BRADENTON – The World’s Strongest Man Competition has been a staple in the sports world since the inaugural competition back in 1977.
Starting Friday night you can catch all the action on TV. The four day competition filmed on location in our own backyard; the COVID-19 pandemic delayed the competition as several of the athletes that compete are international strong men.
Such as Luke & Tom Stoltman representing their home country of Scotland made history at last year’s competition by becoming the first siblings to qualify for the competition.
Tom says he hopes he set an example proving for other athletes who battle a developmental disorder to take a leap of faith and follow their dreams.
“I just want to say having autism is not a label and that if there’s anyone out there that has autism hopefully I’m your role model and that’s something I wanted to prove this year,” said Tom. “I’ve got a label across my head but it’s not – I’m no different than anybody else.”
The brothers demonstrated that blood is thicker than the title of World’s Strongest Man. Luke says he wanted to do his family and country proud with his brother every step of the way.
“To do it with Tom, who’s younger – that’s incredible,” said Luke. “My baby brother, I still remember when I was cuddling him in my arms when he was crying, rocking him to sleep and stuff.”
Luke who was eliminated early in the competition showed support for his younger brother who qualified in the top 10.
“For me it’s amazing just to be on the world’s stage with Tom and just do the whole Scotland family proud,” said Luke.
The competition for the second time in its history the competition was hosted in Bradenton. The action can be watched only on the CBS Sports Network.
But here on SNN we’ll have exclusive interviews with some of the athletes leading up to the two hour finale set to air December 26th.
