The World Deadlift Championships

The World Deadlift Championships is an annual global strongman competition featuring international strength athletes from all over the world, competing exclusively in the strongman deadlift. It was created by Giants Live and the championship focuses on the maximum deadlift in pursuit of the all-time world record deadlift. Having being held for 10 years, 9 of them featured the maximum deadlift event while in 2017, the event was changed to a weight for the most repetitions in 60 seconds.
The championships allow deadlifts to be performed either in equipped or raw standards using only conventional stance adhering with the rules of strongman. Each year the winner is bestowed with the title 'World Deadlift Champion'. Since its inception in 2014, the championships have produced a total of 11 world records including the incumbent all-time world record of by Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson in 2025.

Champions

¹ While Makarov has declared for Russia, he competed for Ukraine at the 2021 World Deadlift Championships.
² While Makarov has declared for Russia, he competed for Georgia at the 2022 and 2023 World Deadlift Championships.

Heaviest lifts

Continental records (men)

Region

Weight

Athlete

Nation

Year

Europe

Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson

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Records on other bars and standards

³ This lift has been included as a reference - sumo deadlifts are classified as illegal in strongman competitions.

Individual results

2014 World Deadlift Championships

The 2014 World Deadlift Championships were held at the Headingley Stadium in Leeds, England on 9 August 2014 as the first event of 2014 Europe's Strongest Man. Benedikt Magnússon set a new world record with and won the championship.

2015 World Deadlift Championships

The 2015 World Deadlift Championships were held at the Headingley Stadium in Leeds, England on July 11, 2015. Hall set a new world record with and won the championship.

2016 World Deadlift Championships

The 2016 World Deadlift Championships were held at the 2016 Europe's Strongest Man event at the First Direct Arena in Leeds, England. Hall set a new world record, becoming the first person in history to deadlift and won the championship.

2017 World Deadlift Championships

The 2017 World Deadlift Championships were held at the Giants Live Finals event in Manchester, England. In this edition, the championships were changed to a deadlift for the most repetitions in 60 seconds format with a fixed weight of. Jean-François Caron and Konstantine Janashia performed 5 repetitions each to equal Benedikt Magnússon's world record, and shared the championship win.

2019 World Deadlift Championships

The 2019 World Deadlift Championships were held at the Wembley Arena in Wembley, England, as the opening event for Giants Live Wembley. In this edition, the championships returned to the max weight deadlift format. Rauno Heinla and Jerry Pritchett shared the championship.

2021 World Deadlift Championships

The 2021 World Deadlift Championships were held at the AO Arena in Manchester, England, as the opening event for Giants Live World Open. Ivan Makarov won the championship.

2022 World Deadlift Championships

The 2022 World Deadlift Championships were held at the Cardiff International Arena in Cardiff, Wales, as the opening event for Giants Live World Open. Rauno Heinla won the championship, and as a result of another nationality change, Ivan Makarov became the first strongman to hold the national deadlift record for three different countries.

2023 World Deadlift Championships

The 2023 World Deadlift Championships were held at the Cardiff International Arena in Cardiff, Wales, as the opening event for Giants Live World Open. Graham Hicks won the championship. This was the first tournament to have female competitors, with Lucy Underdown setting a new women's record with.

2024 World Deadlift Championships

The 2024 World Deadlift Championships were held in Las Vegas, Nevada, as the opening event for Giants Live USA Strongman Championships. Trey Mitchell, Rauno Heinla, Ivan Makarov and Mitchell Hooper shared the championship, and Lucy Underdown participated alone in the women's division and broke her own record.

2025 World Deadlift Championships

The 2025 World Deadlift Championships were held at the Utilita Arena Birmingham in Birmingham, as the opening event for Giants Live World Open. Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson returned to the championships and broke both his own all-time world record as well as the long standing championship record by speed repping, winning the championship before proceeding to do the rest of the 6-event Giants Live World Open, and winning the entire competition as well.