When you picture the world’s strongest man, the image of an unsmiling and unruly muscle man may come to mind.
However, Ontario resident Mitchell Hooper, 27, who currently holds the world title, wants to change that narrative.
“I don’t put my worth on how big I am,” Hooper told Now Toronto in an interview on Tuesday.
“[But] physical improvement is an important part of life, whether you’re old, young, male, female, I aim for objective improvement.”
Also known as ‘The Moose,’’ Hooper was crowned the World’s Strongest Man at the 2023 competition that was held in South Carolina from April 19 to 23.
Hooper, who weighs 320 pounds,scored the highest combined score within multiple events in the championship round. This was Hooper’s second time competing in the event after placing in eighth place last year.
(Courtesy: SBD World’s Strongest Man/ Facebook)
When asked how someone trains in order to attempt a shot at the world title, Hooper believes those answers are found at the gym.
However, according to him, it doesn’t mean having to join a state of the art facility. Rather, it’s about creating an encouraging environment to move your body and make yourself proud.
And if all you have at your disposal is a barbell you can deadlift, squat, do overhead presses and so much more.
“Strongman is a competition of the fundamental patterns of life taken to the extreme, which is squat, hinge overhead, press, carry, push and pull. We do all those every single day. And so we take those to the tenth degree in our sport,” he continued.
Outside of the fierce competition, Hooper encourages people to push themselves to become more resilient and injury free.
With this being only his second world championship competition, he did not think he would win so early on and revealed that since winning he has still not been able to register all of it.
“I’m the first Canadian to win World Strongest Man, I’m the first Canadian to win the Arnold and I’m the fourth person ever to win both in the same year. When you’ve got to the pinnacle of a sport, for me it’s sort of what’s left?’ he asked.
“How physically far can I take myself? How strong can I get, and I think I have a long way to go for me to be the strongest version of myself. And for that reason, I’m chasing the exact same thing as I was chasing when I was in a local gym and in local competitions. It’s just the same attitude. But, whether it takes me to more titles or not, that pursuit is what drives me.”
Hooper shares that it’s not super important to him to win another title but he has every intention of defending it next year.
“What is super important to me is becoming a better athlete. I don’t base my self-worth on winning or defending [titles] because some guy might come along [as the strongest] and you can’t beat yourself up about it,” he continued.
