AMAZING how fast five years passes. It seems impossible that is how long it is since I achieved my life’s ambition and won World’s Strongest Man. The time following has passed in a truly mad blur – a life changed in ways I could never have imagined.
Right now, I’m out in Sacramento, California (it’s a hard life, I know!) wrapping up filming for World’s Strongest Mat 2022. Staying part of the competition is massive for me. It’s a part of my life I never intend to let go and right in the thick of the action with these incredible athletes is exactly where I want to be. It really is the greatest show on earth – which is why I know millions of you will be tuning in to watch when it airs later this year.
There’s another element to World’s Strongest Man that isn’t always obvious – what these guys do is massively inspirational. Role models come in all shapes and sizes. Nothing makes me happier than a message on social media from someone who has been inspired to add something to their life precisely because one day they saw me do something incredible. It happens more often than you might think, to me and the other strongmen guys. I’ll get a note, perhaps from someone with a disability, who has taken the leap into weightlifting, or someone who has simply gone and checked out their local gym and found a huge network of support.
As I say, a lot of incredible stuff has happened to me in a very short space of time, but the fact that others have taken so much from my own achievements is my lifeblood.
It’s good to have people who make the impossible seem possible. I have had those people in my own life, and hope I always will, and if I can be that person for just one other person then my job is done.
Big love – The Beast