Hooper shocks Arnold
Mitchell Hooper made history at the Arnold Strongman Classic — a dominant win captured in a community reaction video published Mar 13, 2026 that frames his performance as a game-changer for strongman standards video. Expect coaches and competitors to dissect his prep and recovery methods after this breakout showing video.
The Arnold Strongman Classic ran March 6–7, 2026 at the Greater Columbus Convention Center in Columbus, Ohio. en.wikipedia.org Mitchell Hooper captured his fourth consecutive Arnold title with 36 total points, finishing one point ahead of runner-up Austin Andrade (35). muscleandfitness.com Hooper opened with a 445 kg (981 lb) elephant-bar deadlift that earned the event top score (9 points) and matched Lucas Hatton on the Cyr dumbbell press at 136 kg (300 lb). en.wikipedia.org The final leaderboard listed Hooper 1st (36), Austin Andrade 2nd (35) and Martins Licis 3rd (34), with nine athletes contesting six events over two days. colosseumstrength.com Event-by-event notes show Hooper slipped to fourth in the Stone Drag with a 24 ft 9 in mark while Martins Licis won that piece in 1:31.23, and Hooper completed three reps on the Austrian Oak (430 lb) to hold his lead. colosseumstrength.com Major strength outlets ran technical breakdowns after the weekend — FitnessVolt, Generation Iron and Muscle & Fitness each published event analyses — and Hooper posted an official "I WON" recap on his YouTube channel documenting the win. fitnessvolt.com
