Arnold Strongman(and woman) Classic 2024 - Martin Licis AND Hafthor are back!

I’ve never really kept up with it, but I’ve been watching some Brian Shaw videos on YouTube and he seems like a good dude.

Event selection looks like a more traditional strongman list of events. The Dinnie stones carry could be something.

The list of competitors looks solid. Lots of big names.

I want to see the Arnold expand to include the middleweights. There are some wicked strong and athletic middleweights out there.

I doubt Eddie's ever coming back. He always had a smaller frame than guys like Thor and Shaw and carrying the necessary muscle and bulk was not easy for him. He seems to becontent retired and not stressing his health.

I'm a bit surprised Thor will compete, given that the end of his time in strongman was tough on his health as well. I love watching, but the guys carrying 400 pounds plus are in a tough place health wise.

Martins is one of the guys who seems to carry the size well. Excited to see him back, as he had so much potential pre-injury.

It's a really competitive place for strongman right now. It's not like the days where you just had one or two guys. These days, there's a whole lineup of people who could win a big competition.

Brian Shaw seems like an awesome person. I was brief acquaintance with Johnny Perry back in the day. The amount of food these guys consume is insane. I need to start following strongman again.

Thor just deadlifted 1006lbs. It looked like it was a warm-up.

*He does register at 441lbs for this competition, so he's deadlifting 2.28XBW, which sounds less impressive.......but it's over 1000lbs! If I can get my deadlift up to 503lbs then I will be Half-Thor!

Shaw is a class act. Loves this country, its people, and the sport of Strongman.

We are in the Mitchell Hooper era right now. Dude dominated last year, won WSM, Arnold, and Rogue. He only seems to be getting better. But it IS an era of several greats, many can challenge Hooper for the W.

Yes, the 105Kg/MW class should get more love, those guys are smaller but pound for pound the best IMHO, especially with movement events that require athleticism, they move REALLY fast with heavy objects, but most want to see what the massive giants can do.

End of day 1: Thor is in first place, not surprised given the day #1 events are his strong suit, Hopper is right behind him and I expect he'll do well with the stones tomorrow. But Licis is very good with pressing and stones as well, so maybe he'll make up some ground tomorrow. I like this Singletary guy, don't know much about him. I've heard the name but haven't seen him compete much.

On the women's side I don't have much to say. On the one hand, I'm always very impressed by strong/athletic humans and the things they can do, so I am interested in watching women's strength events. On the other hand I'm a man and I can't resist grading them on their sex appeal to me, and as you know, competitive strongwomen are not going to win "those" kinds of contests. So as I watch the women I always find myself thinking about that aspect of the competitors. I'm still impressed with what these women can do, but that doesn't mean I'd take them out to the Red Lobsters anytime soon. (Well, I'd take Andrea Thompson out, she's cute and she could probably help me with my deadlift too)

It will take much longer for Martin to get back to top form, Thor as well, but who knows if Thor has the desire to do that. Watching Hooper was so much fun, pretty dominant performance from him, and Mateusz as well. The only thing I didn't like was when Mitch called Arnold out to stand near the pad at the end of the stone medley like he was going to show him something, and then he didn't really seem to give it his all to lift that third and final stone. I know he had the win in the bag anyway, but why call Arnold out there in an obviously staged move, and then just say "ehhh, frick it"