Who is the newest ‘World’s Strongest Man’ - Rayno Nel?

This past weekend Rayno Nel became the new ‘World’s Strongest Man’ in what was his first time competing for the title.  With his win, he became just the 25th winner in the show's history, which started in 1977.  The World’s Strongest Man competition has historically been the ‘Superbowl’ of the sport of strongman although recently, a few other shows have come to the forefront as other top-tier shows as well.  But the title of World’s Strongest Man still remains the most prestigious in the sport today because of its rich history.  

Coming into the weekend's show, you would be hard pressed to find anyone who would’ve bet on a relatively unknown Rayno Nel to win the competition.  The odds on favorites to win were Tom Stoltman, a 3X winner of the show, and Mitchell Hooper a 1X winner who has been dominating strongman in recent years.  It’s fair to say that Rayno was a heavy underdog.  

For those who aren’t familiar with how World’s Strongest Man works, the show has two days worth of heats with many competitors, this year the total was 25 athletes.  The 25 athletes were put into “Groups” and each group had 5 athletes.  After 5 events over two days the field was narrowed down to 10 finalists.  The 10 finalists were comprised of the top 2 athletes from each group.  Then again, after 2 more days of finals which included 5 more events, a winner was crowned ‘World’s Strongest Man’.

Rayno Nel put on a dazzling performance over the course of the show's 4 days.  Out of the 5 events in the group stage, Nel took 2 overall wins and 3 second place finishes which gave him a dominating group stage win.  After moving onto the finals he continued to finish at the top or near the top in most events.  In the finals, Rayno won the Carry & Hoist event, finished 2nd in the 18-Inch Deadlift and Hercules Hold, 3rd place in the Atlas Stones, and 7th place in the Flintstone Barbell.  This consistency led him to a narrow 0.5 point win over Tom Stoltman for the title and victory.  

So who is this unknown champion?  What is his story and can we expect more of this to come in the future?  

Rayno turned 30 years old just a few days prior to becoming the first South African champion of World’s Strongest Man.  He is not the biggest athlete in the field standing at 6’3 and 330ish pounds but he appears to be quick, agile, and obviously strong.  He has only recently started competing in strongman after a short career in rugby.  His first international competition was in 2023 where he won Africa’s Strongest Man.  He has since continued to compete internationally, winning 6 out of his 7 shows.  What is most impressive about his WSM victory is the fact that he was still working his full time job as an electrical engineer while training for the show.  

I would anticipate that Rayno will be on the strongman scene, competing for more titles for quite some time.  As a relative newcomer to the sport, he is continuing to progress in overall strength and familiarity of events.  With this victory I would also assume he will be transitioning to full-time strongman training in the near future, which would allow him to make more progress as well.  All things considered, I would expect to see Rayno the Rhino from South Africa be a regular on the podium and competing for many more strongman titles in the near future.