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Mitchell Hooper Reflects on HIs 2023 Worlds Strongest Man Victory

By: 
Roger “Rock” Lockridge

For the first time ever, the number one strongman in the world resides in Canada. 2023 Arnold Strongman Classic winner Mitchell Hooper has become the first Canadian to win the World’s Strongest Man. Hooper competed in the contest that was held on April 19th through 23rd in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, and he defeated two-time defending champion Tom Stoltman (second place) and 2020 World’s Strongest Man Oleksii Novikov (third place) to do so.

Not only was he the first Canadian champion, but he’s the first man to have held both the Arnold and World’s titles in the same year since Hafthor Bjornsson did the same in 2018. The 27-year-old from Ontario has become a part of strongman and Canadian strength sports history.

Hooper took the time to reflect on all this in a YouTube video that was recently published on his channel. You can see the video below.

“Day one as the strongest man in the world, and it still isn’t sinking in yet,” he opened the video by saying.

Hooper gave his subscribers a peek into his first full day after the contest, including eating breakfast, shipping orders, and preparing to return to Canada. He eventually got asked how it felt 24 hours after winning the title.

“Crazy. Really good. It’s so odd. It’s such a life changing thing.”

Highlights of his week included pulling a 51,000-pound bus on a 25-meter course in 30 seconds, deadlifting 780 pounds for 8 reps with a unique bar that had metal containers on the sides in place of plates, and pressing five logs with weights on them ranging from 275 to 400 pounds in less than 40 seconds. Between the heats to qualify for the finals and the finals themselves, Hooper competed in 11 events during the five-day stretch, and he finished in the top two in all of them except one. He was sixth in the Fingal Fingers event.

Prior to Hooper, the closest any Canadian had come to winning this title that dates back to 1977 was in 1982 when Tom Magee finished as the runner-up to Bill Kazmaier, who won his third straight title. Three Canadians have placed third in the past – Dominic Filiou in 2005, J.F. Caron in 2020, and Maxime Boudreault in 2021. Boudreault and Caron are both nursing leg injuries that kept them out of this contest.

As for Hooper, he acknowledged that the honor that comes with winning the World’s Strongest Man stays with him for life. He hopes that he can do more than simply hold a trophy by winning it. He wants to make a difference.

“I just hope I can follow in the footsteps of guys like Thor (Bjornson), Eddie (Hall), Martins (Licis), Brian (Shaw), and have a portion of the impact those guys had"

Everyone at Muscle Insider congratulates Mitchell Hooper for taking the World’s Strongest Man title to Canada for the first time.

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