The finals officially kicked off at the 2026 World’s Strongest Man on April 25th in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Ten of the best performers from the qualifying stage took on three events on the first day of finals, hoping to get involved in the title race as the competition nears its end. Rayno Nel got off to the best start, having taken the lead going into day two.
Rayno Nel made a huge step toward a title defense on day one, as he overtook Mitchell Hooper on the overall rankings at the end of day one. Nel had a perfect day, winning all three events and going 2.5 points clear at the top of the table going into the last day of the competition.
Mitchell Hooper placed second across all three events but remains hopeful for day two of the competition, considering that Rayno Nel has had some struggles with overhead pressing events in the past. Rayno has displayed great improvements already, but it still remains to be seen how well he can perform on the Log Lift.
2026 World’s Strongest Man Results — Finals Day One
- Rayno Nel — 39 points
- Mitchell Hooper — 36.5 points
- Eddie Williams — 24 points
- Mathew Ragg — 21.5 points
- Pavlo Kordiyaka — 20 points
- Martins Licis — 18 points
- Ondrej Fojtu — 18 points
- Trey Mitchell — 16 points
- Nick Guardione — 12.5 points
- Austin Andrade — 12.5 points (Withdrew)
Related: Luke Stoltman Withdraws From 2026 World’s and Europe’s Strongest Man After Breaking His Leg
Event One — Flip & Carry
The 2026 World’s Strongest Man finals kicked off with a two-part medley, which consisted of a 520-kilogram (1,146.4-pound) box flip and a 454-kilogram (1,000.9-pound) Yoke Carry. Athletes had to flip the box four times, while the Yoke carry distance was set to 20 meters. Both implements were exceptionally heavy, which emphasized the need for brute strength, speed, and endurance. It was a timed event, meaning that the athletes raced to cross the finish line first.
Mitchell Hooper was widely recognized as the unofficial ‘King of the Yoke’ due to his performances from previous years, but Rayno Nel proved to be a worthy challenger. The two performed the event side-by-side and locked in the quickest times by far. Moreover, it was unclear who won the event until the official times were announced. In the end, Nel managed to beat Hooper by 0.14 seconds, starting off his WSM finals appearance in the best way possible.
The battle for third place was also incredibly tight, as Pavlo Kordiyaka nad Eddie Williams finished within fractions of a second as well. The Ukrainian athlete prevailed, finishing with a time of 33.80 seconds and beating Eddie’s time of 34.74 seconds. The rest of the field was not far behind, showing just how incredibly stacked the lineup is this year.
- Rayno Nel — 27.30 seconds
- Mitchell Hooper — 27.44 seconds
- Pavlo Kordiyaka — 33.80 seconds
- Eddie Williams — 34.74 seconds
- Ondrej Fojtu — 36.13 seconds
- Mathew Ragg — 37.24 seconds
- Martins Licis — 39.31 seconds
- Trey Mitchell — 40.43 seconds
- Austin Andrade — 40.57 seconds
- Nick Guardione — 43.86 seconds
Event Two — Deadlift
The qualifiers featured the squat, but the finals presented the deadlift. Specifically, the athletes had a choice between two weights, 360 kilograms (793.7 pounds) and 400 kilograms (881.8 pounds). Whichever they chose, the goal was the same: to perform as many repetitions as possible. However, the event was a ‘weight trumps reps’ format, meaning that just one rep with the heavier deadlift ranked higher than any number of reps with the lighter one.
Rayno Nel continued his winning streak, taking 20 points across the first two events of the 2026 World’s Strongest Man finals. Nel beat some of the greatest deadlifters in the world, having achieved a total of five reps within 75 seconds. He moved very quickly from the start and stopped at five reps once he realized that it was enough to take the win.
Mitchell Hooper placed second once again, having locked out one rep less than Rayno. He then went on to perform another rep on the 360-kilogram (793.7-pound) bar, with which he tied Mathew Ragg for second place. The Canadian Strongman tried to achieve another rep with the lighter bar to beat Ragg but was unsuccessful in doing so.
- Rayno Nel — 5 reps with 400-kg
- Mitchell Hooper — 4 reps with 400-kg + 1 rep with 360-kg
- Mathew Ragg — 4 reps with 400-kg + 1 rep with 360-kg
- Eddie Williams — 3 reps with 400-kg + 1 rep with 360-kg
- Martins Licis — 3 reps with 400-kg
- Trey Mitchell — 3 reps with 400-kg
- Ondrej Fojtu — 2 reps with 400-kg + 1 rep with 360-kg
- Austin Andrade — 1 rep with 400-kg
- Nick Guardione — 1 rep with 400-kg
- Pavlo Kordiyaka — No Lift
Event Three — Titan’s Toss
The Titan’s Toss was a repeat event from last year’s WSM and was a very unique variation of the implement toss. Namely, the athletes tossed ten 14-kilogram (30.9-pound) implements over a 3.65-meter-high beam. While the height and weight remained the same, the distance of the throws started at 7 meters and increased up to 12 meters on the final toss. Moreover, if the athletes failed a toss, they couldn’t re-attempt it, meaning that technique, trajectory, and composure were absolutely crucial elements of the event.
Multiple athletes struggled as they got farther away from the beam, but that wasn’t the case with Rayno Nel. He completed the perfect day one at the 2026 WSM finals, missing just one implement toss out of ten. Even in his one miss, Rayno did not seem to lack any power, but the trajectory of his throw seemed to be off.
Mitchell Hooper placed second for the third time in a row, finishing behind Rayno Nel once again. He was one of two men who successfully tossed eight implements but did so in a time of 35.00 seconds. On the other hand, Nick Guardione broke through into the top three on the Titan’s Toss following two last place finishes earlier in the day. Nick was eight seconds slower than Hooper.
- Rayno Nel — 9 in 39.23 s
- Mitchell Hooper — 8 in 35.00 s
- Nick Guardione — 8 in 43.09 s
- Pavlo Kordiyaka — 6 in 21.78 s
- Mathew Ragg — 6 in 23.10 s
- Martins Licis — 6 in 26.78 s
- Trey Mitchell — 6 in 28.44 s
- Eddie Williams — 6 in 33.94 s
- Ondrej Fojtu — 3 in 17.84 s
- Austin Andrade — Withdrew
Related: 2026 Europe’s Strongest Man Results — Ondřej Fojtů Wins
Remaining WSM Schedule
Day Four — Sunday, April 26th
- 10:00 AM — Max Log
- 1:30 PM — Atlas Stones
- 2:45 PM — WSM Trophy Ceremony
Previous World’s Strongest Man Winners
- Bruce Wilhelm — 1977
- Bruce Wilhelm — 1978
- Don Reinhoudt — 1979
- Bill Kazmaier — 1980
- Bill Kazmaier — 1981
- Bill Kazmaier — 1982
- Geoff Capes — 1983
- Jon Pall Sigmarsson — 1984
- Geoff Capes — 1985
- Jon Pall Sigmarsson — 1986
- Not Held — 1987
- Jon Pall Sigmarsson — 1988
- Jamie Reeves — 1989
- Jon Pall Sigmarsson — 1990
- Magnus Ver Magnusson — 1991
- Ted van der Parre — 1992
- Gary Taylor — 1993
- Magnus Ver Magnusson — 1994
- Magnus Ver Magnusson — 1995
- Magnus Ver Magnusson — 1996
- Jouko Ahola — 1997
- Magnus Samuelsson — 1998
- Jouko Ahola — 1999
- Janne Virtanen — 2000
- Svend Karlsen — 2001
- Mariusz Pudzianowski — 2002
- Mariusz Pudzianowski — 2003
- Vasyl Virastyuk — 2004
- Mariusz Pudzianowski — 2005
- Phil Pfister — 2006
- Mariusz Pudzianowski — 2007
- Mariusz Pudzianowski — 2008
- Zydrunas Savickas — 2009
- Zydrunas Savickas — 2010
- Brian Shaw — 2011
- Zydrunas Savickas — 2012
- Brian Shaw — 2013
- Zydrunas Savickas — 2014
- Brian Shaw — 2015
- Brian Shaw — 2016
- Eddie Hall — 2017
- Hafthor Julius Bjornsson — 2018
- Martins Licis — 2019
- Oleksii Novikov — 2020
- Tom Stoltman — 2021
- Tom Stoltman — 2022
- Mitchell Hooper — 2023
- Tom Stoltman — 2024
- Rayno Nel — 2025
2026 WSM Related Content
- Mitchell Hooper Reclaims His Title at 2026 World’s Strongest Man
- 2026 World’s Strongest Man Results
- 2026 World’s Strongest Man Finals — Day Two Results
- 2026 World’s Strongest Man Results — Day Two Qualifiers
- 2026 World’s Strongest Man Results — Day One Qualifiers
- How to Watch 2026 World’s Strongest Man
- 2026 World’s Strongest Man Withdrawals
- 2026 World’s Strongest Man Finalists Revealed — Tom Stoltman Eliminated
Follow the 2026 World’s Strongest Man – event breakdowns, athlete interviews, full results, and all the latest news at our WSM hub: FitnessVolt.com/wsm
