Tom Stoltman thanks brother Luke after making World Strongest Man history
- Published
Tom Stoltman talks through his experience competing at the World's Strongest Man.
Tom Stoltman finished runner-up in the 2020 World's Strongest Man - the first Scot to do so - then invited his brother to share the podium.
Elder sibling Luke, 35, is a five-time winner of Scotland's Strongest Man and had victory ambitions of his own.
But an injury hampered his chances in Florida as 26-year-old Tom finished behind Ukraine's Oleksii Novikov.
"If it wasn't for Luke, I wouldn't have got the top two - he was literally by my side the whole time," Stoltman said.
Younger brother Tom also had form heading to the United States, having claimed second spot at the Britain's Strongest Man contest at the start of the year.
"We both competed, we both wanted to get a final and podium, but he had a wee injury and it didn't really go very well for him, so then he said 'it would make my day if Tom gets on the podium' - and I did," Stoltman told BBC Scotland.
"He kept my head in every event I did, screaming at me every event. He is the guy that got me to that place."
Stoltman, who was diagnosed with autism as a child, stands tall at 6ft 8in and weighs in at nearly 28 stone.
"People are messaging me all the time saying 'you have just become the second strongest man in the world'," he said. "It doesn't really feel real, but it is a massive thing to do.
"I think I am the sixth British guy to ever get on the podium and the first ever from Scotland. There have been people who have been doing this sport for their whole life and dream of getting on to the podium and I have done that in my second year at World's Strongest Man, so it is a very big and special moment.
"I am in really good shape. I just want to win everything next year. I want to take a lot of gold stuff home to the house."
Stoltman's path to the podium at the four-day event was far from straightforward. It had to be moved from its original date in May because of the Covid-19 pandemic and then it was disrupted again this month after Hurricane Eta battered Central America.
"We landed and then the next morning there was a massive hurricane," he recalled. "It delayed the competition by 24 hours. The competition is usually on the beach as well, so we had to get an indoor arena.
"They changed three events as well. Some events we had trained for they had taken out, so it was all up in the air at first, but I kept cool and went with the flow. It wasn't the organisers fault, it was the weather, and whatever happened, I was going to perform to the best of my ability."
Tom Stoltman paid tribute to the support given him by his brother