On April 6, 2022, the World’s Strongest Man organization announced on Twitter that Mateusz Kieliszkowski is withdrawing from the 2022 World’s Strongest Man contest, scheduled to take place from May 24-29 in Sacramento, CA.
Kieliszkowski shared a post on Instagram shortly after the announcement was made as to why he is out of the contest.
View this post on Instagram
“I still feel some pain and am not comfortable in my leg after the injury that I got before Arnold,” Kieliszkowski wrote in the caption of his post. “Heavy training isn’t a good method to fix and recover my body. I have some power but not enough to compete at the highest level in the world. The best and the smartest solution for me is to withdraw from the competition. I don’t want risk because I don’t need a bigger injury than I got.”
World’s Strongest Man has yet to announce Kieliszkowski’s replacement at the time this article was published. However, they released a Tweet saying an announcement is forthcoming.
Check back soon for further updates regarding this year’s roster.
— SBD World’s Strongest Man (@WorldsStrongest) April 6, 2022
This is the third straight year that Kieliszkowski will miss the WSM competition. He missed the 2020 contest due to a triceps injury, and then he was absent from the 2021 lineup. Notably, the Polish competitor withdrew from the 2022 Arnold Strongman Classic, which took place in March 2022.
The original lineup for this year’s contest is stacked with four WSM champions — Martins Licis (2019), Oleksii Novikov (2020), 2021 champion Tom Stoltman, and four-time champion Brian Shaw headlining the field. The updated list of athletes scheduled to compete as of this writing is below.
- Mitchell Hooper (Canada)
- Pavlo Kordiyaka (Ukraine)
- Rob Kearney (USA)
- Gabriel Peña (Mexico)
- Kelvin de Ruiter (Netherlands)
- Kim Ujarak (Greenland)
- Maxime Boudreault (Canada)
- Mark Felix (UK)
- Pa O’Dwyer (Ireland)
- Shane Flowers (UK)
- Jean-Stephen Coraboeuf (Australia)
- Bobby Thompson (USA)
- Aivars Smaukstelis (Latvia)
- Adam Bishop (UK)
- Evan Singleton (USA)
- Eythor Ingolfsson Melsted (Iceland)
- Konstantine Janashia (Georgia)
- Trey Mitchell (USA)
- Mika Törrö (Finland)
- Peiman Maheripourehir (Iran)
- Luke Stoltman (UK)
- Brian Shaw (USA)
- Tom Stoltman (UK) — Reigning WSM Champion
- Gabriel Rheaume (Canada)
- Martins Licis (USA)
- Gavin Bilton (UK)
- Oleksii Novikov (Ukraine)
- Kevin Faires (USA)
- Nedžmin Ambešković (Bosnia and Herzegovina)
- Grzegorz Szymański (Poland)
- Mateusz Kieliszkowski (Poland) — Withdrew due to injury on April 6, 2022
- Rauno Heinla (Estonia) — Withdrew for an undisclosed reason on April 23, 2022
About Kieliszkowski
Prior to this string of absences, Kieliszkowski placed second at World’s Strongest Man contest twice — the first time was in 2018 to winner Hafthor Bjornsson. His second runner-up effort was the following year to Licis. His most recent contest was the 2021 Rogue Invitational, where he placed fourth.
In spite of his struggles to stay healthy in recent years, the Polish strongman has racked up an impressive resume. His most significant victory to date is the 2019 World’s Ultimate Strongman contest, which he won in spite of dealing with a torn biceps. He placed second to Hafthor Bjornsson at the 2020 Arnold Strongman Classic, but he set the world record in the Cyr Dumbbell Press by lifting a 320-pound dumbbell over his head successfully. Other notable first-place finishes in his career include the 2019 Arnold Strongman Europe and the 2019 Giants Live Wembley competition.
Kieliszkowski joins fellow strongmen Cheick “Iron Biby” Sanou, Graham Hicks, JF Caron, and four-time World’s Strongest Man Zydrunas Savickas as notable athletes that aren’t competing at the 2022 WSM.
BarBend will update this article if and when more information is provided.
Featured Image: @kieliszkowskimateusz on Instagram
