Life
Pavlo Nakonechnyy is a professional strongman and powerlifter who has risen to prominence in the last few years due largely to his incredible deadlifting ability. At 6’ 4” tall and over 170kg/375lb in bodyweight, the twenty-four-year-old Ukrainian has built a truly imposing physique and is being tipped for big success in the very near future.
Nakonechkyy has won world titles in powerlifting and achieved incredible results as a junior lifter. Having competed sparingly in strongman, he exploded onto the scene in 2021, but has since had to put his ambitions on hold due to the war in Ukraine. Pavlo had been working as a volunteer, delivering humanitarian aid, but has since returned to the fray like many of Ukraine’s other elite sportsmen and women, and he seems to mean business!
Career
Beginning his lifting journey at just fourteen, the young Nakonechnny gained both size and strength at an alarming rate and at the age of sixteen made his powerlifting debut at the GPF Junior World Championship, where he took the gold medal.
Between 2016 and 2019, Pavlo made incredible progress, taking his total from below 600kg/1323lb to a truly astounding raw total, given his age of just twenty-one, of 1070kg/2359lb. Along the way he endured several titanic battles with his main adversary, Luke Richardson of Great Britain, to whom he lost out to on a few occasions. However, Pavlo was able to win world titles in the IPF junior division and the WRPF federation in the open class.
In 2018 he began strongman training, and won the Arnold Amateur Europe show, qualifying him for the Arnold Amateur World Championships. It wasn’t to be for Pavlo after he pulled his biceps attempting a 415kg/915lb deadlift on his way to the 2019 WPRF Open world title.
In 2019 he began on his “Road to 505kg” (1,113lb) along with many other top deadlifters and competed at the Giants Live World Open and World Deadlift Championships, coming equal 2nd with a tremendous 453.5kg/1,000lb lift and placing 4th overall in the strongman competition. Having already lifted 475kg/1,047lb in training, with some ease, he was understandably frustrated with his attempt at a new world record. His considerable progress in strongman was evident to all in 2022 when he returned victorious to the World Open, winning in Cardiff’s Motorpoint Arena, his first major competition win in Strongman.
Best Title
Pavlo returned to competition, following the start of the Russian-Ukraine conflict, at the Giants Live World Open in 2022 and though he could deadlift no more than he had the previous year (453.5kg/1,000lb), his all-round performance was truly stunning and he was able to take the victory, defeating defending champion Evan Singleton, as well as 2020 World’s Strongest Man, Oleksii Novikov.
Competition Results
Powerlifting
Strongman
Best Lifts
Powerlifting
Strongman
Training Lifts:
Present Day
Having proved he can win a major international show there is a great deal of speculation about what further success Nakonechnyy can achieve. Having now qualified to take his place at the 2023 World’s Strongest Man there is no doubt that he will be preparing for it with even greater focus and expectation. There are no obvious weaknesses in the giant Ukrainian’s abilities and at just twenty-four there is every reason to expect he can still make considerable improvements.
Pavlo has also continued to state his intention to break the world record in the deadlift and achieve the 505kg/1,113lb lift that is proving so elusive to strongman’s best pullers.
Media
Pavlo is active on Instagram where he shares snippets of his training and competitions to his 64k followers. His account is under @pavlo_nakonechnyy.
YouTube content makers seem to have found his rise to prominence in strongman particularly fascinating and there are many videos devoted to his development from powerlifting and speculating on his activities following the Russian invasion.
Pavlo’s victory at the World Open in Cardiff will be broadcast on Channel 5 over the Christmas period.
