Strength athletics in Sweden

Strength athletics in Sweden refers to the participation of Swedish competitors and holding national strongman competitions.

History

Sweden has a long and rich history of strength athletics dating back to the mid 1900s in the sport of Olympic weightlifting with Bo Johansson in the 1960s and 1970s, and several top ranked IPF Powerlifters such as Lars Hedlund and Lars Norén during the 1980s. Sweden has been at the top international level in World's Strongest Man since the very beginning in the late 1970s with Lars Hedlund achieving numerous podium finishes. Sweden struggled through the 1980s and early 1990s until the arrival of Magnus Samuelsson in 1995. Samuelsson would go on to win the 1998 World's Strongest Man, Sweden's only WSM title. Magnus continued to win major international contests and be a top podium finisher at WSM until his retirement in 2008. In recent years, Johannes Årsjö has continued to maintain Sweden's top position on the international scene with numerous podium finishes at major international contests.

National competitions

Sweden's Strongest Man

Sweden's Strongest Man

Tournament information
Location	Sweden
Established	1995
Format	Multi-event competition
Current champion
Fredrik Johansson (2024)

Sweden's Strongest Man (Swedish : Sveriges Starkaste Man) is an annual Strongman competition held in Sweden and featuring exclusively Swedish athletes, to determine who the strongest Swede of the year is.

Magnus Samuelsson and Johannes Årsjö have both won the competition 9 times, thus sharing the record for most wins.

Champions breakdown

The competition has been held every year since 1995 and has produced nine champions over the years. ^[1]

Year	Champion	Runner-Up	3rd Place
1995	Magnus Samuelsson	Jörgen Ljungberg	(To be confirmed)
1996	Magnus Samuelsson	Jorma Paananen	Torbjörn Samuelsson
1997	Magnus Samuelsson	Jörgen Ljungberg	Torbjörn Samuelsson
1998	Torbjörn Samuelsson [2]	Jorma Paananen	(To be confirmed)
1999	Magnus Samuelsson	Jorma Paananen	Torbjörn Samuelsson
2000	Magnus Samuelsson	Torbjörn Samuelsson	Anders Johansson
2001	Magnus Samuelsson	Torbjörn Samuelsson	Anders Johansson
2002	Torbjörn Samuelsson	Anders Johansson	Jorma Paananen
2003	Magnus Samuelsson	Jörgen Ljungberg	Kalle Lane
2004	Magnus Samuelsson	Jörgen Ljungberg	Benny Wennberg
2005	Magnus Samuelsson	Anders Johansson	Robert Brolin
2006	Anders Johansson	Björn Andersson	Tomas Karlsson
2007	Anders Johansson	Stefan Bergqvist	Daniel Wiklund
2008	Anders Johansson	Peter Rundberg	Stefan Bergqvist
2009	Johannes Årsjö	Anders Johansson	Mikael Hoffner
2010	Johannes Årsjö	Stefan Bergqvist	Peter Rundberg
2011	Johannes Årsjö	Martin Forsmark	Stefan Bergqvist
2012	Johannes Årsjö	Sebastian Davidsson	Martin Forsmark
2013	Johannes Årsjö	Sebastian Davidsson	David Nyström
2014	Johannes Årsjö	Martin Forsmark	David Nyström
2015	Johannes Årsjö	Martin Forsmark	Johnny Hansson
2016	Johannes Årsjö	Martin Forsmark	Joachim Gustavsson
2017	Johannes Årsjö	Martin Forsmark	Johnny Hansson
2018 [3]	Martin Forsmark	Torbjörn Persson	Johan Espenkrona
2019	Martin Forsmark	Andreas Ståhlberg	Johan Espenkrona
2020 [4]	Johnny Hansson	Martin Forsmark	Fredrik Svensson
2021	Marcus Yngvesson	Johan Espenkrona	Fredrik Svensson
2022	Andreas Ståhlberg	Johnny Hansson	Joachim Kvick
2023	Fredrik Johansson	Marcus Yngvesson	Cim Johansson
2024	Fredrik Johansson	Cim Johansson	Marcus Yngvesson

Repeat champions

Champion	Times & years
Magnus Samuelsson	9 (1995, 1996, 1997, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2003, 2004, 2005)
Johannes Årsjö	9 (2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017)
Anders Johansson	3 (2006, 2007, 2008)
Torbjörn Samuelsson	2 (1998, 2002)
Martin Forsmark	2 (2018, 2019)
Fredrik Johansson	2 (2023, 2024)

Regional Competitions

Nordic Strongman Championships

Nordic Strongman Championships consists of athletes from Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Finland and Denmark. ^[5]

Year	Champion	Runner-Up	3rd Place
2005	Svend Karlsen	Magnus Samuelsson	Juha-Matti Räsänen
2012 [5]	Johannes Årsjö	Lars Rorbakken	Mikkel Leicht
2013	Johannes Årsjö	Ole Martin Hansen	Juha-Matti Järvi

• In 2005, the competition was held under IFSA in Kristiansand, and in 2012 and 2013 in Harstad, Norway under Giants Live.
• From 2014 onwards, the competition was promoted to global level, re-titled as the World's Strongest Viking and was held consecutively for 8 years under Strongman Champions League.

International Competitions

Giants Live

Sweden was also the venue for several Giants Live grand prix competitions with the participation of top athletes of the world. The competitions were named Giants Live Sweden/ Scandinavian Open.

Year	Champion	Runner-Up	3rd Place
2014	Brian Shaw	Johannes Årsjö	Martin Forsmark
2015	Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson	Johannes Årsjö	Mark Felix
2016	Johannes Årsjö	Martin Forsmark	Mark Felix
2017	Johannes Årsjö	Johnny Hansson	Žydrūnas Savickas

References

1. "davidhorne-gripmaster.com" . Retrieved 2010-08-25.
2. "magnus-samuelsson.net" . Retrieved 2010-08-25.
3. "Sveriges Starkaste Man 2018". 2 November 2018.
4. "Strength Results".
5. "Nordic Strongman Championships: Viking Loses His Title!". Archived from the original on 2013-10-04. Retrieved 2012-06-21.