Last weekend Tom Stoltman won the World Strongest Man for the third time. This is an incredible feat, given that he is 29 years old. For those who don’t religiously follow the sport, and shame on you, Mariusz Pudzianowski currently holds the most victories with 5 titles. There is a very good chance that Stoltman can overtake this record. It is an exciting time to follow the sport, for both the men’s and women’s divisions. On the latter point, seeing how strongwoman has snowballed in the past five years is remarkable.
One of the talking points of the 2024 World Strongest Man was Mitch Hooper’s hands. Hooper had one of the most impressive breakouts in the sport in 2023 when he came first in the WSM, despite it being only his second year in the competition. He has won several Arnold’s and may legitimately be one of the most complete athletes to compete in the sport. This year he tore his hands on the opening event, which severely impacted his performance over the next day and a half.
This is to take nothing away from Stoltman, who was in peak form, but rather to note that Mitch’s performance was largely defined by him gritting through the pain. This is an ability that strongmen and women have in abundance and something that made me fall in love with the sport. In today’s post, and largely in homage to the recent WSM, I want to discuss five of my favorite Strongman/strongwoman feats.
These come in no particular order but do rank as some of my favorite ‘WTF’ did I just watch moments.
Eddie Hall’s Death by Deadlift
Eddie Hall is most famous for being the first man to deadlift 500 kilograms. It was, as Hall likes to note, a Roger Bannister moment within the sport. That is to say he did something that people genuinely did not think was possible. In the Born Strong documentary, as well as Eddie, Hall was very clear that he was happy to endanger himself in pursuit of strength.
While his attitude has mellowed in retirement, his ‘Death by Deadlift’ is just incredible. Filmed in 2016, it shows Hall going from 60kg to 420kg to 60kg in ONE GIANT set.
Mikhail ‘Misha’ Koklyaev No Hand Squat
This feat may seem relatively tame in the TikTok age when people seem to outdo eachother with increasingly bizarre feats of strength, but when I saw Misha no hand squat 300kg in 2011 it completely blew my mind. Misha was a proficient weightlifter, powerlifter and strongman. His best WSM finish was third place in 2010 but he was one of my favorite athletes.
Jan Todd Lifts the Dinnie Stones
This one was before my time, as Jan lifted the stones in 1979. Nevertheless, this is impressive to me on three fronts. First Jan lifted these now-famous stones at a time when they were relatively unknown. In 1979 people knew of the Dinnie Stones but it wasn’t an outright strength practice with a global appeal. Certainly, there were no Dinnie Stone attachments you could buy to train with in your own gym. Thus Jan lifted these stones without training videos, specialised equipment or a culture of people who had lifted them. Second she was the first woman to do this and, as detailed in Rogue’s wonderful documentary on the Dinnies, there was a huge cultural barrier/expectation to overcome. Finally this feat impressed me as I came to know Jan first as a historian so it completely blew my academic mind when I learned about her powerlifting/strongwoman past!
Mark Henry Lifts the Apollon Wheels
Like Misha, Mark Henry is a multi-sport strength athlete. He excelled at powerlifting and Olympic weightlifting before trying his hand at strongman and winning the inaugural Arnold Strength Classic in 2002. At the event, Henry made history by being the first man to clean and jerk the famed Apollon Wheels three times overhead. I’m beginning to see a theme in my feats of strength here… people doing things that no one had ever done before and, if asked beforehand, would bet money on it never happening. Nowadays the Apollon is a tough, but largely manageable implement, for elite strongman/woman. That was not the case when Henry competed. He set the standard.
Mark Felix Not Tearing Himself in Half
Mark Felix has arguably the strongest grip in the sport. His rise in the sport in the mid-2000s coincided with my own sporting fandom so it is perhaps no surprise that I’ve always been impressed with his grip strength/feats. That he continues to compete, and break grip world records to this day is a testament to his strength and mental tenacity. This may seem an odd inclusion but any test which has the ability to tear your shoulders from your sockets and, in some form of Final Destination style end, tear your arms off, is worthy of inclusion. More seriously this is an incredible feat as you can see the pain enter early on in the lift and Felix just living with it for as long as possible.
Conclusion
There is obviously some recency bias in my decision here but the above clips and images are usually what I share when I want to impress someone with strongman or strongwoman. They are the right side of showing the strength of the human will (without showing blood or bodily fluids exiting the body) and highlight the passion people have for this sport. What I should have included was the 1978 WSM when Doug Reinhouldt pulled a tram so hard it nearly ran him over but you can’t have everything I guess!
What are you five favorite feats of strength? Within strongman/strongwoman or lifting in general. Let me know in the comments.
As always… Happy Lifting!
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