Rayno Nel has been extremely active in the past month, displaying incredible performances in a number of competitions. So, many hoped to watch his journey continue at the 2025 Strongest Man On Earth, on August 16-17 in Loveland, Colorado. Unfortunately, that won’t be the case, as Rayno has withdrawn from the competition due to a busy schedule.
Rayno Nel informed Brian Shaw that he won’t be able to make it to this year’s Strongest Man On Earth, which prompted Shaw to invite him for an interview on his YouTube channel. By doing this, Brian allowed Rayno to express his reasons to the public, maintaining full transparency with everything that is involved with the competition.
Rayno Nel revealed that his schedule for the upcoming few months is packed with work and Strongman. As a result, Nel fears that he would not be able to prepare properly for the 2025 Strongest Man On Earth. So, he would rather miss the entire competition and come back next year ready to contend for the title. Brian also supported Rayno in his decision, acknowledging that Rayno has priorities to take care of.
“I got to the realization that Strongest Man On Earth is a very demanding competition. I mean, I think building up to World’s Strongest Man, which is, in many aspects, a lot lighter events, already a lot of things had to be on hold for me.
I came to the realization that if I were to be at my best at Strongest Man On Earth this year, I would not get around to everything that I should do. The reality is, I’m a director at an engineering firm; I’m a partner. We are three partners in our own engineering firm. So, with some big projects that are happening at the moment, and it’s just at the moment I need to look at how I can balance everything and not give up a lot of hard work over the past seven or eight years of my career to do the competition and maybe have some projects slip through my fingers.
So it’s a balancing act. And then also on the other part is, I know that Strongest Man On Earth is demanding in terms of the weights, so I don’t want to be going through the competition not being ready. Let’s say a Giants Live or a Strongman Champions League, I think in some aspects, World’s Strongest Man as well, going there, the risk of injury isn’t as bad if you’re not 100% prepped for a competition, and I mean, that’s the reality of it.
It (SMOE) is not a competition that I want to run away from. It is something that I really want to prep for in the future and go there to compete.
Rayno Nel has been doing Strongman for just a few years but quickly made a name for himself. He started off by winning multiple stages of the 2024 Strongman Champions League, which ultimately led him to the title at the SCL World Finals in Turkey. Nel followed it up by becoming 2024 Africa’s Strongest Man just days later. Having achieved that much in a very short time period, he also managed to secure an invite for the 2025 World’s Strongest Man.
Rayno Nel’s experience at the 2025 WSM was nothing short of spectacular. He started off by winning his qualifying group, which was stacked with athletes like Mateusz Kieliszkwoski, Lucas Hatton, and Shane Flowers. He then made his way to the finals to compete against the likes of Mitchell Hooper and Tom Stoltman. It only got better from there, as Nel quickly took the lead and kept extending it with every event that came on day one. His second day at the 2025 WSM Finals was a bit more turbulent, but Rayno still managed to pull off a spectacular win, becoming the first man in over 20 years to come out victorious on his debut.
In the weeks that followed, Rayno Nel took part in the 2025 Strongman Champions League Italy and Holland competitions, taking the win in both. So, as things stand, Rayno Nel has taken part in nine international competitions so far and won eight of them.
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Although Rayno Nel’s absence at the 2025 Strongest Man On Earth will definitely be significant, his devotion to balancing his engineering job and Strongman is truly commendable. Rayno has expressed his desire to compete at the Strongest Man On Earth in future years, and there is no doubt that he will make sure to come in prepared, ready to battle for the title.
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