'Being a competitive strongman feels like being a rock star'

A Yorkshire strongman competitor is hoping to take home the Europe's Strongest Man title for the second time this weekend.

Luke Richardson, 28, from Harrogate, is competing in the international event at Leeds First Direct Arena on Saturday and Sunday, where he hopes to reclaim the title he first won in 2020.

The week before the competition, Richardson is taking a break from regular strongman training and tapering down.

Rather than his usual gym work, he's sleeping, eating, walking his Bichon Frise puppy and casually pressing a "light" 155kg over his head occasionally.

"It's a good life really," he says.

"I'm chilling like a baby for this week, just sleeping, eating and sleeping more."

For Richardson, the event at the First Direct Arena is a full circle moment as he was first inspired to pick up the sport when he saw Eddie Hall deadlifting 500kg there in 2016 - breaking the world record.

He says: "The First Direct Arena was where Eddie did the really famous 500. I went and watched that in the crowd so it's been one that I've always wanted to compete at.

"I've been invited a few times but I've just been getting injured the last few years so I've never really had a chance to do it.

"Giants Live packs out the First Direct Arena, which is cool because you feel like a rock star."

When Richardson first took the European win in 2020, he was the youngest ever champion, and he then made the final at World's Strongest Man and was top 10 in the world.

But the following year he was hit with a litany of injuries, and his attempt to reclaim the title has been on pause since.

"I tore my bicep off the bone, so I had to have a surgery for that and I had to have a knee surgery and then I tore the same bicep off again and then I was getting ready to come back and I tore my latissimus dorsi tendon off. Then tore my hamstring off," he says.

"I won England's Strongest Man in 2023, it was the only competition I got the chance to do."

But last year, he made it to the podium at two international shows and now he is looking to take a title on home turf.

"Whenever I'm coming home from somewhere and I'm passing through Leeds, I always end up driving past the First Direct Arena.

"So I thought it would be cool to win a comp there. Then, every time you drive past it you can remember that you're the man," he says.

Yorkshire has a history of strongmen.

In 1989 Sheffield-born Jamie Reeves was named World's Strongest Man and as far back as 1927 Dewsbury strongman JC Tolson was one of the first men to deadlift 250kg.

Richardson says the county is a "bit of a hotbed".

"There's been quite a few lads go to worlds from Yorkshire.

"Darren Sadler, who owns Giants Live, is from Boroughbridge and I co-train across at his a bit. And I've got my own gym in Wetherby [L R Strength Shed] that I train at as well," he says.

With events including the Atlas stones and dragging an 125kg anchor and chain, the sport can feel intimidating for casual gymgoers, but Richardson says the "big scary people" are usually the nicest.

"If you feel intimidated about going to a gym full of big scary people, what you tend to find is that all the big scary ones are actually the nicest ones there.

"They're the ones who are more likely to help you. Especially for people who are new coming in, everyone wants to enjoy it and we see the value in it because we can see what it's done for us."

The European competition includes five events: a press medley - a 90kg dumbbell lift, 150kg safe lift, 150kg axel bar lift and a 150kg log lift - carrying a 200kg shield, dragging a125kg anchor and chain, deadlifting 350kg and the famous Atlas stones.

The training requires meals of 7,000 calories or more, so for Richardson a normal day includes "a lot of eggs, a lot of chicken, a lot of rice".

"You've got to train like a bit of a lunatic," he says.

"You try to replicate it as close as you can in training, in your off season it is general gym training just like anyone who goes the gym would, but very heavy.

"When you start training with the kit, that's when things start getting dangerous, because the nature of the sport it's not very safe. That's why I get injured quite a lot, but hopefully that's behind me now."

The injuries took a mental as well as physical toll, but with a strong support network around him – he lives with his Irish fiancé and puppy, and has training partners in York, Leeds and Boroughbridge – he feels ready to win.

"When you have the temperament of someone who does something like strongman, you need a bit of an outlet for that. It's been my entire life.

"I've been training in the gym for more than 10 years now so, there's quite a lot of my self-worth invested in it.

"When that all gets stripped away you lose your identity a bit, but it's like anything in life when you kicked down.

"I've been kicked down a few more times than most but I've got back up."

A win would lead him to World's Strongest Man in May, England's Strongest Man in July and the top 10 competitions for the rest of the year.

He says: "I would like to win again because I haven't had a chance to compete at Europe since I won it five years ago. So it would be nice to come back and win it, my first one back in."

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