Top 10 Rising Stars (2023-2025)
Breakout athletes with the most podium finishes since 2023.
Top 10 Rising Stars (2023-2025) is topped by Mitchell Hooper with 24 podiums (since 2023).
Every era of strongman produces a new wave of athletes who announce themselves on the professional stage with performances that signal a changing of the guard. The rising stars of today's strongman scene are athletes who have achieved remarkable results in recent seasons, stacking podium finishes at a pace that puts them on a trajectory toward the sport's biggest titles.
These breakout competitors bring fresh energy, new training approaches, and the hunger of athletes still climbing toward their peak. Their rapid accumulation of top finishes since 2023 marks them as the athletes most likely to define the next chapter of professional strongman.
| # | Athlete | Country | Result | Details |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mitchell Hooper |
Canada
|
24 podiums (since 2023) | 17 wins, 26 contests |
| 2 | Evans Nana Aryee |
Ghana
|
21 podiums (since 2023) | 3 wins, 51 contests |
| 3 | Robert Cyrwus |
Poland
|
20 podiums (since 2023) | 12 wins, 23 contests |
| 4 | Audrius Jokūbaitis |
Lithuania
|
19 podiums (since 2023) | 4 wins, 29 contests |
| 5 | Aivars Šmaukstelis |
Latvia
|
17 podiums (since 2023) | 8 wins, 29 contests |
| 6 | Oleh Pylypiak |
Ukraine
|
16 podiums (since 2023) | 3 wins, 26 contests |
| 7 | Adam Roszkowski |
Poland
|
15 podiums (since 2023) | 5 wins, 27 contests |
| 8 | Tom Stoltman |
United Kingdom
|
15 podiums (since 2023) | 4 wins, 24 contests |
| 9 | Marek Czajkowski |
Poland
|
14 podiums (since 2023) | 10 wins, 15 contests |
| 10 | David Shamey |
Russia
|
13 podiums (since 2023) | 7 wins, 13 contests |
Rising Stars: The Next Generation of Strongman Champions
Identifying rising stars in strongman requires looking beyond a single breakout performance. Many athletes produce one exceptional competition result that generates buzz, only to settle back into the middle of the pack in subsequent events. The athletes on this list have demonstrated something more valuable: sustained improvement and consistent high finishes across multiple competitions over a multi-year window. This pattern of progressive excellence is the most reliable predictor of future championship performance.
The modern development pathway for strongman athletes has accelerated the timeline from first competition to professional contention. Social media exposure to training methods, the growth of amateur and under-23 competition divisions, and the availability of specialized coaching have created an environment where talented athletes can progress from novice to professional-caliber strength in three to five years. This compressed development timeline means the current crop of rising stars has had access to more training knowledge and competitive experience at a younger age than any previous generation.
What sets the best rising stars apart from the larger pool of improving competitors is their performance under pressure. Placing well at local and national competitions is one thing; maintaining that level when facing established champions at major international events is another entirely. The athletes ranked here have proven they can compete with, and often beat, the sport's biggest names, suggesting that their recent trajectory is built on genuine ability rather than favorable circumstances.