Hafthor Bjornsson is already one of the top strongmen in the world, having won the World’s Strongest Man title in 2018 and two consecutive Arnold Strongman Classic championships, along with several other titles. Now he wants to add a famous record to his portfolio of accomplishments: Eddie Hall’s 500 kg deadlift.
Note: An earlier version of this piece said the deadlift would be attempted in Dubai; Thor plans on attempting it in Bahrain. We apologize for the error.
Yes, he will be attempting to do that at the 2020 Arnold Strongman Classic but that event is the “Elephant Bar Deadlift” which is with a different bar, plates, and would be a different record. In an Instagram post shared on the morning of February 23rd, Bjornsson announced that he will be competing at the World’s Ultimate Strongman event in Bahrain on April 11th and will make his formal attempt to break Hall’s near four-year long record.
“I accepted another challenge. And that is to compete at the @wusdubai show on the 11th of April in Bahrain. There is a lot of talk about what it’s going to take to be considered the best deadlifter in the world and it’s time to compare apples with apples. I will still be competing on the elephant bar at the Arnold’s, but if you’ve been following, you’ll know that the deadlift event will be on day 2 which means that the athletes will be attempting the deadlift in a fatigued state, which makes achieving 501kg much harder.
At WUS, the deadlift will be the first event on the first day, on a deadlift bar with a deadlift suit and figure 8 straps, and I will be ready to deadlift 501kg and break the world deadlift record.
I can’t wait.”
For those that aren’t familiar, Hall became the first man to deadlift 500 kg (1,102 pounds) in 2016. The differences between his lift and the Elephant Bar event at the ASC is that the plates are calibrated and the bar being used is a specific deadlifting barbell. Bjornsson is doing the April contest in order to hold both deadlifting records should he be successful.
Bjornsson also announced that in order to accept this challenge and go for the record, he has withdrawn from the 2020 Europe’s Strongest Man contest, scheduled to take place in Leeds, England of April 4. He would have been going for his fourth consecutive ESM title and sixth overall but opted to forego that event so he could be fully prepared to take on his world record setting opportunity.
Bjornsson’s best deadlift with the deadlift bar and calibrated plates in competition is 450 kg (990 pounds) which he performed at the World Deadlift Championships in 2015. He hasn’t been in a max contest under those conditions since that contest but he has certainly gotten stronger since then, shown by his recent pull of 480 kg (1,058 pounds) without a suit.
Featured Image: Instagram/thorbjornsson
