Shaw Classic Strongman 2023 - Report and results

Walking last weekend, August 19 and 20, 2023 in Loveland, Colorado, must have been a great experience. It was here that the peace and quiet of the small town was shattered by the strongest fighters in the world. It was here that Brian Shaw, four-time World's Strongest Man, held his star-studded 2023 Shaw Classic. This is the fourth year of the richly rewarding race, where most of the money raised from spectators and sponsors goes directly to the competitors.

The race was even more interesting in that Brian Shaw announced before World Strongest Man this year that he was retiring from his active racing career and the last WSM race would be this year's race, where he finished seventh. He also added that he definitely wants to finish on top and that is why he will definitely introduce himself to the audience at the Shaw Classic. But make no mistake, the biggest stars of the world strongman scene were invited to the event, how did it all turn out? Let's take a closer look.

The competition featured eight tough events, some of them standard and familiar, some of them innovative and very interesting. With this number of disciplines, the race was split into two days, Saturday and Sunday. What did the fighters compete in?

• Log Medley
• Wheelbarrow and Arm Over Arm Medley
• Car Leg Press
• Atlas Stones
• Hummer Tire Max Deadlift
• Standing Chest Press
• Bag Over Bar
• Fingal Fingers and Power Stairs Medley

The races could be watched on site with the purchase of a ticket, or online on a streaming platform, also as part of a subscription to the competition.

Log Medley

I'm probably not sure exactly why this event was called a medley, but so be it. Competitors had a choice of three logs, 172, 186 and 200 kg. They then had to do as many repetitions as possible with that one. As in most competitions, the rule was that one valid attempt with the heavier log was more than all valid attempts with the lighter log. Again, beware of overestimating strength, zero points is defacto goodbye to a good placing in such a busy competition.

Since the competitors were expected to have similar performances, the time between each repetition was also measured to determine the winner. And that's exactly what happened, the 3 riders finishing on the box for the first event had the same reps, so only the time was decisive. They all managed 2 reps with a 200kg log. Third place went to Mitchell Hooper, second place to Bobby Thompson and the winner of the discipline was Trey Mitchell.

Wheelbarrow and Arm Over Arm Medley

The name sounds almost wild but it's not that complicated, competitors were tasked with taking a wheelbarrow and loading it with a total of 3 sandbags of 136, 147 and 159kg over a 20m course. After crossing the finish line they then had to pull the sledge loaded to 317.5kg. Faster wins. Although this discipline became a bit of a nut for the judges... about half of the starting field was disqualified for pushing the wheelbarrow, it was not allowed to move. Anyway, the bronze went to Evan Singleton, who ran the discipline in 68 seconds. Mitchell Hooper earned silver with a time of 62.29 seconds and Maxime Boudreault scored full points with a time of 60.55 seconds.

Car Leg Press

A very interesting discipline, very spectacular, it was already introduced at the last Shaw Classic and was a huge success. Imagine a standard leg press machine familiar from the gym, but with an 840 kg car as the weight. No problem for strongmen of this caliber, plus almost half of the competitors managed more than 10 reps. Third place went to Evan Singleton, who did 12 reps. Trey Mitchell and Michtell Hooper tied for second place, both with 13 reps. Brian Shaw showed the strongest legs in the race, winning after getting 14 reps.

Atlas Stones

Usually such races end with the Atlases, now only closing out the first day. Fighters were tasked with stacking a total of five Atlases in the shortest time possible , ranging in weight from 158kg to 205kg. Third place went to Mitchel Hooper, who managed all the stones in an impressive 27.3 seconds. Second place went to one of the best specialists in this discipline , Brian Shaw, who unloaded all the stones in 26 seconds. And I'll repeat myself... If there are Atlas stones as a discipline, and if Tom Stoltman is on the start list, and if there is no exception, which can happen at most once in 10 years, and which happened the year before last, there is no point in discussing the winner. Tom Stoltman threw all the Atlases in 23 seconds and took full points.

Hummer Tire Max Deadlift

Unfortunately only 13 competitors started the second day. Adam Bishop withdrew due to an injury from the previous day. However, this type of deadlift is really beautiful to watch, huge offforad laps from the Hummer on a huge axle. It started at 408kg, then gradually increased. Valuable points were scored by Mitchell Hooper, Trey Mitchell, Oleksii Novikov, Brian Shaw and Bobby Thompson, all managing to lift 476kg. The only one who managed to lift more was Tom Stoltman's fantastic 499kg, taking a valuable win on the discipline.

Standing Chest Press

The standing chest press, a 100% bodybuilding exercise we know from every gym, but that's where all the similarities end. A special design was made that threw the weight of a keg barrel after each repetition. The competitors started at 177 kg and ended at 261 kg. Then it was on to the number of repetitions with the highest weight. Again there was a lot of point sharing, with a split third place finish with seven reps between Kevin Faires, Bobby Thompson, Evan Singleton and Mitchell Hooper. Eight reps and second place went to Tom Evans and 9 reps and another event win went to Brian Shaw.

Bag over Bar

Throwing the weights over the bar, this is another of Brian Shaw's domains, this time sandbags were thrown, there were 8 in total. 2 of each weight, 22, 25, 27 and 29 kg. In the event of the same number of bags being thrown over, time was of the essence. The top three competitors managed to toss all 8 bags, with Brian Shaw finishing third, Maxime Boudreault second and Tom Stoltman the fastest. It should be noted here that the official final times of each competitor have not been published.

Fingal Fingers and Power Stair Medley

The last discipline of the long race is here. This time the toss was 2 phallic fingers, which can be described as a column on a joint that is tossed from one side to the other. The weight of the fingers was 136 and 147 kg, which doesn't sound like a heavy weight, but the competitors have done 7 events in 2 days. In addition, after the fingals, they proceed to the stairs of strength where they have to carry 2 weights of 250 and 272 kg up 5 steps. Each step was 38 cm high. Only 4 fighters got under one minute in the discipline. Aivars Šmaukstelis and Maxime Boudreault. Anyway, Evan Singleton took second place with a time of 49 seconds and the discipline was won by Tom Stoltman with a time of 46 seconds.

The race is over, Mitchell Hooper, as the current World's Strongest Man and the best strongman of today symbolically raised the hand of Brian Shaw. Brian bid a pompous farewell to his nearly 15-year career as a professional strongman and was celebrated by all as the World's Strongest Man - the Strongest Man on Earth. Despite the fact that he hadn't done so well in recent years, plagued by injuries and various ailments, he ended his career with great grace and one last victory.

The desired result came right after the race, with Tom Stoltman the double WSM champion for 2021 and 2022 coming in third place. Mitchel Hooper, the WSM champion for 2023, came in second place. The winner, at the time of writing, was retired strogman and four-time WSM champion for 2011, 2013, 2015 and 2016, the great, strong and awesome Brian Shaw.

Results table: