Tom Butts Wins the World Natural Strongman Title

English vegan strongman Tom Butts has won the under-90 kg title at the World Natural Strongman Championships, winning five of the eight events.

The championships are run by the Natural Strongman federation, which drug tests its athletes. Butts opened by winning the squat with 14 reps at 205 kg, according to Great Vegan Athletes. Later he carried two sandbags and a 140 kg Husafell bag 84 meters in the Cerberus Hell Medley, further than every competitor in the 105 kg, Masters and Open classes.

He also won the 280 kg deadlift ladder and the sandbag toss over a 4.1 m bar. In the sandbag-to-shoulder ladder, with bags from 110 to 140 kg, his time was the fastest of the day across all classes, and he was the only man to finish his ladder. Going into the last event, 190 kg Fingal's Fingers for reps, he led by 4.5 points. He needed four reps and got five.

The sandbag ladder is his favorite event, and he went into it with one thing on his mind:

My Event! 110kg, 120kg, 130kg and 140kg Sandbag to Shoulder in well under 30s. Absolute razor focus going into this one.

Every one of Butts's strongman wins has come as a vegan. He started cutting out milk and red meat in late 2019 and was fully vegan by November 2020, "purely for animal ethics and not wanting to contribute to animal agriculture". He eats four big meals and roughly 3,700 calories a day, built on oats, rice and potatoes. He says he got stronger after going from not veggie at all to fully vegan.

Vegan strength athletes keep stacking titles. Kim Best carried a 350 kg yoke, the heaviest ever by a woman, Ryan Stills won his fifth IPF world powerlifting title, and the PlantBuilt team won 18 medals at Mr. America.

World champion, powered by plants.