World’s Strongest Man 2024: What we know so far.

As the 2023 Strongman season draws to a close – and what an incredible year it has been! – thoughts naturally turn to next season and what will be the year’s most prestigious contest: World’s Strongest Man 2024.

2023 was the year that a Canadian finally lifted the sport’s most coveted title, as The Moose, Mitchell Hooper, ended Tom Stoltman’s two-year reign. The contest was held at the Burroughs & Chapin Pavillion Place in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, and is set to make its return to the same venue in 2024.

World’s Strongest Man have now confirmed that the 2024 tournament will be held in Myrtle Beach from the 1^st to the 5^th of May 2024. Now speculation can begin as to who will be in the line-up and what the events will be. The contest looks certain to continue in its present format: thirty athletes divided into five heats of six men, with the top two to qualify for the grand final. Each heat winner should progress automatically, whilst the second and third placed athletes will secure their place through a Stone-off.

One thing that looks set to change, in a major development in the contest’s growth as a spectator event, is ticketing for all the heats and final and the provision of grandstand seating. At the 2023 contest fans took to step ladders to afford themselves a view of the competition, with thousands turning up to see the world’s best strength athletes. How this will affect the scheduling is yet to be seen, but it is a development that will be welcomed by the fans and athletes alike.

Giants Live Podium Finishers

Some of the line-up will already have been decided with six athletes already qualified by virtue of finishing on the podium at Giants Live World’s Strongest Man Arena Tour events. The Strongman Classic, Strongman Open and World Tour Finals have seen invites secured by the following men.

The Strongman Classic: 1^st Evan Singleton (USA), 2^nd Tom Stoltman (GBR), 3^rd Mitchell Hooper (CAN)

The Strongman Open: 1^st Evan Singleton (USA), 2^nd Gavin Bilton (GBR), 3^rd Shane Flowers (GBR)

World Tour Finals: 1^st Tom Stoltman (GBR), 2^nd Matt Ragg (NZL), 3^rd Mitchell Hooper (CAN)

Still to come on the Arena Tour schedule are Britain’s Strongest Man on 27^th January at the Utillta Arena, Sheffield and Europe’s Strongest Man on 13^th April at the First Direct Arena, Leeds. The top three athletes from both shows will claim prized automatic invites to Myrtle Beach in 2024. Tickets for both these events are currently on sale and available at www.giants-live.com

Official Strongman Games

Another trio of athletes that will be likely to receive invites are the medallists from this year’s Official Strongman Games. At last year’s World’s Strongest Man, OSG champion, Spenser Remick and podium finishers, Matt Ragg and Jaco Schoonwinkle, were all invited, with Ragg and Schoonwinkle getting through to the final. Held from 1^st – 3^rdDecember 2023 at the West Virginia Coliseum, Charleston, the men’s open division was won this year by America’s Marcus Crowder, with Wesley Derwinsky (CAN) in 2^nd and Nathan Goltry (USA) in 3^rd.

Past Champions

Defending World’s Strongest Man, Mitchell Hooper, aside from the fact he has twice podiumed at Giants Live, is assured an invite. Past champions are also certain to receive invitations on the proviso they have demonstrated current good form. 2021 & 2022 champ, Tom Stoltman, is very likely to be joined by 2020 winner Oleskii Novikov. 2019 number one, Martins Licis, is the only other previous winner still competing, though he has taken an extended break to recover from injury. Rumours abound that 2018 victor, Hafþor Björnsson, is returning to strongman, though whether his comeback will include WSM is not clear.

Further invites will be extended to major contest winners and medallists from the 2023 and early part of the 2024 season. National title winners from the major strength nations can be confident of consideration and the organisers, keen to encourage the contest’s global appeal, will also look to extend invitations to competitors from countries where Strongman is less well established. In 2022, Chilean competitor Manuel Angulo became the first South American to compete at WSM, with Fadi El Masri representing Lebanon for the first time in 2023.

The Events

The events for both the heats and final will not be selected until much closer to the contest and will be announced in due course. In 2022, for the first time, the events for the five heats were standardised, with each of the thirty men taking part in identical disciplines. Prior to that, the athletes’ routes to the final differed and there were concerns that some athletes had harder events than others.

Though the precise details will be unknown for some time, it’s possible to anticipate many of the disciplines and make educated guesses as to the sort of challenges the athletes may face. World’s Strongest Man aims to determine who is the best all-round strength athlete and so a range of events that test static strength, endurance, speed and explosiveness will all be selected. Overhead strength, through either logs, axles or dumbbells, a deadlift variation, either for reps or max weight, as well as carrying events in the form of loading races or yokes, are mainstays, as well as, of course, the Atlas Stones finale!

Winners

Predicting the finalists, podium finishers and eventual champion is much less easy, though a few athletes have already begun to establish their credentials. The competitive rivalry between the incumbent champion, Mitchell Hooper, and the man he dethroned, Tom Stoltman, has been fascinating to watch this season and promises to make for a thrilling showdown next May. Since losing out to Hooper, The Albatross has beaten him at both the Strongman Classic and the World Tour Finals. But the Scot hasn’t had things all his own though, with The Moose handing him defeats at the Rogue Invitational and the Shaw Classic.

There’s been little to choose between the pair all year and should either of them falter there will be no lack of talent ready to capitalise. America’s Evan Singleton has won twice at Giants Live events this season, coming out on top at the Strongman Classic and the Strongman Open. Mateusz Kieliszkowski, of Poland, has returned to regular competition this season, having not competed since 2021. Placing 3^rd at the Rogue Invitational and 2^nd at the Arnold Classic, he is a former runner-up at WSM and has proved he’s still capable of blowing the opposition away in certain events.

Since making the final at World’s, Matt Ragg has won New Zealand’s Strongest Man and finished 2^nd at the World Tour Finals. He is an athlete on a steep upward trajectory and will be one to watch in Myrtle Beach. As will Ukraine’s Pavlo Kordiyaka; the current Europe’s Strongest Man beat Tom Stoltman in his heat at WSM and but for a mistake in the Shield Carry, may well have finished much higher than his 6^th place in the final.

With five months until WSM ‘24 gets underway there is, of course, plenty of time for athletes to come in and out of their best shape. Both Europe’s Strongest Man and the Arnold Classic – two of the biggest contests of the year – are yet to be held before the thirty strongest men on the planet assemble in Myrtle Beach. It will be the 48^th edition of a contest that seems to get more competitive every year. Whether it will be a third title for Stoltman, two in a row for Hooper, or the crowning of a new champion, the sport continues to go from strength to strength. In the meantime, The World’s Strongest Man Qualifying Tour (Giants Live shows) and World’s Strongest Man 2023 will be on Channel 5 in the UK over the Christmas period.