FOUR-TIME World’s Strongest Man champion Žydrūnas Savickas has admitted that his “heart still wants to compete.”
A six-time runner-up at the competition, and an eight-time Arnold Strongman Classic champion, Savickas is widely regarded as one of the best Strongmen of all time.
However, the 47-year-old Lithuanian hasn’t appeared at the competition since 2018, when he finished tenth.
But despite his absence from WSM, Savickas still competes.
Just last year he won his fourteenth consecutive Lithuania’s Strongest Man title (seventeenth overall).
And this desire to compete still applies to WSM as well, telling The U.S. Sun during this year’s finals: “For sure, all athletes want to continue and continue and continue, but to find the motivation is harder and harder.
“And it’s harder because you’re getting older, more injuries, it’s difficult. But my heart does want to compete.”
With the joint-second most wins in the competition’s history along with American Brian Shaw and behind only Poland’s Mariusz Pudzianowski, Savickas also remains confident he could reach the final should he compete at WSM.
“Oh yeah for sure,” he said. “Last year I won World’s Strongest Man Masters, second place was Rauno Heinla – he was very close to reaching the (WSM) final.
“But for me to get to the final is not the motivation, all my career my motivation was to be number one.”
Given the level of the current crop of competitors, a comeback would be tough for Savickas.
Reigning champion Mitchell Hooper was in dominant form at the 2023 final, while runner-up Tom Stoltman had won the previous two competitions.
Both remain healthy and in their prime as all eyes turn to Giants Live, the Arnold Strongman Classic, and next year’s WSM.
Then there are the likes of former champion Oleksii Novikov, as well as Trey Mitchell, and Evan Singleton who both had career-best finishes of fourth and fifth respectively in 2023 and look like a real threat moving forward.
As was the case for reigning Europe’s Strongest Man, Pavlo Kordiyaka.
All that being said, if anyone could mount a comeback for the ages, surely it’s Savickas.