And now for something different.
What do the strongman contestants have to do ? How big are they actually. (Hint they don't walk through a door like normal people..)
300lb of muscle in a a XXXXL T-shirt: how the World’s Strongest Man contest reinvented itself
Martins Licis at this year’s bus pull during the World’s Strongest Man competition. Photograph: Joe Martinez/World's Strongest Man
Once it was a sideshow – but this year, Ukranian soldiers competed with LGBTQ+ pioneers in a sport that’s being taken seriously
Adam Gabbatt
@adamgabbatt
Wed 1 Jun 2022 06.00 BSTLast modified on Wed 1 Jun 2022 06.01 BST
Oleksii Novikov doesn’t walk into the room. He turns sideways, and shuffles through the doorway like someone navigating a particularly busy bar.
At 6ft 1in and 300lb of solid muscle,
Novikov’s shoulders are three and a half feet wide. His hands, permanently curled from years of lifting really heavy stuff, are like bear paws, his wrists as thick as some people’s biceps. He’s wearing an XXXXL T-shirt.
“My problem, it’s just my size. I am so small for a strongman,” Novikov says.
We meet in Sacramento, California, before the 2022 World’s Strongest Man competition. Novikov took the title in 2020 – but this time, he is competing after an unimaginably hard few months.
Once it was a sideshow – but this year, Ukrainian soldiers competed with LGBTQ+ pioneers in a sport that’s being taken seriously