Matjaz Belsak-The Daily Ledger

Matjaz Belsak (in Slovenian Matjaž Belšak; born 23 September 1992) is a Slovenian professional strongman and powerlifter. Having competed in 60 International strongman competitions and winning 10 of them, Belsak is among the 20 most decorated strongmen of all time.

Biography

Early life

Matjaž Belšak was born in a village Seničica, near Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia on 23 September 1992. He grew up in a family of cooks; his parents own a restaurant "Gostilna Belšak" where he still occasionally works as an apprentice chef. He graduated in Tourist Studies.

Matjaz Belsak

Powerlifting career

Matjaž started working out in 2008, when he was 15, with a goal to become stronger. As his strength was increasing really fast, it soon became clear that he might be able to show some really decent results in couple of years. He decided to compete on his first powerlifting meet in 2010, when he was 17 years old. During his early years of strength related sports he set quite a few Slovenian national records in powerlifting and he even won the overall gold in GPC Slovenian Powerlifting nationals in 2010. In 2012 he won his first and only international powerlifting meet (GPC), totaling 875 kg / 1929 lbs (360 kg / 793,5 lbs in squat, 190 kg / 419 lbs in bench press and 325 kg / 716,5 in deadlift). After that competition he only focused on the sport of strongman.

Matjaz Belsak

Strongman career

Beginnings

A former Slovenian strongman and Slovenia's strongest man at that time Gregor Stegnar saw the potential in the young powerlifter and inspired him to try strongman for the first time in 2012, offering him his mentorship. Matjaž quickly fell in love with the sport. He started competing in competitions in Slovenia and surrounding countries.

Matjaz Belsak

Becoming a professional strongman

Matjaž became a professional strongman after winning the Savickas classic competition in 2015, which enabled him to compete in the Strongman Champions League in the next season at just 20 years old, where he was among the youngest competing athletes.

Slovenia's Strongest Man

Almost immediately after starting to compete in strongman, Matjaž won the title of Slovenia's strongest man in 2014 and did it again in 2015 He kept that title until 2017. In 2018, 2019 and 2022 he, besides competing and winning, also took over the organisation of this very competition. There were no Slovenia's Strongest man competitions in the years of 2016, 2017, 2020 and 2021.

Strongman Champions League

During the 2013–2016 seasons, Matjaž did only a few competitions during his first two years of competing in the Strongman Champions League, as he was mostly focusing on becoming stronger, but he competed in a lot of SCL events in 2016 and finished the season by taking the 5th place in the finals. In the season of 2017, Matjaž won all of the SCL competitions he took part in and even won the final in Mexico, becoming the 2017 Strongman Champion's League world champion, achieving one of his biggest goals to that day, as he stated in a video made a year before.

World's Strongest Man

After a few successful years of competing on the international level, Matjaž was invited to compete in the World's Strongest Man.

In the 2015 World's Strongest Man in Putrajaya, Malaysia, Matjaž successfully made his first appearance at the event. While he didn't qualify for the finals, he finished 3rd in his heat. In the 2016 World's Strongest Man in Kasane, Botswana, Matjaž made it to the finals, finishing 9th overall. In the 2017 World's Strongest Man in Gabarone, Botswana, he was unable to make it to the finals, finishing 3rd in his heat. In the 2018 World's Strongest Man in Manila, Philippines, Matjaž had his best performance at WSM , finishing 7th place overall in the finals.

World's Strongest Team

Matjaž competed for the first time in this event in 2015 World's Strongest Team, taking the 1st place with Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson who competed under the name 'Vikings'. Yankees (Jerry Pritchett & Mike Burke) placed second while the Saxons (Eddie Hall & Mark Felix) placed third. He also competed in 2019 World's Strongest Team, finishing on 3rd place with Mikhail Shivlyakov.

Europe's Strongest Man

Matjaž competed on three different Europe's Strongest Man competitions, always finishing in the top 10:

In 2015 Europe's Strongest Man he made his first appearance, finishing the competition on 5th place. In 2017 Europe's Strongest Man he placed 6th. In 2018 Europe's Strongest Man Matjaž finished on the 7th place.