World's Strongest Man 2017

MJG said:
Stefan Solvi hasn't had repeated injuries. He had an illness which lasted several years through diagnosis and treatment and then had one bad injury on his return.
Nobody worth anything is giving up after one injury.

I said:
What illness?

BrenWad said:
A mythic kidney issue ?

I get asked alot why I haven't been competing the last few years. I usually reply that I've been struggling with injuries. Which is true. But the main reason for me dropping out of the strongman circuit I've kept mostly to myself.

In 2012 I was diagnosed with a heart condition called supraventricular tachycardia or SVT. I started getting these symptoms in 2011 but they got much worse in 2012 and it was then when I first sought medical help as this was getting out of control. SVT is a condition where your heart starts to beat really fast, around 200bpm even if your not doing anything strenuous. If you want to know more about SVT its easy to find info online.

SVT is something that you are born with and is a relatively common defect. It's not something I earned through my lifestyle as a strength athlete just to get that out of the way. The treatment for SVT is to have a catheter ablation to burn away the cause of the symptoms.

The only problem for me was that the healthcare system in Iceland is so financially starved that I couldn't get in for the ablation until january 2013 or around 6 months after getting diagnosed. And that was only because of the fact that my SVT problem was so bad that I often had to go 3-4 times a week to the ER to get help. Unfortunately, the ablation was unsuccessful. I was told at the time that they wanted to try again in about 3 months. These 3 months turned out to be almost 2 very long years because of the previously mentioned financially starved healthcare system provided by the Icelandic government.

Anyways. On december 3rd 2014 I got in for a second ablation attempt which was successful! You can only imagine how relieved and happy I was. The doctor told me that if I was symptom free for 3 months after that I would be cleared good to compete again.

Well it's been 3 months now and I haven't felt better in years! With the support of my fiancee, family and friends I believe that I can still achieve my goals in the sport I love which I set many years ago!

Now I will truly be working on making a comeback!

BrenWad said:
A mythic kidney issue ?

MJG said:u
Absolutely not. See Craig's post above.

Mikeneto said:I think Tom Stoltman will make an impact in the heats. Give him another year and he will do it in the final...his pressing is amazing for his height, weight and age etc.

unit94 said:

Thats Ed at 23 push pressing 140x9. Tom is an awesome athlete and especially good at pressing given hes so tall

MJG said:I am sure Tom will have a great career if he keeps at it but I don't think Eddie is the right person mark him against. His career trajectory is pretty unusual for a top level strongman. If Eddie does win WSM he will be the slowest to progress to that in terms of WSM appearances that I can think of. Even to take 5 years to make the podium is pretty slow. Strongman is a weird sport. Almost as if you're going to be great it happens immediately. Just look at the past winners from the last 20 years -

Shaw - Won his third WSM but podium on his second
Z - Won his 6th WSM and podium on his third
Pudz - Won his second WSM
Pfister - Won his fith WSM
Virstyuk - Won his second WSM and podium on his first
Karlsen - Won his fith WSM and podium on his thrid
Virtanen - Won his third WSM and podium on his second
Ahola - Won his first WSM
Samuelson - Won his fourth WSM and Podium on the third.

BrenWad said:
Shows you are either naturally gifted enough to win or you aren't. Pumping yourself full of drugs and cakes won't close that gap.