Rayno Nel became the Strongman’s newest superstar after winning the 2025 World’s Strongest Man on his debut. He became the first WSM champion from Africa and only the fourth person to win the competition on his first attempt. So, Rayno sat down for an exclusive interview with Fitness Volt and talked about all aspects of his professional career.
Rayno Nel’s Exclusive Interview
Impact of winning World’s Strongest Man on Everyday Life
Rayno Nel opened up by explaining how much his life has changed ever since he won the 2025 World’s Strongest Man competition. He has also had a reception back in his home country, which meant a lot to him as well.
“My life has been completely thrown around. I think just my normal day-to-day life, there is nothing similar to before. So, it has completely changed my life. Being recognized wherever I go, especially in South Africa. Went to the stadium on Saturday to the rugby quarter-final… It was just amazing how people accepted me. It really changed my life.”
Related: 2024 Strongman Champions League Africa Results — Rayno Nel Victorious
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Rugby Background
Rayno Nel was doing rugby throughout a large part of his life, which definitely explains where he got the incredible power and speed from. However, he had to make a decision to leave rugby and pursue his job.
“I’ve been very privileged to play provincial rugby and play as a captain of my university. In 2018, I had a really bad knee injury on the rugby field. It is the same year that I got my degree. So, I started working. The university asked me if I can come back for one more season, and I thought to myself that it was a good way to get my knee in shape…
After that, it was just a life decision for me… I decided to just focus on work because at that moment it was a better life decision. I was kind of forced to go for the working side of it. It was almost four years of just doing my job when I decided that I wanted to do Strongman.”
Overcoming Severe Knee Injury
During his rugby days, Rayno Nel suffered a severe knee injury on the field. Luckily, that does not affect him much when it comes to his power output and Strongman performance. So, Rayno is still able to perform to the best of his abilities without limitations.
“It was an ACL, MCL, Patella tendon, meniscus — it was a really bad injury.”
“It is not that it takes away from my strength in particular, but recovery is tough. So, if there is a competition with a heavy Yoke in, I suffer the rest of the competition a bit.
I know a lot of people in Strongman want the squat back in a competition, but for me, I like the fact that there is no squat at the moment. But, if it comes up in a competition in the future, we will just work around it.”
Balancing Strongman & Full-Time Engineering Job
It might come as a surprise to some, but Rayno Nel is actually still a part-time Strongman. He spends his day working as an engineer and trains later in the evening and on Saturdays. Going forward, Rayno plans on taking a slightly different approach but still intends to continue to work.
“Training for the World’s Strongest Man was out of office hours. I was training in the evenings from 6:00 up until 9:00 and on Saturdays. But, I’ll try my best now to be more professional. I can’t just go for Strongman full out… I also love what I am doing, I don’t want to give it up. It is also a big passion for me.”
What Inspired Rayno Nel to do Strongman?
The main reason why Rayno Nel decided to start doing Strongman was actually because he wanted to be competitive once again. Strongman turned out to be the best option for him and was clearly the correct choice considering how his career has been going so far.
However, Rayno was introduced to Strongman at a very young age, as he had the opportunity to watch Gerrit Badenhorst. For reference, Gerrit is another legendary South African Strongman, having finished in second place at the 1995 WSM.
“Interesting story. I come from a very small town in South Africa… and Gerrit Badenhorst used to come to our town once a year and do a Strongman demo. So, that is where I got to know the sport…
I look at all of these guys, like Zydrunas Savickas, Brian Shaw, even Mitch (Hooper) and Tom (Stoltman), who I compete against now… If there is a new competition coming up and I have to do the events, I’ll go back and watch them, see what they do, and take what I like about their technique.”
Rayno Nel’s Future in Strongman
If everything goes well, Rayno Nel plans to continue doing Strongman for a number of years. He has goals of winning multiple World’s Strongest Man titles but also securing victories at other big competitions as well.
“Winning World’s Strongest Man was my long-term goal. So, now everything has changed for me. Of course, I want to win all other big competitions as well. If I am blessed enough, I would like to win more times at the World’s Strongest Man. So, I’ll take it one competition at a time.
I think I’ll do it for at least 5-6 years, unless injuries or something in my life comes up that needs more attention.
The Moment When Rayno Nel Realized That He Can Win 2025 WSM
Even after winning his group in the qualifying stage of the World’s Strongest Man, Rayno Nel was still only hoping to land a podium finish. However, following his incredible performance on the first day of the finals, Rayno realized that there was a legitimate chance that he could win the competition.
“I came into the finals with the third-best points… ‘If I can get third place, it would be amazing.’ And it was only after the Max Deadlift where I thought, ‘Okay, maybe we can start fighting for second place.’
As the Hercules Hold ended that evening, before the final day, that is the only time I realized that ‘With a seven-point lead, I am actually in this.”
Plans for 2025 Season
Rayno Nel has a very busy season ahead of him, since he has accepted multiple invites already. He confirmed his participation in two upcoming Strongman Champions League shows but did not reveal the names of other competitions since the organizers have not announced them yet. However, it is safe to say that the entire Strongman community would love to see him at the 2025 Strongest Man on Earth and the 2025 Rogue Invitational.
“I did confirm two competition invites that I accepted, which haven’t been announced yet by the organizers. People can probably guess what those are. Then, this week I’m in Italy at the Strongman Champions League, and next weekend I am in the Netherlands at the Strongman Champions League.”
Related: 2024 Strongman Champions League Holland Results — Rayno Nel Victorious in His Debut
Rayno Nel has taken part in seven international competitions so far and won six of them. So, he holds quite an impressive win percentage, which he hopes to add to in the coming months. Rayno will only continue to get better with time, which makes him the most exciting figure on the professional Strongman scene.
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