The Strongman Champions League is a Strongman competition circuit, with several Grand Prix events throughout the year and the Strongman Champions League overall champion title going to the overall winner at the end of the season. Competitors include icons in the sport, including Žydrūnas Savickas, Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson, Aivars Šmaukstelis, Krzysztof Radzikowski, Ervin Katona, Matjaz Belsak, Mateusz Kieliszkowski, Dainis Zageris, Oleksii Novikov, Mikhail Koklyaev, J.F. Caron, Rayno Nel, Vytautas Lalas, Kelvin de Ruiter, Laurence Shahlaei, Travis Ortmayer, Andrus Murumets, Pavlo Kordiyaka, Rauno Heinla, Martin Wildauer, Tom Stoltman, Terry Hollands, Eddie Hall, Nick Best, Dennis Kohlruss and Rayno Nel.
Initially in close partnership with IFSA, it quickly asserted its independence and has acted as a unifying force in the world of strength athletics, bringing together athletes from IFSA with those affiliated to the World's Strongest Man circuit, and having close cooperation with other major events such as Fortissimus. In 2012, SCL began co-promoting the new Arnold Strongman Classic-Europe contest which will become part of the annual SCL season of events.
History
The Strongman Champions League was developed by Ilkka Kinnunen and Marcel Mostert, longtime strongman promoters, with major contests to their credit worldwide, and was launched in 2008. Kinnunen & Mostert described SCL as "a new episode in strongman".
"A complete series of 10–12 competitions, that will take place all over the world, but most of the competitions will be held in Europe. The very best champions, referees and their organizers will be the guarantee of a great new, fresh excitement in Strongman sport. The competition venues are the best which each country can offer and it will include the country's own traditional elements." As well as citing that all points will be accumulated for a Champions League Winner at the end of the year, it was stated in the main structure of the Champions League that rules will be done officially as usual in all IFSA competitions and that the top 3 will be directly placed in the IFSA World Championships. Mostert also said "All together we think that this is a perfect platform of competitions that will lead to another great World Championship."
Thus, IFSA were inextricably linked at the inception of the league. IFSA, however, were in reportedly dire financial straits towards the end of that year. By December, Mostert distanced the league from the ailing governing body and explicitly said that the "Strongman Champions League had nothing to do with IFSA". He told IronMind "We have our own logo, we have our own brand, we do our own competitions." Its own website was launched shortly afterwards.
The league organizers had originally reported that the Champions League competitions will be televised and spread all over the world. In the harsh economic climate of 2008, the league was not immune to the effects, and the league did have to cancel some venues, but unlike with the IFSA, the vast majority of the competitions still took place. In 2008, the SCL had 45 top strength athletes competing, representing more than 20 countries.
Fortissimus Cooperation In 2008, Paul Ohl stated that the Strongman Champions League was one of three organizations that had made an agreement with Fortissimus in order to unite the world strength community, the others being the American Strongman Corporation and the Aussiepower organization. Within the agreement, Fortissimus, the competition that confers the title of "Strongest Man on the Planet", guaranteed that the winner of the America's Strongest Man title would be granted a slot in Fortissimus from 2009, as would the winner of the Australia's Strongest Man title. The agreement with the Strongman Champions League went further, stating that the top three athletes would have guaranteed places and in return, the top Canadian athletes would have guaranteed selected participation in the Champions League. This later went further, guaranteeing the SCL its top five athletes would have places. The agreement was reemphasised in a joint statement from Marcel Mostert and Paul Ohl in early 2009.
2009 and links with World's Strongest Man
The 2009 programme was planned with ten major contests on schedule. In addition, feeder contests were introduced, one happening in Spain in December 2008 and a further event in Germany called the FIBO Strongman Classic in April 2009. The best two athletes from this FIBO Classic 2009 edition were guaranteed into the Champions League, and it was postulated that this German event would be promoted to full SCL status in 2010.
The Strongman Champions League importantly made further progress in acting as a fundamental part of a unifying movement for world strength athletics by making plans to help get its athletes to the 2009 World's Strongest Man contest. Mostert stated that "The top 5 SCL athletes will have places in the Giants Live tour for qualifying at World's Strongest Man (WSM) 2009". In addition, he also stated that wild cards for the WSM will include SCL athletes. He went on to say that "Finally we made it all possible again that all the athletes have chances to qualify for the WSM, which means in my opinion the WSM will have the strongest field ever in her history!". He went on to thank TWI/IMG and Giants Live for their part in making these possibilities. This was groundbreaking because for a number of years prior to this, the athletes under the IFSA had been banned by the federation from entering WSM (since the IFSA fell out of favour with TWI). Likewise, the athletes invited to participate in WSM were not invited to participate in IFSA events. Some competitions bridged the divide, such as the Arnold Strongman Classic and more recently Fortissimus, but neither had the history, gravitas, or popular appeal of the World's Strongest Man. The IFSA athletes, with the demise of the IFSA finances, almost all competed in SCL from 2008. This deal, along with the Fortissimus deal before it, united strongman in a way it had not been since 2004.
The 2009 season began properly on 9 May, with the Strongman Champions League Serbia. Finland followed on 16 May, with Slovakia and the Netherlands in June.
Results
+ List of SCL Season Champions Year Athlete Nationality2008 Žydrūnas Savickas 2009 Andrus Murumets 2010 Terry Hollands 2011 Ervin Katona 2012 Žydrūnas Savickas 2013 Krzysztof Radzikowski 2014 Martin Wildauer 2015 Krzysztof Radzikowski 2016 Dainis Zageris 2017 Matjaz Belsak 2018 Dainis Zageris 2019 Aivars Šmaukstelis 2021 Kelvin de Ruiter 2022 Aivars Šmaukstelis 2023 Oskar Ziółkowski 2024 Rayno Nel 2025Rayno Nel + Top 10 List of Most Individual Event Wins Athlete Nationality Wins Žydrūnas Savickas 34 Aivars Šmaukstelis 17 Krzysztof Radzikowski 16 Dainis Zageris 15 Ervin Katona 13 Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson 9 Matjaz Belsak 8 Kelvin de Ruiter 7 Mikhail Koklyaev 7 Rayno Nel 6
2008 Name and Location Champion Runner-Up Runner-Up Date Riga, Latvia Žydrūnas Savickas Travis Ortmayer Agris Kazelniks 22 March 2008 Subotica, Serbia Žydrūnas Savickas (2) Ervin Katona Andrus Murumets 10 May 2008 Varsseveld, Netherlands Žydrūnas Savickas (3) Andrus Murumets Travis Ortmayer 1 June 2008 Sofia, Bulgaria Andrus Murumets Žydrūnas Savickas Ervin Katona 21 June 2008 Vilnius, Lithuania Žydrūnas Savickas (4) Vidas Blekaitis Saulius Brusokas 2 August 2008 Constanța, Romania Žydrūnas Savickas (5) Ervin Katona Oleksandr Lashyn 16 August 2008 Kokkola, Finland Mikhail Koklyaev Žydrūnas Savickas Ervin Katona 29 August 2008 Žydrūnas Savickas 130 points Ervin Katona 72 points Agris Kazelniks 60 points
2009 Name and Location Champion Runner-Up Runner-Up Date Subotica, Serbia Mikhail Koklyaev (2) Andrus Murumets Travis Ortmayer 9 May 2009 Ideapark, Finland Andrus Murumets (2) Vidas Blekaitis Martin Wildauer 16–17 May 2009 Bratislava, Slovakia Andrus Murumets (3) Terry Hollands Alexander Klyushev 7 June 2009 Terborg, Netherlands Mikhail Koklyaev (3) Agris Kazelniks Richard van der Linden 14 June 2009 Los Barrios, Spain Ervin Katona Andrus Murumets Jimmy Laureys 10 October 2009 London, England Žydrūnas Savickas (6) Mark Felix Andrus Murumets 18 October 2009 Pécs, Hungary Žydrūnas Savickas (7) Andrus Murumets Ervin Katona 29 October 2009 Kyiv, Ukraine Žydrūnas Savickas (8) Travis Ortmayer Agris Kazelniks 14 November 2009 Andrus Murumets 105 points Agris Kazelniks 68 points Žydrūnas Savickas 60 points
2009 Qualifiers The Strongman Champions League introduced qualifying competitions for 2009. From these competitions, the top two were guaranteed places in the SCL. The first qualifier was held in Los Barrios, Spain. The second was the FIBO Classic in Germany.
Name and Location Champion Runner-Up Runner-Up Date Los Barrios, Spain Jarno Hams Ervin Katona Steve MacDonald December 2008 Travis Ortmayer Martin Wildauer Igor Werner April 2009
2010 Name and Location Champion Runner-Up Runner-Up Date Kuusamo, Lapland Žydrūnas Savickas (9) Terry Hollands Konstiantyn Ilin 21 March 2010 Essen, Germany Mikhail Koklyaev (4) Terry Hollands Travis Ortmayer 24 April 2010 Ideapark, Finland Mikhail Koklyaev (5) Terry Hollands Travis Ortmayer 16 May 2010 Limerick, Ireland Žydrūnas Savickas (10)/ Terry Hollands tie Agris Kazelniks 6 June 2010 Sofia, Bulgaria Ervin Katona (2) Johannes Arsjo Terry Hollands 13 June 2010 Ulft, Netherlands Travis Ortmayer Mikhail Koklyaev Ervin Katona 20 June 2010 Belgrade, Serbia Ervin Katona (3) Agris Kazelniks Gabor Fargacs 29 August 2010 Bratislava, Slovakia Ervin Katona (4) Terry Hollands Konstiantyn Ilin 9 October 2010 Kyiv, Ukraine Serhiy Romanchuk Agris Kazelniks Mikhail Koklyaev 18 December 2010 Terry Hollands 132 points Ervin Katona 106 points Mikhail Koklyaev 98 points
2011 Name and Location Champion Runner-Up Runner-Up Date Kuusamo, Lapland Žydrūnas Savickas (11) Johannes Arsjo Ervin Katona 19 March 2011 Essen, Germany Žydrūnas Savickas (12) Terry Hollands Martin Wildauer 16 April 2011 Novi Sad, Serbia Ervin Katona (5) Johannes Arsjo Jimmy Laureys 21 May 2011 Pretoria, South Africa Laurence Shahlaei Etienne Smit Warrick Brant 8 June 2011 Tampere, Finland Vytautas Lalas Laurence Shahlaei Ervin Katona 12 June 2011 Tolkamer, Netherlands Laurence Shahlaei (2) Ervin Katona Jimmy Laureys 18 June 2011 Ervin Katona (6) Vytautas Lalas Rob Frampton 25 June 2011 Gran Canaria, Spain Ervin Katona (7) Tomi Lotta Jarno Hams 3 September 2011 Košice, Slovakia Konstiantyn Ilin Branislav Golier Tomi Lotta 10 September 2011 New Brunswick, Canada Žydrūnas Savickas (13) Jean-François Caron Laurence Shahlaei 30 September – 2 October 2011 Riga, Latvia Žydrūnas Savickas (14) Jean-François Caron Agris Kazelniks 18–19 November 2011 Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina Žydrūnas Savickas (15) Jean-François Caron Ervin Katona 7 February 2012 Ervin Katona 201 points Žydrūnas Savickas 176 points Laurence Shahlaei 106 points
2012