Strength athletics in Norway

Strength athletics in Norway refers to the participation of Norwegian competitors and holding national strongman competitions.

History

The sport's roots have a long history going back many centuries before modern strongman competitions in the 1970s. However, Norway did not come onto the international scene in modern times until the mid-1990s. Norway has had mixed success on the international stage, with Svend Karlsen winning the 2001 World's Strongest Man title, Norway's only WSM title. In recent years, Norway has had several top international competitors in WSM, including Arild Haugen, Richard Skog, Odd Haugen and Espen Aune.

National Competitions

Norway's Strongest Man

Norway's Strongest Man

Tournament information
Location	Norway
Month played	September
Established	1998
Format	Multi-event competition
Current champion
Henrik Hildeskor (2025)

Norway's Strongest Man (Norwegian: Norges Sterkeste Mann) is an annual strongman competition and the main national title of Norway. The event was established in 1998 and has produced fourteen champions throughout the years.^[1] Kurt Kvikkstad won in 1998 & 1999, with Roy Holte winning the next 3 years. Then emerged Svend Karlsen, Norway's greatest strength athlete who took the 2003, 2005, and 2006 titles. In 2004 Mattis Bjorheim won the title. Arild Haugen won in 2007 & 2008 and Richard Skog won in 2009 & 2010.^[1] Espen Aune won in 2011^[2] and then emerged Ole Martin Hansen who won the title a record four times from 2012 to 2015.^[3] Jørgen Skaug Aukland won in 2016 followed by Bjørn Andre Solvang in 2017. Then emerged Ole Martin Kristiansen who won the title three times from 2018 to 2020. Jonas Bathen won in 2021, Henrik Hildeskor in 2022, 2023 & 2025 and Håkon Heitmann Kollerød in 2024.

Champions breakdown

Year	Champion	Runner-Up	3rd place
1998	Kurt Kvikkstad	Thomas Johansen	Roy Holte
1999	Kurt Kvikkstad	Marius Bjerke	Roy Holte
2000	Roy Holte	Odd Haugen	Olaf Dahl
2001	Roy Holte	Kurk Kvikkstad	Frank Nagy
2002	Roy Holte	Olaf Dahl	Frank Nagy
2003	Svend Karlsen	Odd Haugen	Reider Kvåle
2004	Reider Kvåle[4]	Espen Aune[5]	Olaf Dahl[5]
2005	Svend Karlsen	Reider Kvåle	Olaf Dahl
2006	Svend Karlsen	Arild Haugen	Reider Kvåle
2007	Arild Haugen	Espen Aune	Odd Haugen
2008	Arild Haugen	Richard Skog	Odd Haugen
2009	Richard Skog	Arild Haugen	Lars Rørbakken
2010	Richard Skog	Espen Aune	Bjørn Andre Solvang
2011	Espen Aune	Lars Rørbakken	Bjørn Andre Solvang
2012	Ole Martin Hansen	Lars Rørbakken	Espen Aune
2013	Ole Martin Hansen	Bjørn Andre Solvang	Øyvind Rein
2014	Ole Martin Hansen	Espen Aune	Bjørn Andre Solvang
2015	Ole Martin Hansen	Bjørn Andre Solvang	Espen Aune
2016	Jørgen Skaug Aukland	Ole Martin Hansen	Ole Martin Kristiansen
2017	Bjørn Andre Solvang	Ole Martin Kristiansen	Jon Olav Granli
2018	Ole Martin Kristiansen	Nils Kjetil Sande	Jonas Bathen
2019	Ole Martin Kristiansen	Bjørn Andre Solvang	Jørn Erik Bolstad
2020	Ole Martin Kristiansen	Henrik Hildeskor	Stefan Sekej
2021	Jonas Bathen	Stefan Sekej	Øyvind Gustavsen
2022	Henrik Hildeskor	Morten Linge	Dag Rune Stangeland
2023[6]	Henrik Hildeskor	Tommy Kåsin	Morten Linge
2024[7]	Håkon Heitmann Kollerød	Henrik Hildeskor	Andre Vrålid
2025[8]	Henrik Hildeskor	Håkon Heitmann Kollerød	Dag Rune Stangeland

Repeat champions

Champion	Times & years
Ole Martin Hansen	4 (2012, 2013, 2014, 2015)
Roy Holte	3 (2000, 2001, 2002)
Svend Karlsen	3 (2003, 2005, 2006)
Henrik Hildeskor	3 (2022, 2023, 2025)
Ole Martin Kristiansen	3 (2018, 2019, 2020)
Arild Haugen	2 (2002, 2003)
Richard Skog	2 (2009, 2010)

Regional Competitions

Nordic Strongman Championships

Nordic Strongman Championships consists of athletes from Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Finland and Denmark.^[9]

Year	Champion	Runner-Up	3rd Place
2005	Svend Karlsen	Magnus Samuelsson	Juha-Matti Räsänen
2012[9]	Johannes Årsjö	Lars Rorbakken	Mikkel Leicht
2013	Johannes Årsjö	Ole Martin Hansen	Juha-Matti Järvi

• In 2005, the competition was held under IFSA in Kristiansand, and in 2012 and 2013 in Harstad, Norway under Giants Live.
• From 2014 onwards, the competition was promoted to global level, re-titled as the World's Strongest Viking and was held consecutively for 8 years under Strongman Champions League.

International Competitions

World's Strongest Viking

Norway hosted the winter edition of the World's Strongest Viking competition, with the participation of top athletes of the world.

Year	Champion	Runner-Up	3rd Place
2014[10]	Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson	David Nyström	Terry Hollands
2015[11]	Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson	Krzysztof Radzikowski	Jean-François Caron
2016[12]	Jean-François Caron	Matjaz Belsak	Krzysztof Radzikowski
2017[13]	Jean-François Caron	Krzysztof Radzikowski	Luke Herrick
2018[14]	Krzysztof Radzikowski	Dennis Kohlruss	Luke Herrick
2019[15]	Krzysztof Radzikowski	Ole Martin Kristiansen	Mika Törrö
2020[16]	Sean O'Hagan	Aivars Šmaukstelis	Mika Törrö
2021[17]	Dainis Zageris	Kelvin de Ruiter	Henrik Hildeskor
2023[18]	Johan Espenkrona	Eric Dawson	Øyvind Gustavsen

Giants Live

Norway was also the venue for a Giants Live Viking Power Challenge competition.

Year	Champion	Runner-Up	3rd Place
2009	Travis Ortmayer	Richard Skog	Mikhail Koklyaev