The 2017 World’s Strongest Man (WSM) Eddie Hall answered some of his followers questions during a Q&A mid training session yesterday. One of the questions posed was who Hall believed was going to win the 2020 WSM competition.
Hall first deduced which events he believed would be part of the program.. Based on that, he concluded that his pick to win is 4-time WSM champion Brian Shaw.
The Q&A took place during a shoulder workout that Hall posted a video of to his YouTube channel. Check out it out below:
[Related: Martins Licis on WSM postponement: “I like my chances better now”]
Who do you think will win the next World’s Strongest Man?
The question comes at 12:09 from follower Jamie.Coxx. Hall begins by caveating that the 2020 WSM may not even happen. It was been postponed until November 11th-14th in Bradenton, Floria — the state with the second highest number of coronavirus cases in the U.S., according to the COVID data tracker at the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). For those curious, at the time of this article, California has the highest number of cases. Note: New York City is counted separately from New York state in the data.
Hall then fired off his top 4 (in no particular order): Martins Licis, Brian Shaw, Mateusz Kieliszkowski, and Tom Stoltman. Digging deeper into how he would go about ranking those strongmen, the 2017 WSM champ turned boxer made clear that it was primarily speculation as the events for the 2020 WSM competition have not yet been announced. Here are the events Hall expects to see this year (gauging off of last year’s competition) and who be thinks will be their corresponding winners:
- Deadlift (either for reps or max weight) — Shaw
- Atlas Stones — Shaw
- A throwing event — Shaw
- Truck Pull — Kieliszkowski (Shaw coming in second)
- Some form of medley — Kieliszkowski, Licis, or Stoltman
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[Related: Hafthor Bjornsson won’t compete at the 2020 World’s Strongest Man]
Ultimately, Hall thinks Shaw will earn a fifth WSM title with Kieliszkowski taking second. The difference maker in Hall’s mind is Kieliszkowski’s weakness in the deadlift.
“Just because there is going to be a deadlift, that’s why Mateusz is going to fall down again. The only year Mateusz is going to win WSM is when there is not a deadlift in the final.”
He deemed his prediction as “total guesswork”. It’s unclear if Hall is aware of the recent pec injury Shaw suffered while attempting to bench press 575lb, but Shaw will have to recover if he is going to deny Licis from going back-to-back and prove Hall’s prediction correct.
Feature image from Eddie Hall’s Instagram page: @eddiehallwsm
