The 2022 World’s Strongest Man (WSM) is ready to happen on Could 24-29, 2022, in Sacramento, CA. The premier occasion within the strongman sphere will but once more see some of the world’s top strength sports athletes vie for the legendary Barry Frank Trophy. On April 27, 2022, the WSM group revealed this 12 months’s competitors’s respective occasion format.
2022 World’s Strongest Man Occasion Schedule
Right here is the total lineup and schedule of occasions, together with the Qualifying Stage and a two-day Finals:
Qualifying Spherical, Day 1 — Tuesday, Could twenty fourth, 2022
- Loading Race
- Deadlift Ladder
Qualifying Spherical, Day 2 — Wednesday, Could twenty fifth, 2022
Qualifying Spherical, Day 3 — Thursday, Could twenty sixth, 2022
- Wrecking Ball Maintain
- Stone Off
Last, Day 1 — Saturday, Could twenty eighth, 2022
Last, Day 2 — Sunday, Could twenty ninth, 2022
- Bus Pull
- Reign Whole Physique Gas Energy Stairs
- Atlas Stones
On the time of this writing, WSM has not introduced which athletes can be of their particular Qualifying Teams. Notably, the 2021 WSM noticed totally different, random attracts for the assorted occasions. This 12 months, each Qualifying Group will tackle the identical occasions.
The 2022 WSM format will consist of 5 teams with six athletes every. The respective winner of every group advances to the Last, whereas the second and third-place finishers will conflict in a Stone Off to notch a spot within the Last. The fourth, fifth, and sixth-place athletes will depart the competitors.
Within the Stone Off, the onus is on the third-place finisher — who has the primary crack at lifting the stones and dangers elimination in the event that they fail to finish a elevate. That end result will maintain even when they elevate the identical variety of stones as their competitor. The 5 respective winners of the Stone Off will take the remaining spots within the Last.
[Related: 2022 Giants Live Strongman Classic Reveals Lineup]
2022 WSM Occasion Breakdown
Listed here are extra specifics on the occasions that the opponents can count on in Sacramento.
Loading Race
One in all strongman’s customary occasions, the Loading Race will make one other look on the 2022 WSM. It was an occasion that each Qualifying Group took half in throughout the 2021 WSM.
The 2021 respective Loading Race winners are reigning WSM Champion Tom Stoltman, Maxime Boudreault, Konstantine Janashia, Kevin Faires, and Robert Oberst. Every of those opponents has a spot within the 2022 lineup save for Oberst.
Deadlift Ladder
In the meantime, the Deadlift Ladder occasion makes its debut throughout the 2022 WSM. Rivals will begin their deadlifts with 650-pound barbells and ultimately work their method as much as 750 kilos. The athletes have an additional incentive to complete their pulls shortly, which can reward them with extra factors.
Automotive Stroll
One other occasion making a return after an absence, the Automotive Stroll will see the athletes strap a Volkswagen Bug to their shoulders as they try and stroll it down a 25-meter path. 2019 WSM Champion Martin Licis is a competitor to observe right here.
Licis sometimes excels with the Yoke Stroll — which is analogous to the Automotive Stroll, albeit with the automotive being extra unwieldy. The strongman crushed a Yoke Stroll throughout the 2021 Rogue Invitational when he carried a 455-kilogram yoke (1,000-pound) 50 toes in simply over 44 seconds. That mark was sufficient to have Licis lap the subsequent finest competitor by nearly six seconds and garner a second-place end to Mateusz Kieliszkowski (41.74 seconds) — who not too long ago withdrew from the 2022 WSM competitors.
Log Carry
The Log Carry needs to be a spectacle to observe. Most of the featured athletes fare fairly properly with their overhead power.
Bobby Thompson specifically can be below the microscope as he holds the American log elevate file with a 217.5-kilogram press (479.5 kilos) from the 2021 Conflict on the Coast. The 2021 Europe’s Strongest Man (ESM) Luke Stoltman also needs to be somebody to regulate. Stoltman holds the British log elevate file with a 221-kilogram press (487-pound) from the World Final Strongman’s “Feat of Power” sequence.
[Related: Watch Strongman Trey Mitchell Crush A 405-Pound Behind-The-Neck Press For 3 Reps]
Wrecking Ball Maintain
The Wrecking Ball Maintain is making its first-ever look on the WSM competitors. Athletes may have the duty of lifting a large wrecking ball and holding it for so long as attainable.
Stone Off
The Stone Off can be no shock to the opponents who’re intimately accustomed to the famed Atlas Stones. Tom “King of the Stones” Stoltman is perhaps the favourite. He received the ultimate Atlas Stones occasion (5 lifts in 20.21 seconds) throughout the 2021 WSM — a significant factor in his eventual victory.
Two of the athletes, Trey Mitchell and 2022 ESM Champion Oleksii Novikov, also needs to make simple work of the stones. The 2 strongmen had a Stone Off for the ages throughout the 2019 WSM when Mitchell’s 14 profitable staggering reps beat Novikov’s 13.
Together with his latest ESM victory, Novikov has certified for the rostrum in 13 of his final 14 sanctioned competitions. He’s assuredly in search of redemption after not advancing from the 2021 Qualifying Spherical.
Giants Medley
The KNAACK® Giants Medley is akin to the Loading Race, save for a construction that contains a field carry and tremendous Yoke.
Deadlift
On the time of writing, the WSM group hasn’t confirmed whether or not the deadlift occasion is for a one-rep max or for reps. After tying for first (10 reps every) throughout the 2021 WSM, Mitchell and Adam Bishop are the reigning winners. Mitchell simply barely missed out on an eleventh rep earlier than time expired.
Flintstone Barbell
Yet one more occasion making a comeback, the strongmen will elevate a pair of giants stone on every arm sleeve in what’s functionally a behind-the-neck press. They are going to take turns trying to elevate the identical weights, with that quantity successively growing in every spherical.
Bus Pull
The Bus Pull will see the athletes pull a Sacramento Regional Transit bus that weighs roughly 40,000 kilos in a race towards the clock. The bottom’s floor and the tires’ traction ought to undoubtedly play a task for the eventual victor.
Energy Stairs
The Energy Stairs asks the athletes to hold an anvil-esque implement up a flight of stairs as quick as they’ll.
This occasion was the wheelhouse for five-time WSM Champion Mariusz Pudzianowski — who partly received his fifth WSM title in 2008 on the power of a stellar Energy Stairs efficiency.
Atlas Stones
As is the custom, the competitors will shut with the Atlas Stones. Whereas Tom Stoltman can be favored, numerous the opposite athletes like Licis, Mitchell, Novikov, and Brian Shaw share the same proficiency with the Atlas Stones. In consequence, the occasion could as soon as extra possible determine this 12 months’s champion.
2022 World’s Strongest Man Lineup
Right here’s the present checklist of athletes set to compete throughout this 12 months’s occasion:
- Tom Stoltman (United Kingdom) — Reigning WSM Champion
- Brian Shaw (United States) — 2021 WSM 2nd place
- Maxime Boudreault (Canada) — 2021 WSM third place
- Mitchell Hooper (Canada)
- Pavlo Kordiyaka (Ukraine)
- Rob Kearney (United States)
- Gabriel Peña (Mexico)
- Kelvin de Ruiter (Netherlands)
- Kim Ujarak (Greenland)
- Mark Felix (United Kingdom)
- Pa O’Dwyer (Eire)
- Shane Flowers (United Kingdom)
- Jean-Stephen Coraboeuf (Australia)
- Bobby Thompson (United States)
- Aivars Smaukstelis (Latvia)
- Adam Bishop (United Kingdom)
- Evan Singleton (United States)
- Eythor Ingolfsson Melsted (Iceland)
- Konstantine Janashia (Georgia)
- Charles “Trey” Mitchell (United States)
- Mika Törrö (Finland)
- Peiman Maheripourehir (Iran)
- Luke Stoltman (United Kingdom)
- Bobby Thompson (United States)
- Kevin Faires (United States)
- Nedžmin Ambešković (Bosnia and Herzegovina)
- Gabriel Rheaume (Canada)
- Martins Licis (United States)
- Gavin Bilton (United Kingdom)
- Oleksii Novikov (Ukraine)
A number of potential storylines lie in look forward to this 12 months’s competitors. Whereas Tom Stoltman is in search of a repeat, it may very well be the 12 months of an upstart who surprises and takes dwelling the hallowed WSM title.
Featured picture: @theworldsstrongestman on Instagram
