Arnold Strongman Classic 2025 - Results and reportage

The year has come and gone and once again we have one of the biggest celebrations of strongman sport. In Columbus, Ohio, USA, another edition of the Arnold Strongman Classsic took place, again as part of the sports festival under the auspices of Arnold Schwarzenegger. The huge bodybuilding event has been joined by 28 other sports over time, and hundreds of athletes have been battling it out for coveted placings in their respective disciplines just this weekend. The Arnold Strognman Classic has been a perennial fixture among the festival's sports. Every year, thousands of people on site and hundreds of thousands online turn their attention to it. After all, it is one of the toughest races ever and there are those who put it ahead of the famed World's Strongest Man in terms of race quality.

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But besides amateur and women's competitions I will be doing competitions of the best, world's best, professional strongman. At the Arnold Strongman Classsic 2025, 10 fighters were nominated this year and they were competitors from only four countries. The United States of America had the largest crowd, followed by Canada and one competitor each from Great Britain and Iceland. And to be honest, there are some interesting names. The title was defended by Mitchell Hooper from Canada, who is currently in good form and has been setting the bar for the whole sport for the last few years. Also in the race was Tom Stoltman, three-time World's Strongest Man overall and the only fighter in recent memory who was able to beat Hooper in the race. Hafthor Bjornsson, the giant from Iceland, also came, but he had a different goal than winning the overall race.

The fighters competed in a two-day race in six massively tough events, judge for yourself:

• Max Deadlift (on Elephant Axis)
• Overhead Medley
• Timber Carry
• The Big Jerk
• Carry and Drag
• Stone to Shoulder

Max Deadlift

And let's start right off the bat, a deadlift on the long Elephant axis at maximum weight, where else to hit... and when if not on the first event, right... But it was a great show. It started at 354kg and kept going up. The competitors could even jump the weight. And this is exactly the event that Iceland's Bjornsson has been training for. His goal was to equal his own and the absolute record in the deadlift and silence Eddie Hall and his nochsledy once and for all, even if it was a long axel instead of a conventional one. Too much has been written about the rift between Bjornsson and Hall, so I'll move on. That initial weight was not handled by a single competitor.

The rest of the field did it with ease and most of them added a lot more. Third place finisher Bobby Thompson, a great American fighter managed 447 kg. Second place Mitchell Hooper, even though he said he doesn't enjoy deadlifting that much, he's damn good at it, even to the point that he could attack the magic half-ton mark... 450 kg. I knew right away that Hafthor Bjornsson was going to win the event, even before the race, but unfortunately without the special bonus of 101 thousand dollars for breaking the record, that 501 kg attempt went absolutely wrong, what exactly happened, I don't know, but I guess Hafthor just didn't have a day, although he definitely trained. Hafthor managed 465 kg with absolute ease, and thus won the discipline.

Overhead Medley

A 110kg single handed followed by a 125kg stone and then there were two logs to choose from, one loaded at 170kg and the other at 195kg. For each part lifted the competitor got 1 point, the exception was the heavier log, for its lowering there were 10 points. Most of the others, after failing, at least went to get points for the lighter one. Third place Mitchell Hooper, who managed the hard log once and took silver with 12 points. Second place Trey Mitchell 32 points. First place, the same number of points Lucas Hatton, an American who we'll be hearing about for sure...

Timber Carry

Carrying a huge wooden corral on a rising platform is a treat that can be seen right here at the Arnold Strongman Classic. The 400 kg fence is a favourite of Mateusz Kieliszkowski from Poland, who still holds the record, having completed the entire 12 metre route in an incredible 7 seconds. And the very first competitor Maxime Boudreault whizzed through the course in an incredible 7.66 seconds, but on the replay it was obvious that he threw the fence about 40 centimetres before the finish, stumbled and staggered inside the whole log, he was measured 11.63 metres.

It's a shame, it has to be said that Maxime didn't perform the way we are used to on the first day, I don't know exactly what was wrong with him or what happened, but he didn't enter the race the next day. Hopefully he is not injured and we will see him again soon. If he could take one more step, he would definitely take the top places. In third place was Evan - T-Rex - Singleton with a time of 17.91 seconds. Second place Lucas Hatton 12.37 seconds. The winner of the event was Mitchel Hooper with a time of 10.77 seconds.

The Big Jerk

The big face, specifically the big face of the barbell behind the head. I was a little worried about this discipline getting the audience interested at all, it's too static, in that respect it's much more interesting to watch weightlifters who spend thousands of hours a year perfecting their technique. But let's face it... I enjoyed it and I enjoyed it a lot. Just the fact that it started at 215 kg. That's just carnage. Splitting second and third place with a 242.5kg barbell were Mithcell Hooper and Trey Mitchell. The winner of the discipline was Lucas Hatton, who managed to knock out 247.5kg. That's a huge strength.

Carry and Drag

How do I describe this discipline enough for everyone to picture it? There is a sledge with a strap on it, one log on the sledge and two other logs on the other side of the track. The competitor must first load both logs onto the sled and then pull the sled across the track by the strap. The loading logs weighed 139 kg and 156 kg and had one large handle in the middle. The whole sledge then weighed 771 kg. Crazy? Yeah. Impossible? No. All the competitors managed to complete the event within the time limit. Third place, Tom Stoltman, who did it all in 37.37 seconds. Second place, Mitchell Hooper, 35.29 seconds. Hafthor Brjonsson took the least time to complete, 31.21 seconds. He took the win on the discipline.

Stone to Shoulder

This time it will be much easier to describe. 2 atlas stones, 158 kg and 184 kg. The competitor can choose which of the stones to lift to the shoulder. The lighter of the stones is worth one point, the heavier is worth ten points. If the competitor starts on the heavier stone, he can move to the lighter one and add a few extra points. You can't go back from the lighter to the heavier. Mitchell Hooper and Tom Stoltman managed 20 points, twice as much as the heaviest rock, Tom even almost dropped a rock once and it looked shabby. One more repetition for Lucas Hatton, 30 points. Austin Andrade won the discipline and managed 40 points. Bobby Thompson did not enter the discipline, his one point score even with a zero had no chance of moving him lower, but even with a full score he could not hit the higher ranks. Rather than get injured, he thanked the spectators and said goodbye.

Results

So... And it's over. In fairness, I have to say that the Americans can do monster productions and races. The atmosphere was fantastic, Arnold watching from the front row... This year's race was again perfectly prepared and had not a single mistake. Mithell Hooper showed that he is currently the strongest man on the planet. His third consecutive victory in the world's toughest race only confirms that... Let's hope he can hold on for a few more years and equal or even surpass the record of the demigod of strongman sport himself, Zydrunas Savickas. So far, I can say that Michtell is on a solid run. Second place Lucas Hatton, a well prepared and well competed fighter. Could the successor to the untouchable Brian Shaw be coming so soon? Why not? I'll be looking forward to seeing how he develops.

Third place Hafthor Bjornsson, who originally went for the deadlift, it didn't work out and he still took bronze. He has definitely improved compared to last year, but in his own words he still needs to work on the push events. A bit of a disappointment for me Tom Stoltman, even though he's the man currently competing with the most World's Strongest Man titles, he only came 7th, which I think even he can't be happy with. But the Arnold is not the World's, as can be confirmed by the record holder Mariusz Pudzianowski, who still holds the record of 5 wins at the World's Strongest Man, but didn't make the top 3 even once at the Arnold Strongman Classic.

I will definitely recommend to watch the race footage, or better yet, plan a trip to Ohio next year and attend in person, it is definitely a great experience.