Brian Shaw (strongman)

Brian Shaw (born February 26, 1982) is an American retired professional strongman who is widely regarded as one of the greatest strength athletes of all time. He won the 2011, 2013, 2015, and 2016 World's Strongest Man, making him one of only five men to win the World’s Strongest Man four times or more. In 2011, Shaw became the first man to win the Arnold Strongman Classic and the World's Strongest Man competitions in the same calendar year, a feat he replicated in 2015. With 27 international competition wins, he is the fourth most decorated strongman in history behind Lithuania's Žydrūnas Savickas, Poland's Mariusz Pudzianowski and Iceland's Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson. Shaw has also set more than 25 world records in deadlifting, stonelifting, keg-tossing, grip-related movements and more.
In October 2024, Shaw was inducted into the International Sports Hall of Fame.
Shaw was born in Fort Lupton, Colorado, on February 26, 1982, the son of Jay and Bonnie Shaw. Both of his parents were taller than average, with his father standing at 6 ft 0 in (1.83 m) and his mother 5 ft 11 in (1.80 m). Shaw's mother has also noted that Brian had uncles of exceptional stature on both sides of his family tree.
At Fort Lupton High School, Shaw excelled in basketball. He then attended Otero Junior College in La Junta, Colorado. There, he was able to form an inside combination with current Louisiana State University-Alexandria Head Women's Basketball Coach Bob Austin. Shaw was one of the team leaders for the Rattlers in his sophomore season. Following Otero, he went to Black Hills State University where he was on a full basketball scholarship and received a degree in wellness management.
During his basketball career, Shaw was "hooked on the weights" and he has said that the weight room was his "sanctuary". In his own words, "I've always been able to do this. The biggest tire, the heaviest stone ... I've always been able to walk up and lift it. Odd strength is what it is, not weight-room strength. It's brute strength."
Shaw began his career as a strongman with a win when he entered the Denver's Strongest Man contest in October 2005. He had entered with no formal training. Just seven months later in June 2006, he joined the professional ranks and his successes continued.
In 2009, he entered Fortissimus, otherwise known as the Strongest Man on Earth competition, in Canada where he came in third and was the only man to lift six Atlas Stones weighing from 300–425 lb (136–193 kg). He then competed in Romania in the World Strongman Super Series. In September, he traveled to his second World's Strongest Man (WSM) contest in Valletta. There he was grouped in what was termed the "group of death" not least because of his presence in it. Alongside him in this group was Zydrunas Savickas who went on to win the title. Although Savickas won the group, he and Shaw were separated by just two points. In the final, Shaw went on to attain a podium finish, something Randell Strossen of IronMind had predicted would happen when he said "he has to be considered a favorite for a podium position. If he can stay healthy, there's no end to what he could do. He's got these gifts. He's the total package."
Shaw qualified for the finals at the 2010 World's Strongest Man in Sun City, South Africa in September 2010. He was tied for the lead at the end of the finals with Zydrunas Savickas and lost by countback, a system of scoring based on how the athletes placed in each event throughout the finals. Savickas had higher overall placings (2 first places and 1 second place out of 6 events) than Shaw (2 first places and 1 fourth place out of 6 events) and won the 2010 title. Shaw had a costly mistake in the first event of the finals, the Loading Race, failing to secure a third 125kg sack onto the platform. He fell from a 1st place finish to 3rd place in that event, costing him valuable points against Savickas.
Shaw competed against Savickas again in October 2010 at the Giants Live Istanbul contest. Shaw again finished second behind Savickas.
Shaw won the inaugural Jón Páll Sigmarsson Classic on November 21, 2010.
Shaw won the Strongman Super Series Swedish Grand Prix and became the 2010 overall Super Series champion on December 18, 2010. This was Shaw's second consecutive overall Super Series championship.
In 2011, Shaw once again participated in the World's Strongest Man competition. Going into the final event, the Atlas Stones, Shaw was tied with two-time champion Zydrunas Savickas. Shaw beat Savickas in the final event, taking 1st place. Shaw also won the 2011 Arnold Strongman Classic, becoming the fourth man to do so (after Mark Henry, Savickas, and Derek Poundstone). Doing so, he became the first man to win both the Arnold Strongman Classic and the World's Strongest Man in the same year.
However, in March 2012, at the 2012 Arnold Strongman Classic, Shaw suffered a left distal biceps tendon rupture in the first event, the Apollon Wheel,. While he finished the event, he only finished 4th overall, missing out on a podium finish. This injury affected Shaw's performance in the 2012 World's Strongest Man Competition, resulting in him falling out of the podium for the first time since 2009.
In the 2013 World's Strongest Man competition, 13 weeks after surgery to repair his left biceps tendon, Shaw led Savickas into the final event (again the Atlas Stones) and again beat Savickas to win the competition. He broke Savickas' record in the deadlift, lifting 442.5 kg (975.5 lbs).
In 2014, Shaw placed 2nd overall in the Arnold Strongman Classic and 3rd overall in World's Strongest Man.
Shaw also won the 2015 and 2016 World's Strongest Man competitions. This made him one of five men to have won four World's Strongest Man competitions, together with Mariusz Pudzianowski (the only man with five), Žydrūnas Savickas, Jón Páll Sigmarsson, and Magnús Ver Magnússon. Shaw also won the 2015 Arnold Strongman Classic competition, repeating his feat of winning both the Arnold Strongman Classic and the World's Strongest Man in the same year.
In 2017, Shaw competed in both the World's Strongest Man and the Arnold Strongman Classic competitions. Shaw won the Arnold Strongman Classic, but later in the year, he finished 3rd at the World's Strongest Man, behind the winner Eddie Hall and runner-up Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson.
In March 2018, Shaw competed in the 2018 Arnold Strongman Classic, finishing 2nd place overall with 41.5 points to winner Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson's 46.
Shaw secured another podium finish at the 2018 World's Strongest Man after emerging 3rd behind Björnsson, who won his first World's Strongest Man competition, and runner-up Mateusz Kieliszkowski.
In October 2018, Shaw competed in the World's Ultimate Strongman competition in Dubai. Shaw struggled with some of the events including the deadlift where he had trained with a different bar height and the yoke walk where the stage cracked under the combined weight of Shaw and the yoke, causing him to briefly drop the yoke and increase his time. Shaw still performed well, lifting all the objects in the overhead medley and was separated from leader Björnsson by 5.5 points going into the sixth and final event. In the sixth and final event, the Atlas Stones, Shaw lifted all five stones but this was not enough to surpass Bjornsson in the final points tally, leaving Shaw in second place.
In March 2019, Shaw competed at the 2019 Arnold Strongman Classic. In his third attempt in the first event, the Rogue Elephant Bar deadlift, Shaw tore his left hamstring. While he was able to complete four of the five events, he ultimately withdrew before the final event, finishing in 8th place. He had not finished below 2nd place in his previous six years in this contest. His next competition was the 2019 World's Strongest Man held in June 2019, where he finished in 6th place, falling out of podium position for the first time since 2012. His final event of the year was the World's Ultimate Strongman in Dubai, where he finished in 4th place.
On January 18, 2020, Shaw placed second overall at the Arnold Strongman USA, behind the winner Martins Licis. As he failed to win the contest, he did not qualify for the 2020 Arnold Strongman Classic for the first time in 11 years.
On November 15, 2020, Shaw placed fifth overall at the 2020 World's Strongest Man competition, failing to make the podium. Shaw placed seventh in the Giant's Medley, fifth in the partial deadlift, sixth in the Hercules Hold, and seventh in the Log Ladder.
On December 11, 2020, he hosted the first Shaw Classic competition. Shaw hosted, organized, and paid out the purses for the competition. Rogue provided equipment for the competition with Trifecta announced as a sponsor. Shaw invited an All-Star cast of ten Strongmen to compete including the reigning Worlds Strongest Man Oleksii Novikov (who finished third.) Shaw would end up winning the competition and forfeiting his winning purse giving the winners share to the rest of the athletes. All ten competitors walked away with a share of the winning pool which included money Shaw invested, GoFundMe donations, and pay-per-view earnings.
In the 2021 World's Strongest Man Competition, Shaw placed 2nd behind Scottish Strongman Tom Stoltman, his first podium finish since 2018. In the event he qualified for his record 13th WSM final, breaking a tie held by him and Zydrunas Savickas. All 13 of these finals were consecutive, another record. He also extended his own record by appearing in his 14th consecutive WSM contest, and equaled the record 10 podium finishes of Savickas. Shaw also set a new world record in the keg toss for height, crossing a height of 7.75m (his previous record of 7.25 m was broken by 4 other men in the competition). Brian also finished in 2nd and 7th place at the Shaw Classic and Rogue Invitational later that year.
In the 2022 World's Strongest Man Competition, Shaw placed 4th in the final and extended his record for consecutive WSM competitions to 15 and consecutive WSM finals to 14. He was also the runner-up at the 2022 Shaw Classic.
In 2023, he announced that he would compete in two competitions prior to retiring, the World's Strongest Man and the Shaw Classic. Prior to World's Strongest Man, he contracted an infection in his leg requiring hospitalization and IV antibiotics. He recovered in time for his record extending 16th consecutive WSM competition. He competed in group four and finished in second behind Jaco Schoonwinkel. He had to face off against the third place finisher in his group Rauno Heinla in a stone off and was victorious advancing to his record-extending 15th final. He ended up finishing in 7th place in the final. A new award, the Knaack Tools of the Strongman Award, was also awarded to both Shaw and veteran strongman Mark Felix. The award was voted on by the athletes to recognize the hardest working athlete in the year's competition.
In the 2023 Shaw Classic, his final professional strongman competition, he scored the overall win by seven points over Mitchell Hooper to become a two-time Shaw Classic champion.
Placements: 29 x 1st places, 16 x 2nd places and 7 x 3rd places = 52 x podium finishes from 69 total competitions.
During competitions
During training
On December 14, Shaw faced Eddie Hall at King Of The Table 13 in a right handed best of 7 supermatch. He has been trained with Devon Larratt. He won the match 4-2.
Brian married his wife Keri in 2015. Keri was formerly married to strongman competitor Mike Jenkins until his death in 2013. The couple has two sons, Braxton and Kellen, and they live in Brighton, Colorado.
Shaw has a YouTube channel, SHAWSTRENGTH, which has videos of training footage, fitness and strength challenges, and eating challenges. Eddie Hall is also seen occasionally on his videos.
Shaw was one of four strongmen to be featured in the History Channel series, The Strongest Man in History, which premiered on July 10, 2019. On the first episode of the show, he pulled a 12,000 lb (5,400 kg) viking ship on a 60 feet (18 m) incline course which translates the weight to around 60,000 lb (27,000 kg) in 44.05 seconds. On the third episode, he lifted, via the very top of a yoke squat, a platform and water-filled barrels weighing 2,028 lb (920 kg). Even though the range of motion here was approximately an inch, this is considered the heaviest partial squat of all time.
Shaw is also the owner of the supplement brand Undefined Nutrition and the supportive gear equipment company Evolution Athletics.