Brian Shaw recaps the final performance of his strongman career.
Recently winning his final strongman show at the Shaw Classic, Brian Shaw recaps his performance and storybook ending to his career. The veteran strongman not only critiqued his performance throughout the show, but he also let people in on his injuries and emotions that made this final performance so special. As Shaw puts it, his final performance was like a “storybook ending” to his career.
Regarded as one of the greatest strongman athletes of all time, Brian Shaw recently went into retirement after a long and storied career. For fifteen years Shaw put on some of the greatest performances in strongman history. He won the World’s Strongest Man competition on four separate occasions. When he wasn’t winning the show Shaw remained a top contender, placing in the top five in almost every showing.
Now that his career has come to an end, Brian Shaw appears to be reflective of his past performances. In particular, Shaw recently recapped his final performance at the 2023 Shaw Classic. The show which took place on August 19-20, in Loveland, Colorado featured some of the best strongman athletes in the world. Among the competitors were World’s Strongest Man winners Mitchell Hooper, Tom Stoltman, and Oleksii Novikov. The roster was filled with many other talented strongman competitors as well all taking home some prize money after the event.
In his recap, Brian Shaw gave a layout of the prize money winnings for each of the competitors.
2023 Shaw Classic Prize Winnings
- Brian Shaw — No Prize
- Mitchell Hooper — $49,771
- Tom Stoltman — $34,655
- Evan Singleton — $24,830
- Trey Mitchell — $19,540
- Thomas Evans — $17,020
- Bobby Thompson — $16,013
- Maxime Boudreault — $15,005
- Kevin Faires — $13,997
- Oleksii Novikov — $12,990
- Gavin Bilton — $11,982
- Aivars Šmaukstelis — $9,967
- Luke Stoltman — $8,959
- Adam Bishop — $8,203
Besides speaking about the prize money, Brian Shaw also spoke about his performance. Shaw spoke on the Car Leg Press where he would cement his lead in the event.
“I did not expect that the reps would be as high as they were in the contest… I had to dig deep to get those 14 reps.”
The four-time World’s Strongest Man also spoke about the chest injury he suffered at the show. Despite winning the Standing Chest Press event, Shaw suffered a pec tear that prevented him from pushing for more reps.
“I went for the 10th rep and felt my chest tearing a little bit. I felt it right off the bottom of the lift, and I just stopped at that moment. It was, at that time, certainly very highly concerning for me.”
While the injury could have potentially derailed his performance, Brian Shaw was adamant about pushing through to victory. His grit allowed him to overcome the Bag Over Bar, as well as the Fingal Fingers/Power Stairs medley.
“I said to myself, there is literally no way that I am stopping. Zero chance. If I am hurt really badly, it doesn’t matter, I am just going to do one stair at a time.”
Overall Brian Shaw would consider his final strongman performance as too good to be true.
“It was a storybook ending.”
For more news and updates, follow Generation Iron on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
News and Editorial Writer at Generation Iron, Jonathan Salmon is a writer, martial arts instructor, and geek culture enthusiast. Check out his YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and Sound Cloud for in-depth MMA analysis.
Thumbnail courtesy of YouTube
