The new champion shared a recap of what would be a winning day.
Less than 24 hours after winning the 2023 World’s Strongest Man title in Myrtle Beach, SC, Mitchell Hooper gave his fans a glimpse of what he felt like Sunday, April 23rd, 2023. The new champion posted a YouTube video documenting the final day of the competition.
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The video was succinctly titled “I WON: World’s Strongest Man 2023” and was released on his channel on the morning of April 24, 2023. The video begins with Hooper walking to the competition area, seemingly looking forward to the day ahead. Despite winning six of the previous eight contest events, he also acknowledged that there were no guarantees of victory against his elite peers.
“It’s going to be a fight between the four of us today… We’ll see how my dumbbell works [event] goes. We’ll see how Tom [Stoltman’s] dumbbell [event] goes. We’ll see how Oleksii [Novikov’s] [Atlas] stone goes. Trey [Mitchell], in the mix with them all. We’ll see how everything develops. 25% chance for all of us maybe. Wish me luck.”
Hooper is then seen warming up on the Circus dumbbells before the first competition on the final day of the competition. He was also welcomed by Martins Licis, the 2019 World’s Strongest Man.
Due to the copyright of the footage, Hooper is only seen briefly at the event before speaking with his family afterwards. He shared first place with Evan Singleton as the only competitor to lift the 140.4 kilogram (309 pound) bar.
The video then shows Hooper resting and talking to the camera after the truck pull, where he took first place by beating his nearest competitors by more than two seconds. Although the title was now clearly in Hooper’s sights given his points on the leaderboard at this point in the competition, he said he wouldn’t count on it until the final event was over.
Trying to get Hooper to answer, the cameraman asked, “If you were to predict how you would fare on the stones, where do you think it would fare?” Hooper’s response was a modest denial of the fact that he was up to had taken first place in eight of the ten previous events at that time.
“I will not do that. No worries. I just need to have a clean, smooth run. Go through them. There are a lot of really good stone lifters here, so anything can happen… We’ll see how it goes.”
The video then shows Hooper and former champion Tom Stoltman moving into Atlas Stones territory where Hooper would take the title by taking second place at the event. The camera then shows his family reacting to the moment he won the title, followed by his wife giving him a ceremonial hug as Hooper holds the trophy.
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He is also shown taking photos, conducting interviews, speaking and signing autographs with Eddie Hall, the 2017 World’s Strongest Man. He signed the video and thanked everyone who had followed the action throughout the week.
“It’s crazy. It’s going to take a long time to catch on… Thank you to everyone who has shown their support,” he said. “Thank you to everyone who supports the sport and to everyone who has been there before me .Really really cool and incredibly humbling experience that I have had a hard time putting into words for a while.”
Hooper is the first athlete from Canada to win the title of World’s Strongest Man. He is also the first man to win both the Arnold Strongman Classic and the World’s Strongest Man in the same year since Hafthor Bjornsson accomplished the feat in 2018.
Featured image: Mitchell Hooper / YouTube
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