Life
Born in Kapuskasing, in north-eastern Ontario, Canada’s Maxime Boudreault is a professional strongman from Thunder Bay, who has quickly risen from relative obscurity to reach the podium at the 2021 World’s Strongest Man.
The 6’ 4” (1.92m), 330lb (150kg) personal trainer and gym owner is renowned for his overhead pressing – he established a new Canadian record of 205kg/452lb in the World’s Strongest Man Grand Final in Sacramento, California in 2021.
Maxime’s strongman career has been moving on a steady upward trajectory for around the last five years, but 2021 was his breakthrough year when he added his first international contest win to his World Championship bronze.
Career
Maxime surprised many in 2021, not least himself, by reaching the podium at the World’s Strongest Man finals, in only his second appearance at the contest. His 3rd place finish, behind winner Tom Stoltman, of Scotland, and USA’s Brian Shaw, was the result of some superb event placings, including 2nd place finishes in the keg toss, log lift and Atlas Stones.
Boudreault’s arrival in the top tier of international strongman was first heralded by his 3rd place finish at the Arnold Professional Strongman World Series event in Santa Monica, California, in 2020, against a stacked field featuring Martins Licis (2019 World’s Strongest Man), Brian Shaw (4-times WSM winner) and Oleksii Novikov (2020 WSM winner, from Ukraine). If not for his poor result in deadlift – a weakness for the Canadian – he might have won the whole contest, after winning the first three events in a row (the log lift, farmer’s walk and bag over bar).
From the outset of Maxime’s strongman career, which had its genesis in the Strongman Champions League in 2013, progressing to Canada’s Strongest Man contests and Giants Live North American Open competitions, he has, to some extent, lived in the shadow of Jean-Francois Caron, the 9-times Canadian champion and 2020 bronze medallist at World’s Strongest Man. However, Boudreault’s 2021 success could well produce the motivation and self-confidence needed to propel him to even greater performances and strength levels.
Best Title
Fresh from his World’s Strongest Man, 3rd place finish, Maxime was able to win the Magnús Ver Magnússon Strongman Classic, held in Iceland in November 2021. Against a mainly northern European line-up, event wins in the log medley and deadlift, as well as runner-up spots in the medley, stone to shoulder and Húsafell Stone, were sufficient to see him triumph by 2.5 points over Iceland’s 2021 WSM finalist, Eythór Ingólfsson Melsted.
Competition Results
Best Lifts
Competition Lifts
Training lifts
Present Day
Boudreault will be attending the 2022 World’s Strongest Man finals, in Sacramento in May, where he hopes to consolidate, if not improve on his 2021 performance.
Maxime recently became engaged to professional strongwoman competitor Samantha Belliveau. Sam also has tremendous overhead ability, she recently completed a women’s all-time world record in the circus dumbbell, lifting 83.2kg/183.4lb overhead with one arm.
Media
Maxime can be found on Instagram under the handle @max.boudreault23, where his 31.8k fans are kept up to date with his training activities and contest performance.
Max and his fiancé, Samantha Belliveau, have recently begun a YouTube channel – Maxime Boudreault, where they are producing content detailing both of their training and preparation.
Maxime’s World’s Strongest Man contest performance will be aired on Channel 5 over the Christmas period. In addition, there is a multitude of videos of his competitive performances, produced by a variety of YouTube channels, including World’s Strongest Man and Giants Live.
