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From lifting tires and pulling fire trucks to carrying the most weight, competing in the World’s Strongest Firefighting competition takes incredible strength.
“My whole goal was to have minimal mistakes, try my best and have consistent performance across all the events. That’s what wins competitions at the end of the day in Strongman, is consistency,” Evan Yaworski, who’s a firefighter with the Royal Canadian Air Force and based in Winnipeg, said.
The Saskatoon-born man lifted his way to the top of the podium earlier this month, clinching the title of the World’s Strongest Firefighter. He became the first Canadian to do so.
“I think it’s pretty neat to be the first person to be able to do this for Canada,” Yaworski said.
The World’s Strongest Firefighter is held at The Arnold, an annual multi-sport event in Ohio consisting of bodybuilding and strongman competitions.
“We have firefighters competing from around the world. This year we had over 150 registered athletes,” John Byrne, the World’s Strongest Firefighter co-founder, said.
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The competition first started after the catastrophic wildfires in California in 2018. It was created by Arnold Schwarzenegger to honour first responders and raise money for a number of non-profits.
“To date, we have raised half a million dollars towards firefighter charities helping widows,” Byrne said.
The World’s Strongest Firefighter is a unique strength competition because all weight classes and genders compete together.
“It takes the Wilks system, and it takes pound for pound who the strongest firefighter is,” Byrne said.
That’s why Yaworski, who is classified as a lightweight, was still able to win it all. He coached himself throughout the entire training process.
“I’ll do my own programming and if I’m stumped or need a different perspective on things, I’ll talk to people with more experience,” Yaworski said.
Yaworski works tirelessly on his passion, something that goes hand in hand with his career.
“It’s expected you’re in shape as a firefighter, because at the end of the day you need to be reliable in a physically and mentally stressful job,” Yaworski said.
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