Life
Shane Flowers is a 1.94m (6’ 4”), 153kg (335lb) strongman and former junior international powerlifter, from Weymouth in Dorset. Shane works fulltime in an in-shore oil farm and his long working hours make training for strongman extremely challenging. But this doesn’t seem to be holding back his meteoric rise through the British strongman ranks.
Career
Incredibly, Shane only began training for strongman during the nationwide covid lockdown. He fell out of love with powerlifting and found the wide array of challenging events in strongman to be far more appealing than powerlifting’s three disciplines.
Flowers competed against 2020 Europe’s Strongest Man, Luke Richardson, in powerlifting and his time in the sport has given him a tremendous foundation of static strength. Combined with his natural speed, athleticism and size, Flowers’ rapid progression has not come as a surprise to all.
Managing to win England’s Strongest Man in his first full strongman contest, Shane made his debut at Britain’s Strongest Man last year and in 2022 made his debut at Leeds’ First Direct Arena to face the continent’s finest at Europe’s Strongest Man.
In just four contests, Shane has achieved the remarkable feat of establishing himself as one of the top strongmen in Britain and indeed Europe.
Best Title
Beginning his strongman career in August 2021, Shane won England’s Strongest Man at his first attempt. In October of 2021 he made his debut at Giants Live’s Britain’s Strongest Man, placing 7th.
In February of 2022 Shane improved to 4th overall. He narrowly avoided making the podium and earning a qualification place at World’s Strongest Man, following a last place finish in the shield carry, where he was forced to hold the 200kg (440lb) shield for several energy-sapping seconds while waiting for his competitor to lift theirs.
Remarkably, in his debut at Europe’s Strongest Man, Flowers was again just a whisker from the podium. Injuring his bicep on the final Atlas stone, he was unable to load it and fell to a highly creditable 5th.
Competition Results
Powerlifting
Personal Best Lifts
Competition Lifts
Powerlifting
Training lifts
Present Day
Shane’s immediate goals are to qualify for World’s Strongest Man and to make the final. No easy task, but given his recent performances, who would bet against it? In the meantime, he’d love to swap his 60-70 hour working week for a fully professional approach to training, with all the benefits to performance that would bring.
Long term, Shane is reluctant, as many have not been, to talk about WSM titles and world domination. He wants to build a legacy in the sport and fulfil his considerable potential. He sees his strengths laying in dynamic events, such as loading races, power stairs and any throwing disciplines, such as keg or sandbag toss.
Media
Shane’s performances at Giants Live events, including his excellent finishes at both Britain’s and Europe’s Strongest Man will be televised on Channel 5 during the festive period, later in December.
If you want to follow Shane on social media, you can join his 11,000 followers on Instagram: @_shaneflowers
