A University of Guelph alum has become the first-ever Canadian to capture the World's Strongest Man title.
Mitchell 'Moose' Hooper won the illustrious trophy over the weekend in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.
He took down nine competitors in the final, scoring 53.5 points over six events.
Originally from Barrie, the human kinetics graduate only played half a season for the Gryphons, focusing more on his education.
"After I finished football at Guelph, I gained 40 or 50 pounds being depressed and just being a university kid," he told GuelphToday in June 2022. "Then I went from 300 lbs. and cut down 110 lbs. and did a body building show. Then I ran three marathons and then I moved to Australia and I just found a gym that I liked the environment and those guys did powerlifting.
"I took up powerlifting and six months later I won the national championship. (But) powerlifting is really boring because it's just the three lifts. Some other guys there did Strongman and sort of egged me into it. I just started getting involved and had a knack for it."
Hooper has done well for himself in such a short time.
He placed eighth in last year's competition in California, in what was only his fifth strongman competition because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Flash forward a year, he reached the top of the mountain.
"Been an absolutely mental run," he said in a video posted to his YouTube channel Monday. "Going to take a long time for me to wrap my head around (the World's Strongest Man trophy) being mine. I have to find a nice spot for that in our new house."
