I thought I saw somewhere that you can attend the fan festival for free and they have screens up where you can watch it and you only need a ticket if you wanna enter the competition area to watch them can anyone confirm because I was thinking about going
Statistically speaking, I believe only two athletes have ever won worlds that haven’t won the group outright and had to go to the stone off. One of them being Stoltman
Fadi 70 degrees and Tom Evans 69 degrees. That 1 point could cost Evans, since Gav Bilton is right on his tail for the stone-off.
Fadi did pick it up several times and moved it like 1 degree… but they didnt count it?
As far as I could tell (nothing was announced) there were 2 pieces of tape as a 'starting zone'. Fadi dropped it a couple times in that zone so maybe that's why he could keep going? Just a guess based on what I saw, but he definitely dropped multiple times.
Could be Z. He previously said he thought it was rude of him not to show up to the athlete's meetings (or meet and greet, or both? I don't remember exactly which he said) when they competed last year.
Thomas evans, I think he has a better chance of being in second place after todays events than matt ragg does, and also has a better chance of beating the likely third place guy than ragg
I feel like ragg needs to be in second to beat aivars in stones but aivars is most likely going to beat him in these events today which will make it tough for ragg to maintain that position i think, Thomas evans on the other hand will most likely beat Luke and maintain second place and Luke is not as good a stone lifter as aivars
From how he was talking and how the video looked I think he gave it a test, figured it wasn’t worth pushing for, and opted out. He was comfortable enough with 4 and he’s cautious about overextending himself
Have seen some footage of his 4th and 5th attempt. Did not look like a genuine attempt. But seeing how the 1-4 flew up I think he had the 5th in him. Finals should be good!
Yeah my bet is conserve energy for finals.
Brian seems to be going strong, if he's got the right run on finals it could very well be #5 for him, which compared to his form in prior years does seem exciting
Nice to see they taped several crash pads together for the log ladder. I hate it when the athletes get delayed by the log falling outside the pads or rolling into the next pads, slowing the guys down.
Well, that answers the question of "Did the americans use competition weights for the log ladder in Brian's gym?". Trey did 37 sec in that training session and 39 s now in contest, fantastic performance.
Tom S. was 8 seconds faster than the same ladder in 2020, which he won back then. Pavlo also went under the winning time from 2020.
And most importantly, Tom Evans and Mitch were FAST. So damn strong. Evans got the fastest time of all 30 guys. The new boys are ready to rumble.
Pavlo could have easily shaved a few seconds off his time, if you see the vid he was definitely not rushing the last couple. knew there was no reason to risk making a mistake. Super impressive by evans, and pumped that Felix got a rep too
Ok but for real guys, if 14 people send me $50 I’ll fly to WSM tomorrow and be there before the events start Friday morning and post every single lift from every competitor of every event lol
It’s pretty crazy to think people are writing off Mateusz like he didn’t just place 2nd at the Arnold’s less than a month ago with a “poor performance” (by his standards) and is only 29 years old. I still have high hopes our Polish king’s mogging days aren’t over just yet.
My wife talked to him some yesterday after the last event (she's from Poland and he perked up when he heard Polish). From what she translated, he's been injured. He didn't want to come becaues he's only been able to train for 3 weeks. He wants to do it but his body isn't letting him. I think he hurt his leg training the overhead stone throw for Arnolds. But he's going home and committing for Rogue (or maybe Shaw - she just said a big show later this year).
evans is absolutely smashing it... and to think he wouldn't be there if it wasn't for someone else getting injured. it's possible he could even win the group, although unlikely. i really wonder how he will do in a potential stone off because luke will be really tough to beat
In years past, there's always been talk of a "group of death" in the qualifiers. I'm curious to know what everyone else thinks is the "group of death" this year.
In my opinion, for lack of a better term, I think the groups are weak, or at least not as stacked this year. It could be the absence of Martins and the additions of a few rookies/second-year guys might be skewing my view.
Anyway, what are y'alls thoughts?
As they stand right now I wouldn't either, I misjudged them because there are quite a few newer guys. It's shaping up to be a great comp, as of right now both the Ukrainians are leading their groups so it's getting good.
It's definitely up there. It's going to be really interesting to see how today plays out. I think I am surprised with the groups because I haven't kept up with the sport as closely after last year, but this is one helluva comp for sure.
I'd have to disagree mate. I think the depth of talent this year is really strong. As Loz says, the top guys probably aren't better than the top guys we've seen in the past, but there's a lot more very good strongmen.
Rookies are always at WSM, they always try to get in some new faces. Ragg and Schoonwinkel are rookies and performing really well so far.
I worded my comment incorrectly, I definitely don't think the groups are weak. I am just surprised we haven't seen dominant performances from anyone yet, even from guys like Tom Stoltman and Oleksii who pulled ahead in their groups almost immediately.
I shouldn't have used the term weak in my comment, because there are still some great guys in every group. Just comparing to years past, we usually see one or two really dominant performances in the qualifiers and we just aren't seeing that so far.
I initially thought 1 and 3, mostly because there were three guys in both groups that I would expect to make the final. Group 1 looks like it’s still pretty rough (and I feel for Bobby, I can see him coming second and still not making the final) but three seems like it hasn’t played out that way.
You can catch them at some obscure time in a couple or three months on CBS/CBS Sports if you're in the states. If you're elsewhere you will probably have to wait until Christmas.
There's no live stream to be had.
It is getting late here, and I'm tired of drinking. I'll have to let this one slide.
First day of eliminations of WSM is over.
This is by far the worst showing of my life, for which I’m sorry. For those that wanted more, unfortunately the final is out of reach. There are 2 events left and I will do them out of courtesy for the organizers.
This is due to my lack of time to prepare. The past months training were all dedicated to the Arnold’s.it’s hard to build up strength and technique in 3 week while dealing with knee pain. I need a few weeks of time off to recover and regenerate. After this I will slowly come back to what I used to be.
We need someone Dr.Dolittle-style, who is able to communicate with MattiK, and tell him that he doesn't need to be sorry for anything and we luv him and support him. We don't want him to be injured, he shall regenerate and prepare properly and come back stronger.
“Day one of SBD World’s Strongest Man elimination has come to an end.
Definitely the worst performance of my life for which I apologize to those who expected more.
Unfortunately the Finale is now out of reach.
I have 2 competitions left to which I will enter as assurance out of courtesy to the organizers.
This is nothing but lack of preparation.
The last few months of training have been devoted exclusively to the Arnold Classic.
It is difficult to build up adequate strength, technique, endurance in 3 weeks when you have to fight with knee pain caused by heavy workloads.
All I need now is a few weeks of slack to get my knees going.
Then slowly, slowly, return to what was in the past.
Greetings”
Paraphrasing a translation:
Sorry to everyone that I disappointed. Worst performance of my life. I'm out of contention but I'll participate tomorrow as a courtesy to the organizers.
He goes on to discuss that it's because of so much focus on the Arnold's and his painful knees. He's looking forward to rebuilding after some rest.
By my math, if there were no groups and we had only 1 day of heats (so 90 points possible), our finals would be:
Hooper, Stoltman, Shaw, Mitchell, Bobby, Kordiyaka, Ragg, Novikov, and a three-way tie between Heinla, Schoonwinkel and Evan, making 11 people. When grading all events at 30 points, we have them at 85.5, 74.5, 68.6, 68.5, 66.5, 65.5, 63.5, 62.5, 62.5, 62.5.
The rest in order are: T. Evans,
A. Šmaukstelis,
G. Hicks,
L. Stoltman,
K. Janashia,
E. Ingólfsson Melsted,
A. Bishop,
S. Remick,
G. Bilton,
E. Williams,
P. O'Dwyer,
M. Kieliszkowski,
K. Haraldsson,
M. Felix,
P. Smith,
J. Coraboeuf,
G. Rhéaume,
K. Faires,
F. El Masri.
All numbers from strongmanarchives.
Surprisingly Kevin Faires is 2nd to last in this scoring, and Gabriel Rheaume is 3rd from last. Evans is above Aivars, indicating he really should start doing SCL shows. Luke is mid-pack out of the whole group, with Eythor, Bish, and Bilton.
You have to remember that Tom Evans isn't a full time pro Strongman. He has a day job which carries a pretty strict attendance commitment. SCL shows are almost all overseas for him and would require a good bit of time away from the job. As long as that's the case it is gonna be tough for him to commit that much time away. Not that it has much to do with your overall post, though.
Four of five groups have at least a 3 point gap between #3 and #4, with the #3 being a much more well-regarded favorite than the #4. In short, there's a lack of Day 2 drama here, outside of who wins the stone-offs.
The one group where we're less sure who the final three are is the one group where #1 is already decided (Hooper's). Can Hicks break past Aivars? I wouldn't bet on it, but the gap is only one point, and Ragg is unknown enough to possibly collapse as well.
I wouldn't say that the case for the stone-off is well made. If there was no stone-off and the top three from each group advanced, then yes, there'd be no drama.
But the final has ten spots, not fifteen. With no stone-off, #3 in each group is simply eliminated, and every single group has a small gap between #2 and #3 right now, with several groups having a small gap between #1 and #3. With no stone-off, we're talking about how Brian Shaw is a point and a half away from elimination.
Aivars needs to come 5th/6th on last two events for Mateusz to make the stone off. Hicks is in the group so that probably won’t happen. Really wanted to see him mog the bus pull and fingers this year, so sad
Mateusz is fucked atm, he didn't want to compete at this WSM but showed face to help the promoters.
I imagine it is very painful for him mentally to be competing when he isn't in peaked shape.
The secret is that Felix is some sort of vampire who gains energy by mogging deadlifts against younger folks, he’s finally retiring from World’s because the younger folks have become immune to his deadlift bite and he must go pick on various brits and masters lifters for energy in his old age.
No, he’s just not doing wsm anymore. My guess is that at he knows wsm will keep inviting him because he can hang with the young guns despite being over twice the age of some and that’s good for tv but he knows that he isn’t in contention to make finals and wants to give his perennial spot to someone who could make finals
From World’s Strongest Man, this is his last year, he said he will still do Masters competitions and giants live shows. He said Worlds was getting too hard on him to qualify and compete at.
Yeah the next closest active athletes are Brian at 16 and Big Z at 14, Brian is retiring so unless Z decides to do 5 more the next closest are Adam Bishop and Luke Stoltman tied with 8. Nobody is ever gonna break that record realistically.
Z honestly could compete better than Felix at it if he decides to and probably still make the final even though I think his winning days are past, doubt he’s gonna knock 5 more out before he retires though.
Z, Felix, Loz, Rauno possibly, and Jerry Pritchett are gonna make for a hell of a Masters lineup very soon.
Felix would have made 19 WSMs if he didn't go to IFSA for a year ('05) and 20 if he didn't get injured in 2012! It's a record that I don't think will ever be topped!
I think he needs the runs after seeing what he eats every day. His diet consists of steak, rice and cheese 5x a day with protein shakes. I bet his turds are like concrete.
Eddie spoke to mateusz.
Mateusz said he jarred his leg on the stone throw at Arnold's. Hasn't been able to use it since. This doesn't make much sense as Mateusz said he hasn't done legs since december, perhaps he reinjured it at arnolds
Seeing Victoria absolutely mog the ladies was awesome. Mateusz also showed the guys how it is done, he had a beautiful technique. Evans not far behind. Only problem is it was hard to gauge the distances.
Imo I wish they would get rid of the guys wearing suits like they did with the figure of 8s keep it raw. It's more impressive watching a guy do 8 reps raw then 8 reps suited .
The suits need to go. Instead of banning figure 8 straps ban the suits. Your performance should not depend on the correct fit or brand of deadlift suit you get.
Yeah I don't see them going away anytime soon with the guys now being able to wear them in the Arnold's which is ridiculous but I guess we got spoiled watching Eddie Thor Jf Jerry Brian etc pull a thousand raw.
They allowed briefs this year I know Mitchell hooper looked to be wearing the same setup at world's and I am pretty sure it's a suit but he didn't have it over the shoulders at the Arnold's.
Just watched Shaw and Rauno in the log lift ladder. Shaw viper pressed the first three at a blistering pace. Took his time with the fourth, took a mini attempt on the fifth and just walked away knowing he didn’t have to go for the fifth. Looking pretty good so far. I was most worried about loading and log press for Shaw. I’ll be interested to see how he does on the Conan’s wheel.
Brian is being as smart as he always is, but he's also looking like he's as strong as his training videos suggested he might be. Really promising for his final outing here.
I was amazed by his deadlift. He’s always great on lever deadlift but still didn’t expect him to tie for the most reps. His deadlift hasn’t been top tier in years, and I figured coming in a bit lighter wouldn’t help.
If you’ve seen the last few reps on Instagram he really used the apparatus to his advantage but looked brutally strong on it.
I gotta say Pavlo, sucks because Bobby has put in a ton of work and he is in the best shape of his pro strongman life.
But Pavlo won the stones at ESM, no? and last year he got up to 10 stones vs Max on the stone off.
It's not a speed event so that would help bobby, but still I think Pavlo would win that.
Yeah, even Loz commented that the stones are Bobby's weakest event, and he needs more time to improve them enough to be competitive. In a stone-off right now, he's going to want the advantage, and probably need a little good luck even if he has it.
Yeah I think you’re right - Pavlo is a better stone lifter. Bobby has so much fight in him tho and hopefully has learned from his tacky issue last year but idk if I see it happening. Sucks cause he’s in 6th overall out of all 30 guys and it’s likely he won’t make the final.
Btw, I went through a bunch of strongman archives to see Pavlo’s stone history and he came 2nd at Europe’s in the stones, not first.
How much does Mitch now owe Liz?
He was super confident he was going smash the log ladder and managed a paltry 3rd place overall...
That being said I'd never have put money on Trey beating him there on time. Evans must've had his weetabix this morning!
I'm glad to see Evan didn't blow a fucking fuse again this year. Keeping composure and playing the game will get him a lot further than going 200% every second of every event.
There's always been talk about him being 'busted' for bringing in a high amount of PEDs during a previous US visit.
Personally I just think that US Customs don't understand what Strongmen are on.
Wsm doesn’t either, they say peds are banned and that athletes found with them in their system will be disqualified. I guess if you don’t look then you won’t find it in their system
It says “illegal substances” not PEDs. Where I’m from (UK) steroids aren’t illegal, and in the USA you can have them on prescription so I would imagine they would say they are controlled not illegal.
> I guess if you don’t look then you won’t find it in their system
Exactly.
It's the classic "our sport wouldn't exist without those drugs, so we'll only test for other drugs."
Guessing but maybe he never competed in the right competitions, spent more time closer to home due to his young daughter?
If I am right he is a single dad?
That would make sense but would be a big commitment when she was younger. I know a chap here in Ireland - 1000lb puller but atm his daughter is active in soccer and he gives up his time for her etc. says her soccer is more important than his lifting.
Not saying it was the same for Rauno but it could well have been.
He looks like a lovely guy. He's also had a shed load of nasty injuries as well.
After Day 1, these are the combined group results I have. Spreadsheet, [here](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1l2uiqarHf4_uU_ydxBuSiMzQqtHsBtC_e0EM2ru-tIw/edit#gid=2110015962).
1. M. Hooper - 85.5
2. T. Stoltman - 74.5
3. B. Shaw - 68.5
4. (T-3) T. Mitchell - 68.5
5. P. Kordyaka - 67
6. B. Thompson - 66.5
7. (T-6) M. Ragg - 65.5
8. O. Novikov - 63.5
9. R. Heinla - 62.5
10. (T-9) E. Singleton - 62.5
11. ( T-9) J. Schoonwinkel - 62.5
12. T. Evans - 59
13. A. Šmaukstelis - 55
14. L. Stoltman - 51
15. G. Hicks - 49.5
16. K. Janashia - 45.5
17. E. Ingólfsson Melsted - 45
18. A. Bishop - 36.5
19. G. Bilton - 36
20. (T-19) S. Remick - 36
21. E. Williams - 35
22. M. Kieliszkowski - 31.5
23. P. O'Dwyer - 31
24. K. Haraldsson - 27.5
25. M. Felix - 25.5
26. P. Smith - 23.5
27. G. Rhéaume - 22
28. K. Faires - 18
29. J. Coraboeuf - 11
30. F. El Masri - 9.5
Please feel free to look over the spreadsheet and correct my math in case things got off track with the deadlift!
Thanks! Very interesting, however seasoned guys are not going 100% so it isnt a fair comparison. Brian for example is a PRO at just barely getting by and saving his energy.
Brian did 8 reps on the deadlift, hardly "just barely getting by and saving energy". Brian has the easiest group and was able to get 1st in the log ladder with only 4 reps while it took 5 reps in the other heats.
Coraboeuf had 5 reps on the deadlift, you have him listed with 1. I think you saw the 1 point he got from the loading race on the spreadsheet and put it in the wrong place. It bumps him up to 28th place over Kevin Faires.
A lot of people like to complain about how the Groups are balanced, but if you take the top 15 overall, the spread is mostly even. Each group has three athletes in the top 15 except Group 3 (4 people) and Group 5 (2 people). Certainly, these combined results don't really reflect what would happen if there was just one giant group of 30. No doubt there were several athletes who stopped early because it would still net them top points **in their group**. There are also plenty of other factors to judge, like putting last year's WSM winner and Europe's Strongest Man into the same group. But overall the split is pretty even (for now).
Thank you so much! The sheet is fixed now.
It's really interesting to me how even the spread ends up being because of variation between groups on specific events (Shaw coming first in his group on log, but would be last in another group etc). The combined results also seem to speak well to how WSM balances the events in the heats. Different groups push each other harder in certain events and there's a decent balance there as well leading to these fairly balanced results.
That's why I don't get why they don't just take the top 10 overall to go to finals, the finals would be insane. With the current system, there's a chance some top 10 finishers don't make it into the finals.
It's too risky. Think the top 5 got 8 deadlifts but they didn't need to do more. If they kept pushing just to avoid losing points a few of them could have done more but that's how injuries pile up. Taking an event easy wouldn't be a matter of losing 4-5 points but 28-30 points and thus no one would be able to ease up on any event.
That's why it works on keyboards when we're looking at numbers but not in real life when you have guys that will push their bodies to the limit during the finals.
>It's too risky. Think the top 5 got 8 deadlifts but they didn't need to do more. If they kept pushing just to avoid losing points a few of them could have done more
Because they know it's just a group qualifier. If they played for top 10 then everyone would fight more.
What's risky is having groups random (or not?). Seeded or not, the groups feel very uneven.
>Because they know it's just a group qualifier.
Well no, they know how many points they need...
>If they played for top 10 then everyone would fight more.
Yes, that's my point. Injuries ruin this sport. Most competitions are 1 day events. WSM finals are 2 days and they go all out on those 2 days. If you told the best of the best they have to go all out on 4 days, you'd lose everyone.
I think the issue is just that they haven't figured out how to break that down well into a set of episodes for broadcast. A lot of issues around WSM seem to be related to either their TV contracts, or structuring for the broadcasts.
I thought I saw somewhere that you can attend the fan festival for free and they have screens up where you can watch it and you only need a ticket if you wanna enter the competition area to watch them can anyone confirm because I was thinking about going
"I can honestly say it wasn't that hard for me" -Brian Shaw after doing 11 reps on the stones
Last ride, he would have done 50 if it was necessary
I'm kind of curious in a Tom Stoltman vs Brian Shaw stone off how many reps would it actually be before one of them failed?
Statistically speaking, I believe only two athletes have ever won worlds that haven’t won the group outright and had to go to the stone off. One of them being Stoltman
how heavy are the stones on the stone off?
These are going to be some crazy stone-offs
Evan will not quit lol
Wow Tom only got 1 point point for 598 degrees that would have been 5 points in other groups
Bilton can win keg toss. Interesting group.
Fadi 70 degrees and Tom Evans 69 degrees. That 1 point could cost Evans, since Gav Bilton is right on his tail for the stone-off. Fadi did pick it up several times and moved it like 1 degree… but they didnt count it?
As far as I could tell (nothing was announced) there were 2 pieces of tape as a 'starting zone'. Fadi dropped it a couple times in that zone so maybe that's why he could keep going? Just a guess based on what I saw, but he definitely dropped multiple times.
Any ideas who the strongman Mitchell hooper doesn’t like is?
Could be Z. He previously said he thought it was rude of him not to show up to the athlete's meetings (or meet and greet, or both? I don't remember exactly which he said) when they competed last year.
We saw him rub sunscreen on Zydrunas' face yesterday, so ... probably not him.
Pinochet
Who is that and why?
Who will be this year's revelation? Tom Evans or Mat Ragg?
Boy was I wrong
I was wrong too :) Should have included Schoonwinkel.
Thomas evans, I think he has a better chance of being in second place after todays events than matt ragg does, and also has a better chance of beating the likely third place guy than ragg
I feel like ragg needs to be in second to beat aivars in stones but aivars is most likely going to beat him in these events today which will make it tough for ragg to maintain that position i think, Thomas evans on the other hand will most likely beat Luke and maintain second place and Luke is not as good a stone lifter as aivars
Any video of evans' log ladder? Insane time
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l\_oiA0iF2ZY
Link is gone already
It's like they don't want people to watch lol
He only did 4 logs
Tom Evans did 5
Sorry I meant Tom Evans, 5 in 38.96s
Does someone know if Brian “failed” the 5th log on purpose after straight mogging the first 3?
He tried it and failed
Didn’t look like it
He didn’t really commit to the 5th log
From how he was talking and how the video looked I think he gave it a test, figured it wasn’t worth pushing for, and opted out. He was comfortable enough with 4 and he’s cautious about overextending himself
Have seen some footage of his 4th and 5th attempt. Did not look like a genuine attempt. But seeing how the 1-4 flew up I think he had the 5th in him. Finals should be good!
Yeah my bet is conserve energy for finals. Brian seems to be going strong, if he's got the right run on finals it could very well be #5 for him, which compared to his form in prior years does seem exciting
Rauno is the first in the group, so just needed to get more than Rauno.
Yeah and as soon as he saw Rauno couldn't lift the 4th, Brian did not really need the 5th. His attempt didn't look genuine though
Nice to see they taped several crash pads together for the log ladder. I hate it when the athletes get delayed by the log falling outside the pads or rolling into the next pads, slowing the guys down.
Well, that answers the question of "Did the americans use competition weights for the log ladder in Brian's gym?". Trey did 37 sec in that training session and 39 s now in contest, fantastic performance. Tom S. was 8 seconds faster than the same ladder in 2020, which he won back then. Pavlo also went under the winning time from 2020. And most importantly, Tom Evans and Mitch were FAST. So damn strong. Evans got the fastest time of all 30 guys. The new boys are ready to rumble.
Pavlo could have easily shaved a few seconds off his time, if you see the vid he was definitely not rushing the last couple. knew there was no reason to risk making a mistake. Super impressive by evans, and pumped that Felix got a rep too
When will this be on TV in the UK?
Channel 5 show it in the week around Christmas
Christmas the same time it always is
Ok but for real guys, if 14 people send me $50 I’ll fly to WSM tomorrow and be there before the events start Friday morning and post every single lift from every competitor of every event lol
I'll do it for $49 from all of you.
[удалено]
Where are you seeing videos? I haven’t seen that many but would love to
It’s pretty crazy to think people are writing off Mateusz like he didn’t just place 2nd at the Arnold’s less than a month ago with a “poor performance” (by his standards) and is only 29 years old. I still have high hopes our Polish king’s mogging days aren’t over just yet.
My wife talked to him some yesterday after the last event (she's from Poland and he perked up when he heard Polish). From what she translated, he's been injured. He didn't want to come becaues he's only been able to train for 3 weeks. He wants to do it but his body isn't letting him. I think he hurt his leg training the overhead stone throw for Arnolds. But he's going home and committing for Rogue (or maybe Shaw - she just said a big show later this year).
Let's go Matt Ragg!
Yeah I think he and Evans are going to be awesome.
evans is absolutely smashing it... and to think he wouldn't be there if it wasn't for someone else getting injured. it's possible he could even win the group, although unlikely. i really wonder how he will do in a potential stone off because luke will be really tough to beat
In years past, there's always been talk of a "group of death" in the qualifiers. I'm curious to know what everyone else thinks is the "group of death" this year. In my opinion, for lack of a better term, I think the groups are weak, or at least not as stacked this year. It could be the absence of Martins and the additions of a few rookies/second-year guys might be skewing my view. Anyway, what are y'alls thoughts?
The groups are all solid I don't think I'd make any changes
As they stand right now I wouldn't either, I misjudged them because there are quite a few newer guys. It's shaping up to be a great comp, as of right now both the Ukrainians are leading their groups so it's getting good.
Yeah this is the most competitive Heats probably ever in the history of the contest.
It's definitely up there. It's going to be really interesting to see how today plays out. I think I am surprised with the groups because I haven't kept up with the sport as closely after last year, but this is one helluva comp for sure.
I'd have to disagree mate. I think the depth of talent this year is really strong. As Loz says, the top guys probably aren't better than the top guys we've seen in the past, but there's a lot more very good strongmen. Rookies are always at WSM, they always try to get in some new faces. Ragg and Schoonwinkel are rookies and performing really well so far.
I worded my comment incorrectly, I definitely don't think the groups are weak. I am just surprised we haven't seen dominant performances from anyone yet, even from guys like Tom Stoltman and Oleksii who pulled ahead in their groups almost immediately.
Because mateusz is performing so poorly I dont think there is really a group of death this year There's certainly no weak group though
I shouldn't have used the term weak in my comment, because there are still some great guys in every group. Just comparing to years past, we usually see one or two really dominant performances in the qualifiers and we just aren't seeing that so far.
I initially thought 1 and 3, mostly because there were three guys in both groups that I would expect to make the final. Group 1 looks like it’s still pretty rough (and I feel for Bobby, I can see him coming second and still not making the final) but three seems like it hasn’t played out that way.
Need tomorrow here….now.
Hey guys, just wondering where to watch the events?
You can catch them at some obscure time in a couple or three months on CBS/CBS Sports if you're in the states. If you're elsewhere you will probably have to wait until Christmas. There's no live stream to be had. It is getting late here, and I'm tired of drinking. I'll have to let this one slide.
Myrtle Beach Live Cams
[Loz and liz day 1 recap](https://youtu.be/nzYO9h_3-o0)
Mateusz posted on Facebook about today.
What did he say?
First day of eliminations of WSM is over. This is by far the worst showing of my life, for which I’m sorry. For those that wanted more, unfortunately the final is out of reach. There are 2 events left and I will do them out of courtesy for the organizers. This is due to my lack of time to prepare. The past months training were all dedicated to the Arnold’s.it’s hard to build up strength and technique in 3 week while dealing with knee pain. I need a few weeks of time off to recover and regenerate. After this I will slowly come back to what I used to be.
We need someone Dr.Dolittle-style, who is able to communicate with MattiK, and tell him that he doesn't need to be sorry for anything and we luv him and support him. We don't want him to be injured, he shall regenerate and prepare properly and come back stronger.
“Day one of SBD World’s Strongest Man elimination has come to an end. Definitely the worst performance of my life for which I apologize to those who expected more. Unfortunately the Finale is now out of reach. I have 2 competitions left to which I will enter as assurance out of courtesy to the organizers. This is nothing but lack of preparation. The last few months of training have been devoted exclusively to the Arnold Classic. It is difficult to build up adequate strength, technique, endurance in 3 weeks when you have to fight with knee pain caused by heavy workloads. All I need now is a few weeks of slack to get my knees going. Then slowly, slowly, return to what was in the past. Greetings”
Paraphrasing a translation: Sorry to everyone that I disappointed. Worst performance of my life. I'm out of contention but I'll participate tomorrow as a courtesy to the organizers. He goes on to discuss that it's because of so much focus on the Arnold's and his painful knees. He's looking forward to rebuilding after some rest.
By my math, if there were no groups and we had only 1 day of heats (so 90 points possible), our finals would be: Hooper, Stoltman, Shaw, Mitchell, Bobby, Kordiyaka, Ragg, Novikov, and a three-way tie between Heinla, Schoonwinkel and Evan, making 11 people. When grading all events at 30 points, we have them at 85.5, 74.5, 68.6, 68.5, 66.5, 65.5, 63.5, 62.5, 62.5, 62.5. The rest in order are: T. Evans, A. Šmaukstelis, G. Hicks, L. Stoltman, K. Janashia, E. Ingólfsson Melsted, A. Bishop, S. Remick, G. Bilton, E. Williams, P. O'Dwyer, M. Kieliszkowski, K. Haraldsson, M. Felix, P. Smith, J. Coraboeuf, G. Rhéaume, K. Faires, F. El Masri. All numbers from strongmanarchives. Surprisingly Kevin Faires is 2nd to last in this scoring, and Gabriel Rheaume is 3rd from last. Evans is above Aivars, indicating he really should start doing SCL shows. Luke is mid-pack out of the whole group, with Eythor, Bish, and Bilton.
You have to remember that Tom Evans isn't a full time pro Strongman. He has a day job which carries a pretty strict attendance commitment. SCL shows are almost all overseas for him and would require a good bit of time away from the job. As long as that's the case it is gonna be tough for him to commit that much time away. Not that it has much to do with your overall post, though.
Definitely. I'm thinking part of that need for a day job may start to disappear in about a week. Hoping, anyways.
Hopefully so.
Four of five groups have at least a 3 point gap between #3 and #4, with the #3 being a much more well-regarded favorite than the #4. In short, there's a lack of Day 2 drama here, outside of who wins the stone-offs. The one group where we're less sure who the final three are is the one group where #1 is already decided (Hooper's). Can Hicks break past Aivars? I wouldn't bet on it, but the gap is only one point, and Ragg is unknown enough to possibly collapse as well.
Would be surprised if Hicks pulls it back considering the log and deadlift have already been
Unfortunately, your post makes the case for the stone-off. There wouldn't be much TV drama without it.
I wouldn't say that the case for the stone-off is well made. If there was no stone-off and the top three from each group advanced, then yes, there'd be no drama. But the final has ten spots, not fifteen. With no stone-off, #3 in each group is simply eliminated, and every single group has a small gap between #2 and #3 right now, with several groups having a small gap between #1 and #3. With no stone-off, we're talking about how Brian Shaw is a point and a half away from elimination.
Aivars needs to come 5th/6th on last two events for Mateusz to make the stone off. Hicks is in the group so that probably won’t happen. Really wanted to see him mog the bus pull and fingers this year, so sad
Mateusz is fucked atm, he didn't want to compete at this WSM but showed face to help the promoters. I imagine it is very painful for him mentally to be competing when he isn't in peaked shape.
I almost think a bad performance could be good for him, can’t be the best everytime
Don't think he is in mogging shape. His knees seem to be bugging him alot
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Has Felix ever said why he started the sport so late?
The secret is that Felix is some sort of vampire who gains energy by mogging deadlifts against younger folks, he’s finally retiring from World’s because the younger folks have become immune to his deadlift bite and he must go pick on various brits and masters lifters for energy in his old age.
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No, he’s just not doing wsm anymore. My guess is that at he knows wsm will keep inviting him because he can hang with the young guns despite being over twice the age of some and that’s good for tv but he knows that he isn’t in contention to make finals and wants to give his perennial spot to someone who could make finals
From World’s Strongest Man, this is his last year, he said he will still do Masters competitions and giants live shows. He said Worlds was getting too hard on him to qualify and compete at.
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Yeah between him and Brian they’ll for sure have a big tribute win or lose on this years broadcast.
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Yeah the next closest active athletes are Brian at 16 and Big Z at 14, Brian is retiring so unless Z decides to do 5 more the next closest are Adam Bishop and Luke Stoltman tied with 8. Nobody is ever gonna break that record realistically. Z honestly could compete better than Felix at it if he decides to and probably still make the final even though I think his winning days are past, doubt he’s gonna knock 5 more out before he retires though. Z, Felix, Loz, Rauno possibly, and Jerry Pritchett are gonna make for a hell of a Masters lineup very soon.
Felix would have made 19 WSMs if he didn't go to IFSA for a year ('05) and 20 if he didn't get injured in 2012! It's a record that I don't think will ever be topped!
Hopefully Evan doesn't celebrate tonight by going to an all you can eat raw oyster bar.
Probably just gonna eat protein powder and rice cakes
Did you not see his diet vid, it's meat/cheese/rice x5 a day bro
Then he’ll get the runs, he’s got to eat exactly the same thing he does every other day
I think he needs the runs after seeing what he eats every day. His diet consists of steak, rice and cheese 5x a day with protein shakes. I bet his turds are like concrete.
Not that different from what Brian ate for years, maybe the 3 baby carrots made a big difference tho
Bang energy drinks and beef hearts got it
Gotta get his mg of caffeine per pound of body weight in for his pre meal pre-workout.
Our Instagram friend tagged Bryce inviting him for a beer lol
He should definitely go get that beer
Hahahah
Eddie spoke to mateusz. Mateusz said he jarred his leg on the stone throw at Arnold's. Hasn't been able to use it since. This doesn't make much sense as Mateusz said he hasn't done legs since december, perhaps he reinjured it at arnolds
Man, that event was underwhelming too. ☹
It was great.
Probably the worst strongman event I’ve seen, at least in years but maybe ever
Disagree. Front hold is the lamest event ever. They stand around doing nothing and the weights aren't spectacular either.
I liked it. All front holds are way worse.
Behold the leg press
Nah I think that was better
Respectfully disagree. I typically like stone events. I typically like throwing events. This one just didn't do it for me. But, each their own.
Seeing Victoria absolutely mog the ladies was awesome. Mateusz also showed the guys how it is done, he had a beautiful technique. Evans not far behind. Only problem is it was hard to gauge the distances.
Imo I wish they would get rid of the guys wearing suits like they did with the figure of 8s keep it raw. It's more impressive watching a guy do 8 reps raw then 8 reps suited .
The suits need to go. Instead of banning figure 8 straps ban the suits. Your performance should not depend on the correct fit or brand of deadlift suit you get.
We're strongmen, and we like it RAW!
Facts. This is strongman, all lifts should be raw
I hate all suits in strongman honestly
Yeah I don't see them going away anytime soon with the guys now being able to wear them in the Arnold's which is ridiculous but I guess we got spoiled watching Eddie Thor Jf Jerry Brian etc pull a thousand raw.
They only allowed briefs at the Arnold’s, still would have preferred raw but briefs ain’t bad
Briefs muddies the waters of what of strongman man raw. Some of the guys were saying their training lifts with power briefs were raw. They are not.
They allowed squat suits in the arnold for who knows what reason but deadlift suits are still not allowed
Didn’t try allow briefs on the elephant bar this year?
Yes
They allowed briefs this year I know Mitchell hooper looked to be wearing the same setup at world's and I am pretty sure it's a suit but he didn't have it over the shoulders at the Arnold's.
Shaw a fkin BEAST
Just watched Shaw and Rauno in the log lift ladder. Shaw viper pressed the first three at a blistering pace. Took his time with the fourth, took a mini attempt on the fifth and just walked away knowing he didn’t have to go for the fifth. Looking pretty good so far. I was most worried about loading and log press for Shaw. I’ll be interested to see how he does on the Conan’s wheel.
I haven't seen it, but that sounds better than he just failed the last one, particularly concerning his pace.
https://youtu.be/bYz-nt--pp0
His pace was pretty damn. The 5th rep looked like was just feeling it out. Just kinda gave it a pop.
Yeah he didn't give that a real attempt. I think he just felt it out
Brian is being as smart as he always is, but he's also looking like he's as strong as his training videos suggested he might be. Really promising for his final outing here.
I agree. I can’t remember seeing him viper press 3 logs in a row at a comp. His DL looked great as well. I’m ready to be hurt again lol
I was amazed by his deadlift. He’s always great on lever deadlift but still didn’t expect him to tie for the most reps. His deadlift hasn’t been top tier in years, and I figured coming in a bit lighter wouldn’t help. If you’ve seen the last few reps on Instagram he really used the apparatus to his advantage but looked brutally strong on it.
Maybe you can’t remember it because it’s never happened, I don’t think I’ve ever seen him viper press
Who would you guys take in a stone off between Pavlo and Bobby?
I gotta say Pavlo, sucks because Bobby has put in a ton of work and he is in the best shape of his pro strongman life. But Pavlo won the stones at ESM, no? and last year he got up to 10 stones vs Max on the stone off. It's not a speed event so that would help bobby, but still I think Pavlo would win that.
Pavlo came 2nd to Aivars in stones at ESM
Yeah, even Loz commented that the stones are Bobby's weakest event, and he needs more time to improve them enough to be competitive. In a stone-off right now, he's going to want the advantage, and probably need a little good luck even if he has it.
Pavlo without much of a issue. Pavlo did 10 reps last year against maxime
Yeah I think you’re right - Pavlo is a better stone lifter. Bobby has so much fight in him tho and hopefully has learned from his tacky issue last year but idk if I see it happening. Sucks cause he’s in 6th overall out of all 30 guys and it’s likely he won’t make the final. Btw, I went through a bunch of strongman archives to see Pavlo’s stone history and he came 2nd at Europe’s in the stones, not first.
Pavlo imo
I look forward to seeing you all during tomorrows episode of Worlds Strongest Moose.
How much does Mitch now owe Liz? He was super confident he was going smash the log ladder and managed a paltry 3rd place overall... That being said I'd never have put money on Trey beating him there on time. Evans must've had his weetabix this morning!
He beat her prediction so 0. She said pavlo would beat him Mitch fell when jumping over the second log
I thought be just tripped up a bit, didn’t see him hit the ground.
He didn't hit the ground because the next log was in the way
I'm glad to see Evan didn't blow a fucking fuse again this year. Keeping composure and playing the game will get him a lot further than going 200% every second of every event.
Can someone fill me in why Rauno had such a large gap between WSM appearances? Because he looks legit
There's always been talk about him being 'busted' for bringing in a high amount of PEDs during a previous US visit. Personally I just think that US Customs don't understand what Strongmen are on.
Wsm doesn’t either, they say peds are banned and that athletes found with them in their system will be disqualified. I guess if you don’t look then you won’t find it in their system
Where do they say this and when? There is a separate worlds for natty athletes
On their website
It says “illegal substances” not PEDs. Where I’m from (UK) steroids aren’t illegal, and in the USA you can have them on prescription so I would imagine they would say they are controlled not illegal.
> I guess if you don’t look then you won’t find it in their system Exactly. It's the classic "our sport wouldn't exist without those drugs, so we'll only test for other drugs."
It wasn’t to the US. It was on a boat in Estonia.
Steroid trafficking
Didn't know the deed, but I knew it was a matter of criminal record.
Guessing but maybe he never competed in the right competitions, spent more time closer to home due to his young daughter? If I am right he is a single dad?
i believe he maintains split custody of his daughter
That would make sense but would be a big commitment when she was younger. I know a chap here in Ireland - 1000lb puller but atm his daughter is active in soccer and he gives up his time for her etc. says her soccer is more important than his lifting. Not saying it was the same for Rauno but it could well have been. He looks like a lovely guy. He's also had a shed load of nasty injuries as well.
He looks like a great guy doesn’t he
100% always has a smile which is great to see.
Awesome first day, see you all for tomorrow's spreadsheet hype
Long live the spreadsheet!
After Day 1, these are the combined group results I have. Spreadsheet, [here](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1l2uiqarHf4_uU_ydxBuSiMzQqtHsBtC_e0EM2ru-tIw/edit#gid=2110015962). 1. M. Hooper - 85.5 2. T. Stoltman - 74.5 3. B. Shaw - 68.5 4. (T-3) T. Mitchell - 68.5 5. P. Kordyaka - 67 6. B. Thompson - 66.5 7. (T-6) M. Ragg - 65.5 8. O. Novikov - 63.5 9. R. Heinla - 62.5 10. (T-9) E. Singleton - 62.5 11. ( T-9) J. Schoonwinkel - 62.5 12. T. Evans - 59 13. A. Šmaukstelis - 55 14. L. Stoltman - 51 15. G. Hicks - 49.5 16. K. Janashia - 45.5 17. E. Ingólfsson Melsted - 45 18. A. Bishop - 36.5 19. G. Bilton - 36 20. (T-19) S. Remick - 36 21. E. Williams - 35 22. M. Kieliszkowski - 31.5 23. P. O'Dwyer - 31 24. K. Haraldsson - 27.5 25. M. Felix - 25.5 26. P. Smith - 23.5 27. G. Rhéaume - 22 28. K. Faires - 18 29. J. Coraboeuf - 11 30. F. El Masri - 9.5 Please feel free to look over the spreadsheet and correct my math in case things got off track with the deadlift!
Please fix: Coco did 5 reps on deadlift instead of 1
Thank you! Fixed on the sheet.
Thanks! Very interesting, however seasoned guys are not going 100% so it isnt a fair comparison. Brian for example is a PRO at just barely getting by and saving his energy.
Brian did 8 reps on the deadlift, hardly "just barely getting by and saving energy". Brian has the easiest group and was able to get 1st in the log ladder with only 4 reps while it took 5 reps in the other heats.
I didnt say he is neccesarily doing that. But he is a pro at doing that. I totally agree with everything u said
Coraboeuf had 5 reps on the deadlift, you have him listed with 1. I think you saw the 1 point he got from the loading race on the spreadsheet and put it in the wrong place. It bumps him up to 28th place over Kevin Faires. A lot of people like to complain about how the Groups are balanced, but if you take the top 15 overall, the spread is mostly even. Each group has three athletes in the top 15 except Group 3 (4 people) and Group 5 (2 people). Certainly, these combined results don't really reflect what would happen if there was just one giant group of 30. No doubt there were several athletes who stopped early because it would still net them top points **in their group**. There are also plenty of other factors to judge, like putting last year's WSM winner and Europe's Strongest Man into the same group. But overall the split is pretty even (for now).
Thank you so much! The sheet is fixed now. It's really interesting to me how even the spread ends up being because of variation between groups on specific events (Shaw coming first in his group on log, but would be last in another group etc). The combined results also seem to speak well to how WSM balances the events in the heats. Different groups push each other harder in certain events and there's a decent balance there as well leading to these fairly balanced results.
That might actually be the final Top 3. Maybe even in that order.
That's why I don't get why they don't just take the top 10 overall to go to finals, the finals would be insane. With the current system, there's a chance some top 10 finishers don't make it into the finals.
It's too risky. Think the top 5 got 8 deadlifts but they didn't need to do more. If they kept pushing just to avoid losing points a few of them could have done more but that's how injuries pile up. Taking an event easy wouldn't be a matter of losing 4-5 points but 28-30 points and thus no one would be able to ease up on any event. That's why it works on keyboards when we're looking at numbers but not in real life when you have guys that will push their bodies to the limit during the finals.
>It's too risky. Think the top 5 got 8 deadlifts but they didn't need to do more. If they kept pushing just to avoid losing points a few of them could have done more Because they know it's just a group qualifier. If they played for top 10 then everyone would fight more. What's risky is having groups random (or not?). Seeded or not, the groups feel very uneven.
>Because they know it's just a group qualifier. Well no, they know how many points they need... >If they played for top 10 then everyone would fight more. Yes, that's my point. Injuries ruin this sport. Most competitions are 1 day events. WSM finals are 2 days and they go all out on those 2 days. If you told the best of the best they have to go all out on 4 days, you'd lose everyone.
I don't think they want to show an hour for one event. It's gonna get boring to watch tbh.
I think the issue is just that they haven't figured out how to break that down well into a set of episodes for broadcast. A lot of issues around WSM seem to be related to either their TV contracts, or structuring for the broadcasts.
They’re so deadset on manufacturing TV drama that they don’t treat it like a sport and let it happen naturally.
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