Established 2008 | Purse varies | |
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Location Various international locations Month played multiple grand prix events held throughout the year Format Multi-event competition | ||
The Strongman Champions League is a strongman competition circuit, with several grand prix events throughout the year and the Strongman Champions League overall champion title going to the overall winner at the end of the season. The competitors include some of the top athletes in the sport, including Žydrūnas Savickas, Krzysztof Radzikowski, Travis Ortmayer, Nick Best, Mikhail Koklyaev, Ervin Katona, Andrus Murumets, Laurence Shahlaei, Vytautas Lalas and Terry Hollands. Initially in close partnership with IFSA, it quickly asserted its independence and has acted as a unifying force in the world of strength athletics, bringing together athletes from IFSA with those affiliated to the World's Strongest Man circuit, and having close cooperation with other major events such as Fortissimus. In 2012, SCL began co-promoting the new Arnold Strongman Classic-Europe contest which will become part of the annual SCL season of events.
Contents
History
The Strongman Champions League was developed by Ilkka Kinnunen and Marcel Mostert, longtime strongman promoters, with major contests to their credit worldwide, and was launched in 2008. Kinnunen & Mostert described SCL as "a new episode in strongman".
"A complete series of 10–12 competitions, that will take place all over the world, but most of the competitions will be held in Europe. The very best champions, referees and their organizers will be the guarantee of a great new, fresh excitement in Strongman sport. The competition venues are the best which each country can offer and it will include the country's own traditional elements." As well as citing that all points will be accumulated for a Champions League Winner at the end of the year, the organisers also explicitly stated that "Rules will be done officially as and that "The top 3 will be directly placed in the World Championships". Mostert also said "All together we think that this is a perfect platform of competitions that will lead to another great World Championship.".
Thus, IFSA were inextricably linked at the inception of the league. IFSA, however, were in reportedly dire financial straits towards the end of that year. By December, Mostert distanced the league from the ailing governing body and explicitly said that the Strongman Champions League had nothing to do with IFSA. He told IronMind "We have our own logo, we have our own brand, we do our own competitions." Its own website was launched shortly afterwards.
The league organisers had originally reported that Champions League competitions "will be televised and spread all over the world and they released a list of venues that had been organised in advance. In the harsh economic climate of 2008, the league was not immune to the effects, and the league did have to cancel some venues, but unlike with the IFSA, the vast majority of the competitions still took place. In 2008, the SCL had 45 top strength athletes competing, representing more than 20 countries.
Fortissimus Cooperation
In 2008 Paul Ohl stated that the Strongman Champions League was one of three organisations that had made an agreement with Fortissimus in order to unite the world strength community, the others being the American Strongman Corporation, and the Aussiepower organization. Within the agreement, Fortissimus, the competition that confers the title of "Strongest Man on the Planet", guaranteed that the winner of the America's Strongest Man title would be granted a slot in Fortissimus from 2009, as would the winner of the Australia's Strongest Man title. The agreement with the Strongman Champions League went further, stating that the top three athletes would have guaranteed places and in return the top Canadian athletes would have guaranteed selected participation in the Champions League. This later went further, guaranteeing the SCL its top five athletes would have places. The agreement was reemphasised in a joint statement from Marcel Mostert and Paul Ohl in early 2009.
2009 and links with WSM
The 2009 programme was planned with ten major contests on schedule. In addition, feeder contests were introduced, one happening in Spain in December 2008 and a further event in Germany called the FIBO Strongman Classic in April 2009. The best two athletes from this FIBO classic 2009 edition were guaranteed into the Champions League, and it was postulated that this German event would be promoted to full SCL status in 2010.
The Strongman Champions League importantly made further progress in acting as a fundamental part of a unifying movement for world strength athletics by making plans to help get its athletes to the 2009 World's Strongest Man contest. Mostert stated that "The top 5 SCL athletes will have places in the Giants Live tour for qualifying at World's Strongest Man (WSM) 2009". In addition, he also stated that wild cards for the WSM will include SCL athletes. He went on to say that "Finally we made it all possible again that all the athletes have chances to qualify for the WSM, which means in my opinion the WSM will have the strongest field ever in her history!". He went on to thank TWI/IMG and Giants Live for their part in making these possibilities. This was groundbreaking because for a number of years prior to this, the athletes under the IFSA had been banned by the federation from entering WSM (since the IFSA fell out of favour with TWI). Likewise, the athletes invited to participate in WSM were not invited to participate in IFSA events. Some competitions bridged the divide, such as the Arnold Strongman Classic and more recently Fortissimus, but neither had the history or gravitas, or indeed popular appeal of the iconic World's Strongest Man. The IFSA athletes, with the demise of the IFSA finances, almost all competed in SCL from 2008. This deal, along with the Fortissimus deal before it, united strongman in a way it had not been since 2004.
The 2009 season began properly on 9 May, with the Strongman Champions League Serbia. Finland followed on 16 May, with Slovakia and the Netherlands in June.
2009 Qualifiers
The Strongman Champions League introduced qualifying competitions for 2009. From these competitions, the top two were guaranteed places in the SCL. The first qualifier was run in Los Barrios, Spain. The second was the FIBO Classic in Germany.
SCL North American Championships
In 2012, SCL announced the first ever SCL North American Championships to be held in Warwick Ontario, Canada from July 5–8, 2012. The contest took place over 4 days and consisted of 10 events, with athletes from USA and Canada, with 5 athletes from each country. The event was organized by SCL in association with the Festival Hommes Forts-Warwick along with co-organizer Jean Fréchette. The event also featured an amateur, semi-pro and a strongwoman competition.
2012
Dates: July 5–8, 2012 Warwick, Quebec, Canada
2013
Dates: July 5–7, 2013 Warwick, Quebec, Canada
2014
Dates: July 4–6, 2014 Warwick, Quebec, Canada
105kg Strongman World Championships
The 105 kg Strongman World Championships was created by Ilkka Kinnunen and Marcel Mostert, the founders of the Strongman Champions League in 2004. The contest includes only athletes weighing 105 kg (231 lbs.) and under, and SCL has stated that it intends to hold the 105 kg Strongman World Championships every 2 years.
2007
In 2007 the World Championships were held in China, with 17 athletes from 16 different countries participated in the event. The competitions consisted of 10 events over the course of 1 week. Dates: December 2007 China
2009
In 2009 and 2010 the contest was held in Kiev, Ukraine during the same weekend as the SCL Finals, with co-organizers Vladimir & Olena Kiba from the Ukrainian Federation of Strength Athletes (UFSA). Dates: November 14, 2009 Kiev, Ukraine
2010
Dates: December 18, 2010 Kiev, Ukraine
2013
Dates: July 28, 2013 Kiev, Ukraine
World Log Lift Championships
In its inaugural year, the Strongman Champions League introduced the World Log Lift Championships. The event had been a staple of strongman competitions since the early 1980s. Beginning with the 1980 World's Strongest Man contest, Bill Kazmaier hoisted 157 kg to win the event and set a world record. Over eight years Kazmaier increased the record to 170 kg. Jamie Reeves, winner of the 1989 World's Strongest Man contest, managed 177 kg in 1989, and 180 kg at the 1992 World Mighty Man contest in Johannesburg, South Africa.
It was ten years before 2001 World's Strongest Man winner Svend Karlsen set a new record of 185 kg at the Strongman Super Series event in Sweden. In 2003, Hugo Girard set a new record at the Strongman Super Series event in Canada with 186 kg. In 2004, Zydrunas Savickas set a new record of 188 kg, and Raimunds Bergmanis brought the record up to 190 kg at the Strongman Super Series event in Moscow.
Zydrunas Savickas began his long reign over the log lift world record starting in 2005, bringing it up to 200 kg in Hungary, and then again at the 2005 IFSA European Championships in Riga, Latvia with 202.5 kg. Savickas set another new record in 2006, bringing it up to 205 kg.
In 2008 Savickas broke the record twice more, with marks of 207.5 kg and 210 kg. Savickas set yet another world record of 212.5 kg at the 2009 Log Lift World Championships.
Zydrunas set another world record of 215 kg, set at the 2011 SCL Finals in Sarajevo, Bosnia on Feb. 7, 2012, and another world record of 216 kg by Savickas and was set at the 2012 Europe's Strongest Man contest in Leeds, England on June 23, 2012. Savickas set yet another world record of 217.5 kg at the SCL Holland event in Zevenaar, the Netherlands on June 30, 2012.
Savickas' final world record in 2012 of 220 kg was set during the finals of the 2012 World's Strongest Man contest which he eventually won, marking his third WSM title. This marked Savickas' tenth consecutive log lift world record.
In 2013, Savickas set another world record at the 2013 Europe's Strongest Man in Leeds, England with a lift of 221 kg. The current world record was set by Savickas at the 2015 Log Lift World Championships with a lift of 228 kg.
Log Lift World Record Progression
2008
Zydrunas Savickas entered the 2008 Log Lift World Championships as the clear favorite, and intended to set a new record with 212.5 kg. Savickas' competitors included Mikhail Koklyaev, Ervin Katona, Sebastian Wenta, Oleksandr Lashyn, Tobias Ide, Agris Kazelniks, Oleksandr Pekanaov, Krzysztof Radzikowski and Saulius Brusokas.
The competition, held in Lithuania, saw each lift judged by three officials similar to Powerlifting and Olympic Weightlifting. The referees were Strongman Champions League founders Ilkka Kinnunen, Marcel Mostert and Latvian weighlifter Viktors Ščerbatihs, who had won the bronze medal in the +105 kg superheavyweight class at the recent Beijing Olympics. One of the strongest contenders, Oleksandr Pekanov, who had a personal best of 190 kg missed his opener of 180 kg three times. However, a number of other athletes came away with personal records, and two National Records were set. Zydrunas Savickas missed his world record attempt of 212.5 kg, but won the championships with his lift of 200 kg.
Results
2009
The championships took place in Kaunas, Lithuania on November 21, 2009.
Results
2010
The Log Lift Championships were not held in 2010, and was moved up to February 2011 to kick off the 2011 season of SCL.
2011
The 2011 World Log Lift Championships were held in Siemens Arena in Vilnius, Lithuania on Feb. 12, 2011 to kick off the 2011 SCL season. Key competitors were reigning champion Zydrunas Savickas, Vidas Blekaitis and Vytautas Lalas who finished in the top 3 places respectively, with Zavickas winning his 3rd straight log lift title. There were 12 athletes in total, 3 athletes failed their opening weight on all 3 attempts. The event was broadcast live on Eurosport.
2012
The 2012 World Log Lift Championships were held in Siemens Arena in Vilnius, Lithuania on Sunday Oct. 7, 2012. The contest took place in the same venue and during the same weekend as the first annual SCL Savickas Classic contest.
Official start list
Results
2013
The 2013 World Log Lift Championships were held in Siemens Arena in Vilnius, Lithuania on Saturday October 19, 2013. Savickas set a new world record with a lift of 222.5 kg.
2014–2016
The 2014 Arnold Strongman Brazil were held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on Saturday April 26, 2014. Savickas set a new world record loglift with a lift of 223. kg.
The 2014 Giants live Poland were held in Dolina Charlotty, Poland on Friday May 9, 2014. Savickas set a new world record loglift with a lift of 227. kg.
The 2014 Arnold Strongman Classic were held in Colombus in Ohio, USA on Saturday Mars 1, 2014. Savickas set a new world record Tire deadlift with a lift of 524. kg.
The 2014 Europe strongest man on Saturday August 9, 2014. Benedikt Magnusson set a new record deadlift with a lift of 461. kg.
The 2015 Arnold Classic Australia on March 2015. Eddie Hall set a new record deadlift with a lift of 462. kg.
The 2015 Europe's strongest man on July 2015. Eddie Hall set a new record deadlift with a lift of 463. kg.
The 2016 Arnold strongman on March 2016. Eddy Hall set a new record deadlift with a lift of 465. kg.
The 2016 Europe's strongest man on 9 July 2016. Eddie Hall set a new record deadlift with a lift of 500. kg.