Life
Jerry Pritchett is an American professional strongman from Phoenix, Arizona. He is a former America’s Strongest Man winner and World’s Strongest Man competitor but is best known in the strength community for his deadlifting ability. Known as the Iron Outlaw, Pritchett has held the world record in various forms of the Deadlift and won the World Title in 2019, in Wembley, London.
In addition to his competitive schedule and the gruelling training regime he follows, Jerry works as a metal fabricator and owns a gym in Avondale from where he runs Pritchett Power Strength Training. He formerly drove sprint racing cars and grew up around the race car scene, even building his own cars. Jerry is married to Casey Pritchett, and they have two children, Abigail and James.
Career
It was in powerlifting that the 15-year-old Pritchett began his strength career, competing extensively between 1996 and 2012. Jerry has spoken about how he incorporated strongman movements into his powerlifting training and how he believes the two disciplines compliment each other. In 2008 he entered his first strongman contest in Phoenix, aged 27, and placed 2nd, but it would be several years before he made an impact internationally.
By 2012, having competed in the All-American Strongman Challenge for a couple of years, Pritchett made his World’s Strongest Man debut in Los Angeles, as well as his Giants Live debut in Poland and even competed at Britain’s Strongest Man the following year, placing 2nd. He won back-to-back All-American titles in 2013 and 2014, and by this time had made sufficient progress to qualify for his first World’s Strongest Man final, where he finished 9th.
That same year, Pritchett took 6th at the Arnold Strongman Classic, where by now he was a regular competitor. After making a second WSM final in 2015, Jerry went into 2016 in arguably the best condition of his life. Returning to the powerlifting platform he set an IPL and USPA world record in the deadlift, with a raw 415kg (914lb), and at the Giants Live World Deadlift Championships in Leeds he equalled the world record with a comfortable 465kg (1,025lb) before injuring his hamstring attempting 500kg (1,102lb).
He achieved his highest placing at the Arnold Classic the following year, taking 3rd place and setting yet another deadlift world record, with 467.5kg (1,031lb) on the Elephant Bar. Over the next few years Pritchett competed regularly on the Arnold Pro Strongman World Series circuit, appearing in South Africa, Spain and Brazil. In 2019 he captured the World Deadlift Championship title in Wembley, London, sharing the victory with Estonia’s Rauno Heinla. In 2020, after a 5-year absence, Jerry returned to World’s Strongest Man, where he registered his best-ever placing, taking 4th. Agonisingly, he mis-loaded his final Atlas Stone and was denied a podium place.
Best Title
Pritchett was crowned America’s Strongest Man in 2017 on his home patch in Phoenix. He defeated Dimitar Savatinov by 3 points and was 5.5 points clear of Wesley Clayborn. On his way to victory, Jerry took event wins in the Super Yoke and Deadlift for Reps.
With a deadlift of 455kg (1,003lb), Jerry shared the Giants Live World Deadlift Championships title with Rauno Heinla, at Wembley Arena in London. Three years previously, Pritchett had lifted 465kg (1,025lb) to momentarily equal the world record before Eddie Hall raised it to 500kg (1,102lb). The ease with which Jerry lifted the bar suggested he could have gone considerably heavier that evening.
Competition Results
Best Lifts
Competition Lifts
Present Day
Most recently Pritchett has competed at the Shaw Classic in 2022 where he placed 14th. The previous year he just missed out on a finals place at World’s Strongest Man, taking 3rd in his heat, but managed a podium spot at the Master’s World’s Strongest Man, taking 3rd behind Žydrūnas Savickas and Dimitar Savatinov. Currently, Jerry’s training and progress is being hampered by injury, but as ever, the “Iron Outlaw” is working hard and looking to return to his best form.
Media
As a World’s Strongest Man regular and Giants Live attendee, Pritchett has appeared on UK television and is a familiar face on Channel 5’s World’s Strongest Man broadcasts.
Jerry’s Facebook page, Jerry Pritchett Strongman, has 67k followers and links to his training page, pritchettpower. On Instagram Jerry’s account has 116k followers and can be found at @jerrypritchettstrongman. He also keeps a YouTube channel with the same name, where he shares videos of his training and coaching.
