On November 7th, 2018 World’s Strongest Man and 2-time Arnold Strongman Classic Champion Hafthor Bjornsson posted a video on YouTube announcing that he will end a self-imposed hiatus from competition and return to the 2020 Arnold Strongman Classic.
Bjornsson shared in that same video that it was his first day preparing for the competition. While he had been training consistently, it hadn’t been with heavy weights (by his standards). The training leading up to the contest will start with less weight and he would add each week.
“Today is more about, you know, letting the body lifting the log, doing the deadlift, and doing squats, you know. I’ve been doing it but now the real training starts.”
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Bjornsson was coming off a 2018 season that saw him win the Arnold Strongman Classic, World’s Strongest Man, and the first World’s Ultimate Strongman contests. He won his second straight ASC in March but failed to win the World’s Strongest Man contest. He finished in third place. Martins Licis won the title. Bjornsson didn’t compete at this year’s World’s Ultimate Strongman event.
Should Bjornsson compete and win the ASC in Columbus this coming March, it would be his third straight win at that event. He would join Zadrunas Savickas as the only men to win three in a row. Savickas actually won six in a row from 2003 through 2008.
As the current champion, Bjornsson is automatically qualified to enter the contest. Other athletes that are qualified to compete earned their positions from winning other Arnold sanctioned events throughout the year. Those champions include Rob Kearney (Australia), Oleksii Novikov (South America and Africa), JF Caron (Canada), and Mateusz Kieliszkowski (Europe). There is one more event, the Arnold Strongman USA, in Santa Monica, California which will take place on January 18, 2020.
Other athletes that have not won contests have scored points on the Arnold Pro Strongman World Series system and whoever tops that list after Santa Monica will also go to Columbus.
Featured Image: Instagram/thorbjornsson