2022 World's Strongest Man


The 2022 World's Strongest Man was the 45th edition of the World's Strongest Man competition, an event that took place in Sacramento, California from May 24 to May 29, 2022. The contest was won by Tom Stoltman with this being his second consecutive title. Joining him on the podium were the 2019 and 2020 World's Strongest Man winners, Martins Licis and Oleksii Novikov respectively, who tied on points. In the event of a draw, the higher placing athlete in the last event, in this case Licis in the Atlas Stones, wins the tie-breaker.

Participants

Manuel Angulo, Nedžmin Ambešković and Kim Ujarak are the first representatives of Chile, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Greenland in WSM history, respectively. Angulo is also the first South American athlete to compete at WSM.
Before the contest began, two time runner-up Mateusz Kieliszkowski, Peiman Maheripourehir, Rauno Heinla and Pa O’Dwyer were initially contestants before withdrawing.
Graham Hicks, Cheick “Iron Biby” Sanou, four time champion Žydrūnas Savickas, and regular finalist J.F. Caron declined to compete. Hicks declined his invitation as he was not permitted to travel to the United States from the United Kingdom as he was not vaccinated against COVID-19. Caron was unable to compete as he recovered from injuries he sustained at the 2022 Arnold Strongman Classic.

Heat results

Format

The 30 athletes were divided into 5 groups of 6 athletes, with 2 athletes from each group progressing to the final of 10. The winner of each group progressed to the final, and 2nd and 3rd in each group would then advance to a 'Stone Off', from which the winner would also progress.

Events

Loading Race: 5 implements. 1 Minute 15 second time limit.Deadlift Ladder: 5 lifts weighing between. 1 Minute 15 second time limit.Car Walk: down a course. 60 second time limitLog Lift:. 1 Minute 15 second time limit.Wrecking Ball Hold:

Heat 1

Stone Off
NameNationalityStones
Gabriel RhéaumeCanada

Heat 2

#NameEvent 1
Loading Race		Event 2
Deadlift Ladder		Event 3
Car Walk		Event 4
Log Lift		Event 5
Wrecking Ball Hold		Pts
1

Heat 3

#NameEvent 1
Loading Race		Event 2
Deadlift Ladder		Event 3
Car Walk		Event 4
Log Lift		Event 5
Wrecking Ball Hold		Pts
1

Heat 4

#NameEvent 1
Loading Race		Event 2
Deadlift Ladder		Event 3
Car Walk		Event 4
Log Lift		Event 5
Wrecking Ball Hold		Pts
1

Heat 5

#NameEvent 1
Loading Race		Event 2
Deadlift Ladder		Event 3
Car Walk		Event 4
Log Lift		Event 5
Wrecking Ball Hold		Pts
1

Finals events results

Event 1: KNAACK Giant's Medley

Weight: 2 x boxes, yoke carryCourse Length: each
#NameNationalityTime Event PtsOverall Pts
1Mitchell HooperCanada

Event 2: Car Deadlift

Weight: for repetitionsTime Limit: 60 seconds
#NameNationalityRepetitionsEvent PtsOverall Pts
1Oleksii NovikovUkraine

Event 3: Max Flintstone Lift

Opening Weight:
#NameNationalityWeight LiftedEvent PtsOverall Pts
1Oleksii NovikovUkraineconvert|246|kg|

Event 4: Bus Pull

Weight: Course Length: Time Limit: 1 Minute 15 seconds
#NameNationalityTimeEvent PtsOverall Pts
1Oleksii NovikovUkraine

Event 5: REIGN Power Stairs

Weight: 3 x Course Length: 3 steps eachTime Limit: 1 Minute 15 seconds
#NameNationalityTimeEvent PtsOverall Pts
1Maxime BoudreaultCanada

Event 6: Atlas Stones

Weight: 5 stones ranging from Time Limit: 60 seconds
#NameNationalityTimeEvent PtsOverall Pts
1Tom StoltmanUK

Controversy

A day prior to the competition, former director for World's Ultimate Strongman, Mark Boyd, leaked a secretly recorded portion of a conversation with Luke Stoltman, brother of the eventual champion of the competition Tom Stoltman, in which he stated "... and here's the sneaky bit, so Colin's gonna, not promised, but he says we will get more favorable groups, events, etc. in Worlds if we kinda play ball and then he can help push the Stoltman brand; if that makes sense in the Giant's Live, so basically what he did for Eddie..." The audio was released shortly after the groups for the competition were announced, with some fans speculating on the level of difficulty of the Stoltmans' groups compared to others. Boyd has since deleted this video from his Instagram account. Prior to deletion however, he claims to have given several months for athletes to expose the corruption on their own, indicating that he also had contacted IGM directors to no avail.
Stoltman released his own response video on YouTube later that day, in which he states that the clip was taken out of context, with the conversation being 90 minutes long, and explains that he simply told Boyd what he wanted to hear because he did not want to take part in Boyd's upcoming competition. Many took issue with Boyd's leaking of the conversation so closely to the World's Strongest Man competition date, leading to Boyd and Core Sports parting ways a few days later, with the company releasing a message stating they were not in support of Boyd's actions.
IGM, the World's Strongest Man, and Colin Bryce have yet to respond to the controversy.