The 2023 World’s Strongest Nation competition took place on November 18th, at the M&S Bank Arena in Liverpool, England. It was just the second edition of the unique shows, which proved to be quite a success last year. Well, this year’s edition was equally exciting, as Team USA and Team UK battled across multiple events to claim glory for their Nation. In the end, Team USA managed to get the win and the title of 2023 World’s Strongest Nation.
In 2022, Team UK outperformed Team USA, which evidently fueled their success this year. They managed to come back stronger and better, in turn dethroning Team UK under the captaincy of Martins Licis. So, despite the great roster that Team UK had, they could not match the incredible Strongmen and Strongwomen from the USA.
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The Rules
The collective results from one Team were compared to the collective results from the other Team. The team that had the better score in each of the events got three points, while the other team got zero.
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Each team had a goal of collecting as many points as possible before the final event, the Power Stairs. The goal was to get more points than the other team, as each point that the team was ahead would reward them with a 0.5-second head start. So, the purpose of the points was mainly to give the better team a head start on the Power Stairs. The team that won the Power Stairs would also win the entire competition.
Bonus Point: One bonus point was given to the Team whose athletes had the best individual performance in an event.
Joker Card: Each Team got the chance to play the Joker Card in just one of the events. When played, the team doubled their points. (Win = 6 points)
2023 World’s Strongest Nation Results
Event One — Team Sandbag Steeplechase
The first event of the 2023 World’s Strongest Nation tasked the athletes with carrying and loading heavy sandbags. The goal was to complete the course in the shortest time possible.
Once all of the times were summarized for both teams, Team USA turned out to be over half a minute quicker overall. Moreover, seeing how Evan Singleton was the best performer with a time of 17.56 seconds, he claimed another bonus point for Team USA.
It is also important to note that Inez Carrasquillo performed the event twice, because she filled in for Gabi Dixson.
Collective Team Results
- Team USA — 2:39.39 (+3 points)
- Team UK — 3:13.87
Individual Results
- Evan Singleton — 17.56 seconds (+1 point to Team USA)
- Gavin Bilton — 17.66 seconds
- Luke Stoltman — 18.00 seconds
- Tom Stoltman — 18.12 seconds
- Inez Carrasquillo — 18.19 seconds
- Inez Carrasquillo — 18.20 seconds
- Erin Murray — 19.59 seconds
- Rebecca Roberts — 19.99 seconds
- Kevin Faires — 20.44 seconds
- Spenser Remick — 21.39 seconds
- Rob Kearney — 21.39 seconds
- Nadia Stowers — 22.63 seconds
- Donna Moore — 24.43 seconds
- Mark Felix — 29.63 seconds
- Lucy Underdown — 32.47 seconds
- Andrea Thompson — 33.57 seconds
Event Two — Farmer’s Carry
Like the first event, the Farmer’s Carry tasked the athletes with completing the task in the shortest time possible. They had to pick up two heavy implements and carry them over the length of the course.
While the difference between the teams was not as drastic as in the first event, Team USA still managed to win. They ended up being nine seconds quicker overall, while Evan Singleton brought in another bonus point. He completed the event in just 18.19 seconds, nearly two seconds faster than the 2x WSM, Tom Stoltman.
Collective Team Results
- Team USA — 3:04.90 (+3 points)
- Team UK — 3:13.65
Individual Results
- Evan Singleton — 18.10 seconds (+1 point to Team USA)
- Tom Stoltman — 19.94 seconds
- Luke Stoltman — 20.11 seconds
- Kevin Faires — 20.36 seconds
- Rebecca Roberts — 20.87 seconds
- Martins Licis — 21.12 seconds
- Gabi Dixson — 21.48 seconds
- Inez Carrasquillo — 21.68 seconds
- Andrea Thompson — 21.87 seconds
- Spenser Remick — 23.26 seconds
- Erin Murray — 24.65 seconds
- Gavin Bilton — 25.17 seconds
- Lucy Underdown — 26.55 seconds
- Mark Felix — 26.61 seconds
- Donna Moore — 32.53 seconds
- Nadia Stowers — 34.25 seconds
Event Three — Head-to-Head Axle Deadlift
The third event of the 2023 World’s Strongest Nation contest switched up the format. So, instead of caring about the time, the athletes had to focus on doing as many reps as possible on the Axle Deadlift. Moreover, the teams had to choose just four athletes to send out for this event, as opposed to the previous events where all members participated.
Team UK finally got their moment of glory, as their five members completed 28 repetitions in total. On the other hand, Team USA’s tally came out to 23 repetitions. The biggest difference between the teams turned out to be Lucy Underdown, who completed 13 repetitions on her own. This did not come as a surprise, since she is the current World Record Holder. With this, Lucy brought in a bonus point for Team UK.
Collective Team Results
- Team UK — 28 reps (+3 points)
- Team USA — 23 reps
Individual Results
- Lucy Underdown — 13 reps (+1 point to Team USA)
- Gabi Dixson — 10 reps
- Andrea Thompson — 8 reps
- Nadia Stowers — 6 reps
- Gavin Bilton — 4 reps
- Rob Kearney — 4 reps
- Evan Singleton — 3 reps
- Tom Stoltman — 3 reps
Event Four — Head-to-Head Circus Dumbbell
After testing quickness, endurance, and other aspects of strength, the time came for athletes to display their upper body power on the Circus Dumbbell. In this event, the competitors had to overhead press a huge dumbbell with one arm for as many reps as possible. Each team picked out four athletes to perform the event once again.
Team USA got back to their winning ways, as nearly all of their members got one repetition more than their rivals from Team UK. So, Team USA took the win with 22 repetitions in total. Evan Singleton locked out seven reps on his own and got his team a bonus point.
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As if that wasn’t enough, Martins Licis, the captain of Team USA, decided to play the Joker Card. So, seeing how his team won the event, their points were doubled. Their win was worth six points, with another additional point from Singleton.
Collective Team Results
- Team USA — 22 reps (+6 points / Joker Card)
- Team UK — 19 reps
Individual Results
- Evan Singleton — 7 reps (+1 point to Team USA)
- Andrea Thompson — 6 reps
- Rob Kearney — 6 reps
- Luke Stoltman — 6 reps
- Inez Carrasquillo — 5 resp
- Donna Moore — 4 reps
- Nadia Stowers — 4 reps
- Gavin Bilton — 3 reps
Event Five — Wrecking Ball Hold
The grip strength endurance was once again tested at the 2023 World’s Strongest Nation competition in the Wrecking Ball Hold Event. The contestants were basically tasked with standing upright while narrowly holding a metal beam to which a Wrecking Ball was attached. The goal was to hold on for as long as possible. That is, the team with the longest cumulative times would take the win.
Team UK managed to claim some more points and get closer to their rivals after the Wrecking Ball Hold. Their final total time came out to 4:23.30, which was over 20 seconds longer than what Team USA put up.
While Team UK did take 3 points for the event win, Kevin Faires still managed to get a point for Team USA. He was the greatest individual performer, having held the Wrecking Ball for nearly two minutes.
Collective Team Results
- Team UK — 4:23.30 (+3 points)
- Team USA — 4:01.84
Individual Results
- Kevin Faires — 113.00 seconds (+1 point to Team USA)
- Mark Felix — 97.38 seconds
- Evan Singleton — 75.99 seconds
- Gavin Bilton — 62.02 seconds
- Rebecca Roberts — 57.47 seconds
- Lucy Underdown — 46.43 seconds
- Nadia Stowers — 46.10 seconds
- Gabi Dixson — 6.84 seconds
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Event Six — Tug-of-War
The final event where the Teams could get some valuable points before the Power Stairs was the Tug-of-War. So, the Teams grabbed the opposite ends of a rope and pulled, making this one of the most basic events possible.
Team UK won all three rounds of the Tug-of-War, which meant that they walked away with the points. No bonus points were handed out since there were no individual performances.
However, Eddie Hall, Team UK’s captain, used his Joker Card on this event, meaning their win was worth six points instead of the usual three.
Collective Results
- Team UK — 3 round wins (+6 points / Joker Card)
- Team USA — 0 round wins
Final & Deciding Event — Team Power Stairs
The Power Stairs were the final event of the competition, and they tasked the athletes with lifting heavy implements up a flight of stairs. The team that completed the sequence faster was crowned the 2023 World’s Strongest Nation.
Going into the final event, Team USA (16) had three points more than Team UK (13). So, Team USA got a 1.5 second head start on the Power Stairs. It might not seem like a lot, but the head start was very valuable. Team USA managed to hold on to that lead throughout the race and ended up winning the 2023 World’s Strongest Nation.
No official times were revealed for either of the Teams.
- Team USA Wins
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Team USA had an incredible performance in the opening events of the 2023 World’s Strongest Nation, making it seem like they would come into the power stairs with a massive head start. However, Team UK did manage to make the show a bit more intense by catching up and cutting the difference to just three points. This made for an interesting final event and a great competition overall.
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