2024 Arnold Strongman Classic Day 1: Event Review & Results

The Arnold Sports Festival kicked off in Columbus, Ohio, yesterday, and one of the most enticing events it will offer is the strongman and strongwoman competition. It’s set to unfold on the 1st and 2nd of March, and during it, we will be able to see the long-awaited return of the 2018 World’s Strongest Man (WSM) and three-time Arnold Classic Champion, Hafthor Bjornsson. 

Along with Thor (as Bjornsson) is famously known, we’re also going to see last year’s WSM and ASC defending champion Mitchell Hooper, Britain’s Strongest Man, Tom Stoltman, and a 2020 WSM champion Oleksii Novikov.

On the women’s side, the field is also packed, and it includes two-time Arnold Strongwoman Classic winner Victoria Long, two-time World’s Strongest Woman Rebecca Roberts, and 2018 World’s Strongest Woman Andrea Thomspon. 

And now that we’ve got the introductions out of the way let’s check out the results of the first competition day. 

Arnold Classic: Day 1 Recap 

On day one, both the men and the women were set to complete the same exercises – the Elephant Bar Deadlift and the Timber Carry. The only difference is that they were set to do so at different times and to make it easier to understand the results, we will review the strongmen and strongwomen competitions in two paragraphs. 

Arnold Strongman Classic Day 1 Results

Let’s take a look at the results from each individual event that the strongmen had to complete. 

Max Elephant Bar Deadlift 

For this contest, the athletes who requested lower weight had to lift before those who requested heavier, regardless of the number of attempts. For context, Hafthor Bjornsson is the current world record holder for the Elephant Bar deadlift at 474 kg. With that knowledge in mind, it should come as no surprise that it was Thor who managed to win this first event, beating second-placed Bobby Thompson by 20 kg. Even though Bjornosson is returning from injury and has not competed in a while, that didn’t stop him from lifting 456 kg and getting the win. The top 5 for this event looked like this: 

1. Hafthór Björnsson – 456 kilograms (1005.30 lbs) 
2. Bobby Thompson – 436 kilograms (961 lbs)
3. Mitchell Hooper – 431 kilograms (950 lbs)
4. Evan Singleton – 427 kilograms (941 lbs)
5. Tom Stoltman –  415 kilogram (914 lbs)

Timber Carry 

The second event for the men was the so-called Timber Carry, where Hooper managed to dominate the competition and missed out on setting a world record by one-tenth of a second. It should come as no surprise that right behind him was Hafthor Bjornsson, who put any doubters to rest as he returned to competition in fantastic form, blitzing through the Timber Carry in 8.4 seconds and finishing in second place. 

1. Mitchell Hooper – 7.1 seconds
2. Hafthór Björnsson – 8.4 seconds
3. Mateusz Kieliszkowski – 8.69 seconds
4. Martins Licis – 14.81 seconds
5. Evan Singleton – 8.89 meters

Arnold Strongwoman Classic Day 1 Results

On the women’s side, the events on day 1 were the same, so let’s check out the results over there.

Max Elephant Bar Deadlift 

On the women’s side, the Elephant Bar Deadlift was just as exciting, seeing as first-place winner Lucy Underdown set a new world record at 302 kg on her second attempt. Along with that, Victoria Long, who’s defending her title from last year, suffered a bit of a scare as she collapsed on the floor during one of her attempts, but she still managed to pull through and get third place with a 288 kg pull. The top 5 for the women formed like this after the first event: 

1. Lucy Underdown – 302 kilograms (665 lbs) 
2. Andrea Thompson – 291 kilograms (641 lbs) 
3. Victoria Long – 288 kilograms (634 lbs) 
4. Olga Liashchuk – 275 kilograms (606 lbs)
5. Melissa Peacock – 275 kilograms (606 lbs)

Timber Carry 

The Timber Carry was the second exercise for the women as well; however, the results were a bit more surprising here. Andrea Thompson came out as a winner, showing another solid performance and blitzing through the event in 8.43 seconds. Rebecca Robers had a rebound moment as well, finishing third after having gone 11th after the deadlift earlier in the day. The women’s event didn’t go without an injury scare as Donna Moore suffered an ankle injury and had to be assisted out of the incline by the production crew, and last year’s winner, Victoria Long, withdrew from the event due to her hamstring injury. 

1. Andrea Thompson – 8.43 seconds
2. Hannah Linzay – 9.53 seconds 
3. Rebecca Roberts – 9.53 seconds 
4. Lucy Underdown – 11.64 seconds
5. Angelica Jardine – 27.42 seconds

Current Leaderboard Strongman

As we end day one of the competition, the leaderboard for the strongman looks like this:

1. Hafthór Björnsson – 31 points
2. Mitchell Hooper – 31 points
3. Evan Singleton – 24 points
4. Tom Stoltman – 20 points
5. Mateusz Kieliszkowski – 20 points
6. Bobby Thompson – 18 points
7. Oleksii Novikov – 17 points
8. Martins Licis – 16 points
9. Thomas Evans – 10 points
10. Oskar Ziółkowski – 8 points
11. Maxime Boudreault – Withdrew

Current Leaderboard Strongwoman

For the women, the leaderboard is as follows: 

1. Lucy Underdown – 31 points
2. Andrea Thompson – 27 points
3. Angelica Jardine – 25 points
4. Rebecca Roberts – 23.5 points
5. Olga Liashchuk – 22.5 points
6. Hannah Linzay – 22.5 points
7. Inez Carrasquillo – 22 points
8. Erin Murray – 15 points
9. Melissa Peacock – 14.5 points
10. Samantha Belliveau – 12 points
11. Donna Moore – withdrew
12. Victoria Long – withdrew

On March 2nd, we will witness the final day of the competition, which will also determine the winners on both the men’s and the women’s side, so stay tuned for our coverage. As always, for more weightlifting content, you can also follow us on YouTube and on our social media platforms.