The 2025 Iceland’s Strongest Man took place on August 8-9, gathering the nation’s strongest athletes but also some notable Strongmen from other countries. So, the competition proved to be one of the most thrilling editions in recent years, featuring a number of incredible feats of strength over the course of two days. Ultimately, Hafthor Bjornsson was crowned the winner for the 12th time in his career.
Hafthor Bjornsson won four out of eight events at the 2025 Iceland’s Strongest Man competition, with the majority of them coming on the second day of the competition. In fact, Paddy Haynes was the overall leader at the end of day one, but Hafthor achieved an impressive comeback in the second half of the competition.
2025 Iceland’s Strongest Man Results
- Hafthor Björnsson — 49 points
- Paddy Haynes — 44.5 points
- Evans Aryee — 39 points
- Vilius Jokužys — 36 points
- Hilmar Örn Jónsson — 28 points
- Kári Kristófer Elíasson — 16.5 points
- Thorlákur Gunnarsson — 10 points
Event One — Húsafell Stone
The first event of the 2025 Iceland’s Strongest Man was actually the Husafell Stone carry. The stone is located in Iceland but has been recognized as one of the most iconic and demanding tests of strength across the globe. It weighs 186 kilograms (410 pounds) and in this instance, it had to be carried for the max distance.
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Paddy Haynes set a new Husafell Stone Carry World Record to take the win on event one of the competition. He picked up the stone and kicked off the event with an impressive pace. After completing multiple laps, Paddy started slowing down but still managed to hold on to the stone for an additional couple of meters. His final score came out to 109.95 meters.
Vilius Jokužys grabbed second place with a distance of 92.3 meters, finishing ahead of some amazing athletes. Most notably, Vilius beat Hafthor Bjornsson, who had to settle for a third-place finish in the opening event of the competition.
- Paddy Haynes — 109.95 meters
- Vilius Jokužys — 92.3 meters
- Hafthor Björnsson — 90.3 meters
- Hilmar Örn Jónsson — 65.3 meters
- Evans Aryee — 50.5 meters
- Kári Kristófer Elíasson — (Unknown)
- Thorlákur Gunnarsson — 36 meters
Event Two — Max Log Lift
Moving on to the second event of the 2025 Iceland’s Strongest Man, the athletes had to complete a test of upper body strength. Specifically, each athlete made multiple attempts in order to establish their one-rep max on the Log Lift. The one who managed to lift the heaviest log walked away with the maximum amount of points.
Hafthor Bjornsson’s overhead pressing power had been his weak point ever since he came out of retirement, largely due to his pec tear while competing in powerlifting. Well, he went to great lengths in order to recover and it has finally paid off. He achieved a lift of 175 kilograms (385.8 pounds), which turned out to be enough for an event win.
Evans Aryee put up a good fight but found his limit to be 170 kilograms (374.8 pounds). So, he finished in second place just behind Hafthor. Haynes and Jonsson tied for third place in the event with a log lift of 160 kilograms (352.7 pounds).
- Hafthor Björnsson — 175 kilograms
- Evans Aryee — 170 kilograms
- Paddy Haynes — 160 kilograms
- Hilmar Örn Jónsson — 160 kilograms
- Vilius Jokužys — 155 kilograms
- Kári Kristófer Elíasson — 145 kilograms
- Thorlákur Gunnarsson — 130 kilograms
Event Three — Medley
The third event posed a unique challenge to the athletes and put them through multiple movements. It started off with a 400-kg (881.8-lb) Yoke Carry for 20 meters, followed by a 100-kg (220.5-lb) Sandbag Carry for 15 meters. The athletes then had to carry a 110-kg (242.5-lb) Sandbag for 10 meters and wrapped up with an even heavier 120-kg (264.6-lb) bag carry for 5 meters. Being a timed event, the athletes rushed to cross the finish line quicker than their rivals.
Vilius Jokužys proved to possess multiple valuable skills, including speed and agility, all while carrying massive weights on his shoulders and in his arms. So, his time of 35.54 seconds turned out to be the quickest out of everyone, giving him the first event win of the weekend.
Paddy Haynes is known for his speed, which often helps him compensate for being one of the lighter professional Strongman athletes. So, he picked up important points with a second-place finish and a time of 38.97 seconds. Evans Aryee was not far behind, crossing the finish line less than one second after Haynes.
- Vilius Jokužys — 35.54 seconds
- Paddy Haynes — 38.97 seconds
- Evans Aryee — 39.90 seconds
- Hafthor Björnsson — 42.82 seconds
- Hilmar Örn Jónsson — 76.00 seconds
- Kári Kristófer Elíasson — (Unknown)
- Thorlákur Gunnarsson — 12.62 meters
Event Four — Deadlift
The final event of day one was the Deadlift. The barbell was loaded up to 320 kilograms (705.5 pounds), giving the athletes the task of completing as many repetitions as possible. They were allowed to use a deadlift suit and lifting straps to complete the event.
Paddy Haynes was the last man to perform the event, which gave him the insight into the result that he needed to achieve in order to take the event win. So, he pushed himself to 11 repetitions, securing the max points and finishing day one as the overall leader.
Hafthor Bjornsson achieved ten repetitions and finished in second place, which might come as a surprise to many. However, he made the reps look easy and was definitely capable of more but stopped himself once he locked out the 10th rep. That might be because Hafthor believed it was enough to take the win or because he was making sure not to overwork himself just weeks before his 510-kilogram (1,124.4-pound) Deadlift World Record attempt.
- Paddy Haynes — 11 reps
- Hafthor Björnsson — 10 reps
- Evans Aryee — 8 reps
- Hilmar Örn Jónsson — 6 reps
- Vilius Jokužys — 3 reps
- Thorlákur Gunnarsson — 3 reps
- Kári Kristófer Elíasson — 2 reps
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Event Five — Weight Over Bar
With a new day at the 2025 Iceland’s Strongest Man also came new events. One of those was the Weight Over Bar, which, in simplest terms, was the sandbag toss for max weight. So, the bar was set to a height of 4.5 meters, while the weight of the sandbag increased with each new round. As the bag got heavier, athletes started failing, meaning that the winner of the event was the last man standing.
The throwing events have been Hafthor Bjornsson’s strong point throughout his entire career, making him the clear favorite to take the event win. The winning weight came out to 36 kilograms (79.4 pounds), which was an undemanding task for Hafthor, who clearly could have pushed himself much further if he needed to.
Paddy Haynes did not lose a lot of points, having placed just behind Hafthor with a 32-kilogram (70.5-pound) toss. However, Hilmar Örn Jónsson achieved the same weight and thus shared second place with Haynes.
- Hafthor Björnsson — 36 kilograms
- Paddy Haynes — 32 kilograms
- Hilmar Örn Jónsson — 32 kilograms
- Evans Aryee — 28 kilograms
- Vilius Jokužys — 28 kilograms
- Thorlákur Gunnarsson — 24 kilograms
- Kári Kristófer Elíasson — 24 kilograms
Event Six — Farmer’s Walk
The sixth event of the 2025 Iceland’s Strongest Man was the Farmer’s Walk. Although it is mainly a test of speed, the Farmer’s Walk relies a lot on grip strength, since athletes had to hold 160-kilogram (352.7-pound) implements in their hands while crossing the competition floor.
Evans Aryee seemed to struggle once he picked up the implements, losing his balance but still managing not to drop the weight. However, he kept picking up speed with each step that he took and ended up reaching a distance of 39.08 meters. This ended up being enough for Evans to take the event win.
Hafthor Bjornsson took a slow and steady approach to the event, utilizing his height and long steps to the fullest. He dropped the implements at a mark of 33.3 meters, which secured him a second-place finish. Most importantly, this performance allowed Hafthor to catch up to Paddy Haynes.
- Evans Aryee — 39.08 meters
- Hafthor Björnsson — 33.3 meters
- Vilius Jokužys — 26.6 meters
- Paddy Haynes — 22.4 meters
- Kári Kristófer Elíasson — 14.7 meters
- Thorlákur Gunnarsson — 13.98 meters
- Hilmar Örn Jónsson — 4.5 meters
Event Seven — Dumbbell Press
The penultimate event of the 2025 Iceland’s Strongest Man was the Dumbbell Press. So, the athletes had to use one arm to overhead press a 90-kilogram (198.4-pound) dumbbell for as many repetitions as possible. The event also had a time limit, not allowing athletes to take practically any rest between the reps if they wanted to go for the win.
Despite being the seventh event of the competition, Hafthor Bjornsson was determined to demonstrate his overhead pressing power once again, locking out 8 repetitions to take the event win. All eight of Hafthor’s reps looked very smooth, but he had to stop his performance because the time ran out.
Vilius Jokužys showcased impressive technique on the Dumbbell Press, locking out seven repetitions for a second-place finish. Aryee and Paddy Haynes rounded up the top three with six reps each.
- Hafthor Björnsson — 8 reps
- Vilius Jokužys — 7 reps
- Paddy Haynes — 6 reps
- Evans Aryee — 6 reps
- Kári Kristófer Elíasson — 4 reps
- Hilmar Örn Jónsson — 2 reps
- Thorlákur Gunnarsson — No Lift
Event Eight — Atlas Stones
The last event of the 2025 Iceland’s Strongest Man was the Atlas Stones. It consisted of five stones, starting at 130 kilograms (286.6 pounds) and finishing with a huge 190-kilogram (418.9-pound) boulder. The height of the platform was set to an identical height for each stone. So, the only goal was to lift all five stones in the shortest time possible.
Hafthor Bjornsson, also known as the “King of the Stones”, has won the Atlas Stones events across multiple major competitions throughout his career. He came out on top once again, completing the event in just 15.95 seconds. With an additional seven points added to his tally, Hafthor was officially crowned the 2025 Iceland’s Strongest Man.
As Paddy Haynes revealed on the first day of the competition, he felt confident going into Atlas Stones since it was his favorite event. Moreover, after setting a time of 20.52 seconds, he felt that it could be competitive. However, it turned out to be enough for a second-place finish, since Hafthor beat him by five seconds.
- Hafthor Björnsson — 5 in 15.95 seconds
- Paddy Haynes — 5 in 20.52 seconds
- Evans Aryee — 5 in 35.35 seconds
- Hilmar Örn Jónsson — 5 in 45.02 seconds
- Vilius Jokužys — 4 in 23.11 seconds
- Kári Kristófer Elíasson — 3 in 19.20 seconds
- Thorlákur Gunnarsson — 2 in 12.98 seconds
Related: Hafthor Bjornsson Narrowly Avoids Injury After Dropping Over 200-kg (440.9-lb) on His Back
Hafthor Bjornsson’s 12th Iceland’s Strongest Man title solidifies him as one of the greatest Strongmen to ever live. He has also won 30 international competitions, including World’s Strongest Man, Arnold Strongman Classic, Europe’s Strongest Man, and many more. Still, Hafthor’s greatest achievement is arguably his recent 505-kilogram (1,113.3-pound) Deadlift World Record, which he intends to break in the near future.
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