Worlds Strongest Man - Double Points for Stones

Double Points for Stones at the Worlds Strongest Man 2015

In what appears to be a slight kneejerk reaction by Giants Live/Worlds Strongest Man to competitors taking it easy on stones, they will award double points to competitors in the heats of the Worlds Strongest Man in 2015 when completing the Atlas Stone event. View the announcement by one of the favourites, Brian Shaw, below:

 

 

The heats leading up to the finals in 2014 saw competitors who were ahead by a substantial amount of points either take a “token” run of the Atlas Stones at the end of the heat or just do one stone, to get one point. Obviously with Strongman being a spectacle, or a spectator sport and the Worlds Strongest Man has to create great TV to cover its costs, it doesn’t look good when all the best Athletes stand still in what is arguably the most iconic event in Strongman, Stone lifting.

 

Kalle Beck of Starting Strongman also has a very good say on the matter and I believe his fix is a much better option that what is currently proposed. Please have a read of his article here:

 

Starting Strongman - Double points on Stones

 

Strongman as a sport is considered to be a “love” sport as opposed to a “money” sport. There are very few people that can live as a professional strongman, for a number of reasons, small prize money being one of them. Also that is is such a hard sport on the body, injuries happen so consistently entering competitions will results in an injury one day, meaning that prize money can’t be relied upon. FYI, the biggest strongman event in the world, with one winner only, the winner receives roughly 40,000 US Dollars.

 

The fix, as Kalle Beck has mentioned in his article, a cash bonus. For those athletes that complete the entire stone round, they receive a $1500 cash bonus. By offering double points on the final round, you take away the meaning and reliance on competing to your fullest in other rounds as wellF for people that will walk away with their stone event like Thor, Zydrunas and Shaw (Even on a bad run these three are hard to beat) and others like Mark Felix and Warrick Brant, also very good stone lifters, they could be seen to now have an advantage geared towards them in the events?

 

To keep the sport professional and for it to grow, Strongman needs an even playing field. Handing someone an event to guarantee success over others is not going to help our sport to grow in the long term.