for the events after day one of the competition:
Loading Medley
As of June 14, 2021, Graham Hicks is out of WSM due to a groin injury. Ervin Toots of Estonia took his place on the roster. Gavin Bilton, originally in Group Five, slid into Group One, and Toots is now in Group Five. Unfortunately, Luke Richardson also suffered an injury during the loading medley and is out of the competition.
All five groups were tasked with loading two 225-pound wine barrels and a 275-pound anvil to a platform and then complete an 825-pound frame carry. This proved to be an incredibly tough event — only seven of 25 strongmen finished the entire medley.
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Group One
- Maxime Boudreault — 4 in 1:00.40
- Brian Shaw — 4 in 1:05.44
- Travis Ortmayer — 3 and 8.18 meters
- Gavin Bilton — 3 and 1.94 meters
- Aivars Smaukstelis — 3 in 0:36.38
Group Two
- Tom Stoltman — 4 in 0:46.69
- Mark Felix — 4 in 1:05.87
- Evan Singleton — 3 and 6.10 meters
- Johnny Hansson — 3 and 1.33 meters
- Trey Mitchell — 3 in 0:31.40
Group Three
- Robert Oberst — 3 and 11 meters
- JF Caron — 3 and 10.55 meters
- Mikhail Shivlyakov — 3 and 2.71 meters
- Eythor Ingolfsson Melsted — 3 in 0:39.81
- Luke Richardson — 3 in 0:17.99
Group Four
- Konstantine Janashia — 3 and 7.44 meters
- Terry Hollands — 3 and 5.31 meters
- Jerry Pritchett — 3 and 1.57 meters
- Chris van der Linde — 3 and 0.20 meters
- Adam Bishop — 3 in 0:40.91
Group Five
- Kevin Faires — 4 in 0:59.64
- Luke Stoltman — 4 in 1:10.98
- Bobby Thompson — 4 in 1:27.19
- Oleksii Novikov — 3 and 9.30 meters
- Ervin Toots — 3 and 2.93 meters
Squat Lift
Only two of the groups took on this 700-pound squat event for max reps. It was Canadian JF Caron, who placed third at the 2020 WSM, who accumulated the most squat reps with 11. American Brian Shaw tied with Avars Smaukstelis with 10 reps. Fan-favorite Mikhail Shivlyakov also logged 10 reps. Overall, it was a competitive event.
Group One
- Brian Shaw — 10 reps
- Aivars Smaukstelis — 10 reps
- Maxime Boudreault — six reps
- Gavin Bilton — five reps
- Travis Ortmayer — three reps
Group Three
- JF Caron — 11 reps
- Mikhail Shivlyakov — 10 reps
- Eythor Ingolfsson Melsted — seven reps
- Robert Oberst — zero reps
- Luke Richardson — Withdrew due to injury
Deadlift
Considering that he set a World’s Strongest Man record in the partial deadlift last year, Novikov was probably happy to take on this event as was Toots, who suffered an injury during the squat event last year and was forced to withdraw from the competition.
Group Two
- Tom Stoltman — eight reps
- Mark Felix — eight reps
- Trey Mitchell — eight reps
- Evan Singleton — five reps
- Johnny Hansson — three reps
Group Four
- Adam Bishop — nine reps
- Konstantine Janashia — eight reps
- Terry Hollands — six reps*
- Jerry Pritchett — five reps
- Chris van der Linde — four reps
*Terry Hollands suffered an undisclosed injury
Group Five
- Bobby Thompson — nine reps
- Kevin Faires — six reps
- Oleksii Novikov — six reps
- Luke Stoltman — six reps
- Ervin Toots — three reps
World’s Strongest Man Day Two
The competition will resume tomorrow, with groups taking on two more events — Fingal’s Fingers, which is making its return to WSM for the first time since 2017, and the Train Pull. Groups Five, Four, and One will take on Fingal’s Fingers. Groups Two and Three will participate in the Train Pull.
BarBend will be providing robust coverage for World’s Strongest Man throughout the week, so stay tuned.
Featured image courtesy of World’s Strongest Man
