Power mad
Oleksii Novikov doesn’t walk into the room. He turns sideways, and shuffles through the doorway like someone navigating a particularly busy bar.
At 185cm and 136kg of solid muscle, Novikov has shoulders that are more than a metre wide. His hands, permanently curled from years of lifting really heavy stuff, are like bear paws, his wrists as thick as some people’s biceps. He’s wearing an XXXXL T-shirt. “My problem, it’s just my size. I am so small for a strongman,” Novikov says.
We meet in Sacramento, California, before the 2022 World’s Strongest Man competition. Novikov took the title in 2020 but this time he is competing after an unimaginably hard few months.
Novikov is Ukrainian and was in his home town of Kyiv as Russia launched its invasion on 24 February. Drafted into the military, Novikov trained alongside his countrymen – including undergoing sniper and general firearms training – but was given leave to enter Europe’s Strongest Man competition in April. Despite having been forced to neglect his training, apart from the physical exercise he did in the military, Novikov won the competition.
After friends died and he was forced to shelter underground as Russian forces shelled Kyiv, Novikov has taken extra motivation from the war.
“ Whatever the country that wins this competition [in Sacramento], its people will be the strongest nation,” he says. “ Ukraine needs this win. It will support our army and the
