World´s Strongest Man 2024 was dominated by Tom Stoltman! Report & Results

The beginning of May stirred up a point of interest in the world's most famous race. A race that in its beginnings was meant to compare the strength of competitors from all different strength sports. A race that gave birth to a new sport. Yes that is the 46th World's Strongest Man, which has been held regularly since 1977. The only exception was 1987 when the competition was abandoned. Competitors back then were looking for a replacement, which was the Pure Strength Contest.

Again, only invited fighters were allowed to compete in the contest, and they first competed in five qualifying groups of six competitors each. The winners of each group always advanced to the main event, followed by the winner of the last man standing event between second and third in the group standings. The entire long weekend was held in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, USA.

Due to the qualifying, it was de facto 2 races as such. Let's take a look at the qualifying first. All the competitors in all the groups drawn had the same disciplines to complete. It was a 2 day race that started on Wednesday, May 1. In the qualification part, the strongmen competed in the following disciplines:

• Webster stones - longest distance, stones weighing 136 kg and 113 kg.
• Deadlift ladder - 5 axes on deadlifts from 300 kg to 380 kg with a limit of one minute
• Sandbag steeplechase - 3 bags over a distance of 20 metres with a hurdle and unloading onto a platform
• Viking press - 150 kg with one minute limit
• Stone off - tossing 6 stones from 140 kg to 200 kg, with the last one repeated

Judging by the list, some of the events definitely didn't feel as hard as one would expect from such a race, on the other hand, World's Strongest man is not the hardest race, the Arnold Strongman Classic is. Even so, on the sunny beach, the different disciplines could give a good workout. Before I get to the individual groups, I have to mention that hell froze over for the Czech fan. For the second time in history, the Czech flag flew at the race.

This year, after 26 years, it was raised over the head by Ondra Fojtů from Brno, who, even at his young age - Ondra is 22 years old - has already made a name for himself on the international scene. And because he made a great impression on the organizers, they did not hesitate to invite him. We will discuss how Ondra fared during the race in the second qualifying group. The first one who brought the Czech flag to the World's Strongest Man in the past was Jaromír Němec in 1998, who finished third out of four fighters in the qualifying group.

Qualifying groups

1st qualifying group

In this group were Tristain Hoath from Canada,Luke Stoltman from Great Britain, Eddie Wiliams from Autralia, Trey Mitchell from USA, Kevin Faires from USA and Oskar Ziolkowski from Poland. Tristain Hoath dominated the group and deservedly won the whole group to secure his place in the main event.

The other competitors were not so clear-cut, the results were very close, with Eddie WIliams and Luke Stoltman advancing to the elimination round with the same number of points. The stone throwing was really tough, it was really hard going, both riders knew it, more power to Luke in the end, who advanced to the main race with 9 stones thrown.

2nd qualifying group

The second group was the most interesting for us, because Ondra Fojtů defended the Czech colours here, together with him the current title holder Michtell Hooper from Canada, Austin Andrade from Mexico, Spenser Remick from USA, Nicolas Cambi from Italy and Gavin Bilton from Great Britain. And to be honest? The start couldn't have gone better, Ondra carried the stones to the finish at the 40m mark, making him one of three in the entire starting field across the groups.

However, he took a split first place as Michell Hooper brought the stones too. Ondra completed the deadlifts in third place with a time of 32.51 seconds for a 4 axis jump. Ondra finished the sandbag steepelchase in second place behind Hooper who was less than 10 seconds faster, on the other hand only Ondra and Mitchell managed to bring all the bags to the finish line.

The next day was the Viking press and as Ondra had already proved at Europe's Strongest Man last month, he won the discipline and took full points again ahead of Hooper. The car walk, on the other hand, proved to be a weakness for Ondra, as the Czech was able to carry the car only 2.01 meters and so Michtell Hooper could save his strength for the main race, which he advanced to from first place. Ondra Fojtů faced the Mexican Andrade in which Ondra did not have enough strength left to beat his opponent.

Ondra managed 7 stones, the Mexican 8. On the other hand, if Ondra had managed to make it to the main competition, he would have become the youngest finalist in the history of the competition. At the same time, given his age, we can expect that Ondra will certainly make it to future editions.

Qualifying Group 3

In the third group Mathew Ragg from New Zealand, Aivars Šmaukstelis from Latvia, Thomas Evans from USA, Adam Bishop from Great Britain, Rob Kearney from USA and Pa O'Dwyer from Ireland. After the first day Adam Bishop was very much in contention and it seemed that if he continued at this pace he was assured of the final, but in the end he had to give up on the second day. He conceded his place to Thomas Evans, who succumbed in the stones anyway to Aivars Šmaukstelis, who only needed one stone to win. Mathew Ragg moved up from first place.

Qualifying Group 4

The fourth group consisted of Evan Signleton from the USA, Pavlo Kordiyaka from Ukraine, Marcus Crowder from the USA, Kane Francis from the UK, Evans Aryee from Ghana and Rauno Heinla from Estonia. Evan Signleton dominated the group and clearly dominated the entire qualifying session. The rest of the competitors were about the same, with only 3 points difference between second and sixth place. Evans Aryee, who the Czech spectator could meet last year in Vrdy at the Zdeněk Vávra races, showed his temperament here. However, Evans didn't make it to the elimination and so the decision had to be made between Pavel Kordiyaka and Marckus Crowder. Flipping the goat over 5 times with a stone, that's exactly what Pavel needed to advance to his second main event.

Qualifying Group 5

Tom Stoltman of Great Britain, Wesley Derwinsky of Canada, Jaco Schoonwinkel of South Africa, Adam Roszkowski of Poland, Nathan Goltry of the USA and Bobby Thompson of the USA make up the last qualifying group of this year's event. No one else can reach the finals. The likes of Schoonwinkel and Tom Stoltman went hard for their goal, both almost side by side, even if Jaco didn't make the Viking he could still think about the final. Tom clearly took that from first place. In the elimination Jaco Schoonwinkel then measured his strength against Wesley Derwinski, Wesley then showed that he could rock better.

And that's it for qualifying. Unfortunately a total of 3 competitors were injured during the qualifying race, hopefully their injuries are not serious. The two Stoltman brothers, considered the strongest brothers in the world, made it to the finals again, why not, after all the one 10 years younger - Tom - already has 2 World's Strongest Man titles at home. The older one - Luke - has a fresh trophy from the European Strongest Man of the Year competition.

On the other hand, if I compare in general that in last year's final there were 4 fighters who had already collected some titles, this year there were only two. It would have been very interesting to see Hafthor Bjornsson from Iceland here, but he has vowed in the past during the controversial Viking Press that he doesn't want to race under the Giant's Live banner anymore. However, this has severely limited his racing opportunities as most of the big and international races are organised by Giant's Live. But we'll see.

Final race

After a restful Friday, the two-day final race could start again on Saturday, from which a new champion for this year will emerge. The list of competitors from the qualifying round is: Tristain Hoath, Luke Stoltman, Mitchell Hooper, Austin Andrade, Mathew Ragg, Aivars Šmaukstelis, Evan Singleton, Pavlo Kordiaka, Tom Stolman, Wesley Derwinsky. Canada has the largest representation of 3 competitors here which is great because the Canadians definitely didn't have that many competitors in the world's top 3 before. 2x Great Britain and that's only because of the two Stotman brothers, then one each from the USA which is a bit shocking, there were years when more than half of the competitors were from the USA, New Zealand, Mexico, Ukraine and Latvia.

There were 6 disciplines to compete in, always 3 disciplines per day.

• Giant's medley - Super yoke 454 kg + frame 330 kg - 20m each
• Axle press to max, starting at 170 kg
• Keg toss - 15 kg at the highest height
• Conan's wheel 250 kg
• Tire deadlift - 375 kg
• Atlas Stones - 5 stones from 140 kg to 210 kg

Giant's medley

A running event right at the start to keep the competitors warmed up, which was quite a challenge in the race conditions on sunny Myrtle beach. The sun was washing everything it had, the competitors were sweating before the actual competition. If an organizer wants to combine multiple disciplines or multiple equipment into one discipline, they always name it Medley, we've come to expect that... In our parts we usually use running, push, etc. for the word medley, if you get fancy, put the word brutal, or Giant's (translated for giants or giant's - in the sense that it's theirs) Luckily we spectators also got a straight description, the competitors have to carry a 454 kg Super Yoke for a distance of 20 meters and then pick up a 330 kg frame and run back.

They had a limit of one minute for everything. Although we see similar events in our area that are harder, they are usually only done individually, not combined. Here in the finals and also gave the disciplines quite a hard time. Hooper, for example, fell quite short of expectations, he didn't even finish the course. Anyway, third place went to Tom Stoltman in 41.26 seconds - that's almost a meter per second. Second place went to Austin Andrade, who was less than a second faster. Full points went to the unchallenged fastest Evan T-Rex Singleton, who ran the entire course in 30.21 seconds.

Axle press

Axle press - please don't confuse with Axel, Axl, Exl and similar abbreviations, axle from the word axle, i.e. a thick axle, usually has a diameter of 50 mm, but it can be thicker, the bigger the diameter, the worse the grip, for example for deadlift, but here competitors lifted the axle loaded to 170 kg above the head, if they managed to lift it, they went to the next round, where it was loaded with ten kilograms more. And on and on until the winner of the discipline was known. Unfortunately two competitors failed to lift, but two competitors lifted a hell of a lot.

But to take it one at a time... 200 kg was put over his head as his maximum by one of the lightest competitors in the starting field, Pavlo Kordiyaka, who wanted to make up for his failed entry into the competition. He took third place. Two riders managed to share the first place, Tom Stoltman and Michtell Hooper, both of whom managed to get 210 kg over their heads. I would also like to add that the current world record is held by Sheikh Sanou called Iron Biby and it is 217 kg from last summer. This is mainly to give you an idea of how close two other competitors are to the world record.

Keg toss

Keg throwing, you can throw a keg high or far with anything, kettlebells, sandbags, kegs, anything. This time the organizers chose the variant of throwing a 15 kg keg to the highest height, the bar was raised a bit after successful attempts of all competitors and another round was held. For us Europeans the heights may be a bit confusing, but for the non-metric system the heights make better sense. Anyway, to give you an idea, I will give the height in metres. Evan Singleton finished fourth with a 7.5 metre bar change. A split first through third place went to Tom Stoltman, Mitchell Hooper and Wesley Derwinsky, who together managed 7.76 meters. Pavlo Kordiyaka, for reasons I cannot fathom, was again a complete failure.

Conan's wheel

The second day started with Conan's wheel. Weights of 250 kg and going round and round. The problem with the weight held on the chest is that after a while the competitor cannot breathe, unless he wants to let go of the weight and end the discipline. Conan's wheel is very popular in our country at domestic competitions. The value that competitors determine by their performance is calculated in degrees, i.e. 360° is one time around. So, protractors in hand and here we go. Third place Tom Stoltman put in a solid 777° and clearly says this year's title could be his. Second place, Mitchell Hooper. He did 821° and it's like he's saying to Tom, forget it, buddy. Pavlo Kordiyaka comes in with a 922 and blows everybody's mind. It's like he wants to prove again that his last discipline was a mistake.

Tire deadlift

A giant axle with wheels on the ends instead of discs. Firstly, the larger diameter that the wheels have and also the longer axle may make this option seem lighter than the standard deadlift. But would you think so even if I said it was lifting 375kg per rep in the one minute limit? Yeah, most of the laughter will pass... on the contrary, their faces will literally crumple. Split second place Tristan Hoath and Mitchell Hooper - a Canadian duo of competitors. They both managed 7 reps. Hooper in particular needs to score as many points as possible to beat Tom Stoltman. First place with 8 reps goes to Mathew Ragg. Tom finishes with 6 points and his lead is reduced to 4.5 points. It all depends on the last event...

Atlas Stones

It's been a long time since the last discipline at a Giant's Live race was stones. The standings seem to be clear, especially those who know my articles know that I always write, if there is an Atlas Stones discipline on the race and Tom Stoltman is racing and unless there is an absolute exception, which happens at most once a decade (and which happened 4 years ago), so there is still 6 years to go... then the stones will be won by Tom, no question, there is no point in any discussion. Second place Michtell Hoooper, third place Tristan Hoath, so in the discipline.

Well, the race is over, I think I've said enough. Yes, Tom Stoltman has won his third World's Strongest Man title, and judging by his form, it looks like he could catch Brian Shaw, Zydrunas Savickas, Jon Pall Sigmarsson or Magnus Ver Magnusson, who have 4 titles. Or can he match Mariusz Pudzianowski? Or will he even surpass him? The future will tell. The main thing is vitality, strength and health.

The second place went to Mitchell Hooper, so the gentlemen switched places compared to last year. Third place went to T-Rex Evan Singleton. There were no injuries or retirements in the final, which is good. Pity about Pavel Kordiyak, he always shone in both disciplines, otherwise it would have been a great result. It's a pity that Ondra didn't make it to the final, I think some of the disciplines could have suited him. But as I said, Ondra will definitely still make a difference in the World's Strongest Man finals in the future... I'm convinced of it.

Gallery: