So cold, so hard and so much fun: SCL is coming to Norway, to crown “The World’s Strongest Viking.”
With its 16-competition schedule for 2105, the MHP Strongman Champions League is busy bringing strongman to more places and different places, so why not give everyone chills watching top strongman action in nice and cold Norway later this month. IronMind® | Artwork courtesy of SCL
SCL NORWAY: THE WORLD’S STRONGEST VIKING 2015
BY KIKKI BERLI-JOHNSON.
Those who have followed the world of strongman the last 20 years will almost instantly as the word competition is mentioned, picture palm trees and sun.
Well … for the second year in a row, that picture is a very different one now. World Strongest Viking is probably the worst thing that ever happened to a strongman, next to the rash they get from their thighs rubbing against each other. Why? Here are three reasons: 20 degrees (C) below, snow and mountain. It will be also the first MHP Strongman Champions League contest ever held in Norway.
I wonder what went on in the head of the promotor when the venue for the first MHP Strongman Champions League Norway, so called “World Strongest Viking” was chosen. “Ahh, let’s find the coldest, windiest and most solitary spot on the planet that has got electricity for our cameras … and let’s choose the most awful events to do when it’s cold… It will be sooooo fun!”
Rumour has it that even Hafthor cried when he arrived last year. The placing of this competition is unique: 930 meters above sea level, next to a beautiful lake, with miles and miles of snowy plateaus, perfect for hours of skiing. The buildings are typical Norwegian with timber frame construction, some of them several hundred years old. Both kings and poets has used Fefor Mountain Hotel as their hideaway in the earlier days, and when you see it, you understand why. At Fefor you’ll find rest for your soul, but the last weekend of January 2015, 30 and 31to be exact, there will be no rest for the twelve strong men that will compete for the title “World Strongest Viking 2015.”
The brave men are:
– Hafthor Julius Björnsson (Iceland)
– Krysztof Radzikowski (Poland)
– Ervin Katona (Serbia)
– Alex Moonen (Holland)
– Swedish (not decided yet)
– JF Caron (Canada)
– Ole Martin Hansen (Norway)
– Bjorn Andre Solvang (Norway)
– Espen Aune (Norway)
– Lauri Nami (Estonia)
– Mariusz Lalas (Lithuania)
– Antti Mourujärvi (Finland)
The athletes will compete in six grueling events:
– Front hold (with Viking Sword)
– Boat pull (They will actually pull a Viking ship)
– Yoke (carrying a big log on the shoulders the viking way)
– Hercules Hold (Giant timber logs)
– Viking press
– Loading natural stones up to 180 kg onto platform.
And the coolest part of it all is that the average temperature for January is 20 degrees below (C), and the competition is being held outside. The athletes will do every single event outside, no matter how cold it is or how hard it is snowing. In Norway they say that there are no such thing as bad weather—there is only bad clothes. Well, the athletes better listen to this saying and bring their warmest clothes to the mountains.
What would a competition called “World Strongest Viking” be without Vikings? Don’t be afraid; there will be Vikings. There will be Viking tents and Viking long boats. There will be handcrafted Viking pottery, jewelery, swords and clothes to buy, there will be Viking food and there might be mead. There will be a “Viking blot” (a Viking feast) in the evening and there will be Viking games. Last, but not least, there will be food. Plenty of amazing food.
And, as noted, this contest will be the first MHP Strongman Champions Leaguestage out of again a series of 16 throughout this year which is broadcast in 92 countries all over the world. If you’re going to see just one strongman competition this year, this is the competition you can’t miss.
by Randall J. Strossen, Ph.D. | ©2015 IronMind
