The first half of the 2025 World’s Strongest Man (WSM) is done. After five events, the top two athletes from each of the five-athlete groups comprising the Qualifying Stage of the competition advanced to the 2025 WSM Final.
[Stay Tuned: 2025 World’s Strongest Man Live Results & Leaderboard]
2025 World’s Strongest Man Finals Roster
- Tom Stoltman (UK) — Group One Winner
- Eddie Williams (AUS) — Group One Runner-Up
- Mitchell Hooper (CAN) — Group Two Winner
- Paddy Haynes (UK) — Group Two Runner-up
- Rayno Nel (RSA) — Group Three Winner
- Shane Flowers (UK) — Group Three Runner-Up
- Trey Mitchell (USA) — Group Four Winner
- Ondrej Fojtů (CZE) — Group Four Runner-Up
- Luke Stoltman (UK) — Group Five Winner
- Pavlo Kordiyaka (UKR) — Group Five Runner-Up
For the first time, the WSM Final will be impacted by the Qualifying Stage beyond the influence over the roster. Each athlete’s Qualifying Stage performance was compared against each other to rank them for an event heading into the Final. That means that Hooper will enter the Final with 10 points as the overall leader, Tom Stoltman with nine points in second place, and so on.
Leader’s Advantage
Being a higher seed is exceptionally advantageous, as the most meaningful aspect of competition is what has become known as “Leader’s Advantage.”
Leader’s Advantage refers to an athlete competing later in a given event and knowing the times or marks to beat from the athletes who have gone before them. For example, if the top mark in a Deadlift for Reps event is eight, the Leader’s Advantage informs the leader that they only need to pull nine reps to win, rather than go to failure to set the mark to beat. Those margins can significantly alter the results of a competition.
When Mitchell Hooper won the 2023 WSM contest, of which he was the overall leader for the entirety of after the first event of the Final, he told BarBend in his winner interview that Leader’s Advantage was worth approximately six points. He won that year by 4.5 points over Tom Stoltman.
2025 WSM Final Leaderboard After Qualifying
- Mitchell Hooper — 10 points
- Tom Stoltman — Nine points
- Rayno Nel — Eight points
- Trey Mitchell — Seven points
- Luke Stoltman — Six points
- Paddy Haynes — Five points
- Shane Flowers — Four points
- Ondrej Fojtů — Three points
- Pavlo Kordiyaka — Two points
- Eddie Williams — One point
[Related: Luke Richardson and Evan Singleton Withdraw from 2025 World’s Strongest Man]
2025 World’s Strongest Man Finals
Day Three of the competition is the first of two for the WSM Finals. It will feature the following three events:
- KNAACK Carry & Hoist — 10 a.m. PST
- 18” Max Deadlift — 1 p.m. PST
- Hercules Hold — 4 p.m. PST
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Featured image courtesy of World’s Strongest Man/Rich Storry
