- Nationality: Icelandic
- Height: 2.06m
- Weight: 205kg
An Icelandic powerhouse and Game of Thrones actor, Hafthor Bjornsson (also known as “The Mountain”) has laid claim to the past two national strongman competitions in his homeland. Although the favourite for any truck pulling event, he was often perceived as too weak in other events to challenge for the podium position at international competitions. Hafthor first proved his critics majorly wrong with an excellent performance at the World’s Strongest Man 2012, finishing in third place behind the Lithuanian duo Big Z and Lalas, and didn’t stop showing his awesome abilities there!
Bjornsson is the first strongman to have won The Arnold Strongman Classic, Europe’s Strongest Man and The World’s Strongest man within the same year, 2018. To show how amazing this strongman really is, here is all the competitions that he won in 1st place:
- World’s Strongest Man (2018)
- The Arnold Strongman Classic (2018, 2019, 2020)
- Europe’s Strongest Man (2014, 2015, 2017, 2018, 2019)
- Giants Live (2014, 2015, 2016)
- World’s Ultimate Strongman (2018)
- Strongman Champions League (2013, 2015)
- Jon Pall Sigmarsson Classic (2012)
- Iceland’s Strongest Man (2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020)
- Strongest Man in Iceland (2010, 2011, 2012, 2016, 2017)
- Iceland’s Strongest Viking (2010, 2011, 2012)
- Westfjord’s Viking (2010, 2011, 2012)
- OK Budar Strongman Championships (2010)
As you can see, winning 1st place within all of these strongman competitions over the years has made Bjornsson definitely one to watch!! Bjornsson set a world record in 2019 at the Arnold Strongman Classic in The Deadlift event, lifting an impressive 474Kg. Although his world record was beaten by Eddie Hall lifting 500Kg, he then went on to lift an astonishing 501Kg in 2020 which is the heaviest deadlift ever recorded to this date. We just need to see him lift this within a strongman event!
With his basketball roots, Bjornsson certainly meets the height requirements of modern strongman, standing at a monumental 2.06m (closing in on 7ft!). Although a knee injury led to the end of his basketball career, we certainly predicted these big things for this Icelandic warrior.
Most recent achievement: Hafthor Bjornsson’s most recent achievement is winning the Iceland’s Strongest Man competition along with The Arnold Strongman Classic competition only this year! Not only did he win these strongman competitions this year but also managed to complete a 501Kg deadlift within the same year makes this guy certainly the one to look out for!
Here is some footage of Bjornsson completeing this deadlift with an incredible weight of 501Kg! We are still waiting for this to be achieved within a strongman event, watch out 2021, here comes the absolute mountain Bjornsson!:
