Jan Todd and her partner Steve Slater will be directing the 2019 Arnold Strongman Classic (ASC). There will be two new events this year—and a special prize offered by Rogue Fitness of $50,000 to the man able to deadlift 500 kilos/ 1102 pounds on the Rogue Elephant Bar. (If two men do it, the prize money will be split.)
The Proposed Events for 2019:
Expo Stage: Elephant Bar Deadlift Contest and the $50,000 Rogue Deadlift Challenge– As in year’s past each strongman will have three deadlift attempts on stage and they will then score the deadlift contest based on the heaviest weight made in those three official lifts.
NEW: On the main Expo Stage: Husafel Stone Carry In September, Bill and Caity Henniger and Jan Todd travelled to Iceland where, with assistance from several members of their technical staff, and filmmaker Todd Sansom, they made a 3D scan of the actual Husafel stone—so that they can recreate it—in stone—for this contest.
NEW: In Dione’s arena (on the floor where she runs the amateurs): The Wheel of Pain (A “real” Conan’s Wheel event) If you ever watched Arnold’s movie—Conan the Barbarian—you may recall that when the film begins he is a slave who spends his days pushing the arms of an enormous wheel that is used for grinding grain. In trying to think about something new—and yet historic—to do at this year’s Arnold, Steve Slater suggested that an event he always wished we could do was to create a real Conan’s Wheel—like the big wooden one in the movie—that men could push against rather than lift and carry. In talking about this with Bill Henniger of Rogue—who has always been so willing to build incredible equipment for the show—Bill also thought it would be a great event and so he and his team of engineers are now working on the design of what they hope will be an iconic strongman event. The wheel will be big—at least 30 feet across–and will be made of big timbers with heavy metal gears so that the weight required to push it is somewhat similar to pushing a heavy bus or truck. Jan Todd attached a drawing of the “Wheel of Pain” as the set designer drew it for the Arnold film. Theirs will not have the raised floor—or the platform with the man sitting on it–or the man on the horse. They also hope to have several height settings for the placement of the arms of the wheel—and again—this is still in early stage development at Rogue and she will send more details soon.
Expo Stage: The Austrian Oak The Heavy Log The big log will be 430 lbs. (195 kilos)—This is the same weight as 2017. Lighter log will be 385 pounds (175 kilos) for those who can’t do the big one.
2019 QUALIFIED ASC COMPETITORS*
1. Hafthor Bjornsson (Iceland) – 2018 Arnold Strongman Classic USA Champion
2. Rauno Heinla (Estonia) – 2018 Arnold Classic Australia Champion
3. Olekly Novikov (Ukraine) – 2018 Arnold Amateur World Champion
4. Mikhail Shivlyakov (Russia) – 2018 Arnold Classic South America Champion
5. Jean-Francois Caron (Canada) – 2018 Arnold Classic Africa Champion
6. Brian Shaw (USA) – 2018 Forts Warwick Champion
7. Martin Licis (USA) – 2018 Anrold Classic Europe Champion
Currently Tied on Points—and will compete IF THERE IS NO OTHER QUALIFIER: Mateusz Kielszikowski (Poland), Jerry Pritchett (USA) and Matjaz Belsak
(Slovenia), 25 points each in series
source: CBS broadcast of the Arnold Classic Strongman Contest, 20. december 2018