Rob Kearney (Strongman)

Rob Kearney is an American Professional strongman (born 16 november 1991) in Brooklyn, New York. He has competed in many strongman competitions around the world. Among them include, worlds Strongest Man, The Arnold Strongman Classic, and the Arnold Strongman Australia. He is known for being the first openly gay strongman in the sport. He hopes to raise awareness and acceptance of athletes of varying sexuality, as well as becoming the strongest man in the world. While being shorter in height than most strongman competitors, he holds the record in The United States for the log lift. https://www.kearneypower.com/
== Career ==
Rob has competed in The Worlds Strongest Man since 2017 and hopes to make the finals in 2020. In 2017 he placed 5th in his group. http://theworldsstrongestman.com/athletes/
In 2016 Rob won The World Log Lift Championship and was runner-up in 2019. Also at the 2019 World Log Lift Championships, he claimed the American Log Lift record of 471lbs, which is only 19lbs short of, at the time, world Record and World Log Lift Championship record. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_World_Log_Lift_Championships>
In 2017 he won the North American Open of the Giants Live tour, which is the official qualifying tour for WSM. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giants_Live
Rob qualified for the 2020 Arnold Strongman Classic by winning the Arnold Pro Strongman Australia. Held March 06th and 7th at the Columbus Convention Center, in Columbus Ohio, Rob fought his way to a tie for 6th place with Mikhail Shivlyakov. He managed to impress the judges and the announcers with his results in the Trial By Stone event, which was the first event of the competition. https://www.arnoldsportsfestival.com/sports-and-events/pro-strongman-series/
== Personal Life ==
At the end of Oct. 2014, he came out to The Huffington Post that he was gay, making him the first openly gay Strongman to actively compete at the professional, international level. His goal is to become the first openly gay strongman to qualify for the finals at The WSM. Rob does not consider coming out to have hurt him, but the opposite; "catapulting his strongman career." It was a big weight off of his shoulders and plans to focus his time and energy into strongman instead of living a lie. He wants to change the narrative and that it is great that WSM was held during Gay Pride Month - hence the rainbow mohawk. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/rob-kearney-comes-out_n_6094502
Rob is happily married to the love of his life, Joey, who supports him through his strongman endeavors. 
I am looking forward to seeing all of the hard work I have put into this prep come to life. I have never worked this hard for something and I am excited to show it off. My goal is to reach the final at The WSM. I was once a "competitor" but now a "contender" I have learned how to control my emotions for a long, drawn out competition.
 
On Jan 21, 2020, Rob was a guest on The Joe Rogan Experience podcast hosted by Joe Rogan. They covered many topics from him coming out to what it's really like to be a professional strongman. As of Mar 11 2020 the episode has had over 1.4 million views. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74TaVlSuipo
==In the media==
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==External links==
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* Rob Kearney - World's Strongest Man
== References ==
Category:1991 births
Category:Strongman competitions
Category:World's Strongest Man competitions
Category:American people