Comox Valley athlete competes for Canada’s Strongest Man title

Comox Valley athlete competes for Canada’s Strongest Man title

Published 2:05 pm Wednesday, August 12, 2026

Competing at Canada’s Strongest Man takes power, stamina and agility, and Comox Valley strongman Sean Hayes proves the sport also demands a lot of heart.

While deadlifting a truck, pressing a 350 pound log overhead, or shouldering a 1000 pound yoke are all obvious feats of strength, what makes the strongman sport even more challenging is that it tests all forms of strength: maximal, static, dynamic and endurance.

“It’s supposed to be a test of your entire body strength,” said Hayes. “Not just your straight power, but your movement ability, strength, agility, grip strength, everything.”

Hayes is a professional strongman who competes internationally in elite tournaments. This July, he came third at Western Canada’s Strongest Man in Calgary before heading straight to Beijing for the Red Bull China’s Beijing Strongman Fest, where he also placed third. Hayes took home the Fan’s Choice Award at both the Calgary and Beijing competitions.

Getting on the podium this summer is a feat of its own considering Hayes had been out with several injuries since 2023. But earning a podium placement at Western Canada’s Strongman means that Hayes ranks in the top twelve of Canadian strongmen, which lands him on the roster at the upcoming Canada’s Strongest Man competition in Quebec on Aug. 30.

“Three of my biceps have been torn off and reconnected; my pec got reconnected. I’ve had a couple of knee surgeries. I’ve had a rough string of injuries, so this year I’m really focusing on maintaining my health and learning to compete in a healthy way,” said Hayes.

Hayes currently holds the world record in the silver dollar deadlift category at 1235 pounds. This style of deadlift harkens back to strongman’s 19th-century circus roots, where barrels attached to the ends of a bar would literally be filled with silver dollars.

“Originally it was a showman thing. One famous guy is Louis Cyr from Quebec, and Quebec has a strong history of it. It was a bit of a circus thing, doing odd lifts for entertainment purposes,” said Hayes.

In the late 1970s, strongman events were formalized into a sport, and the first World’s Strongest Man competition was held at Universal Studios in 1977.

While always involved in sports, Hayes started to focus on lifting more as a college student.

“Then, I was just a chubby fellow and wanted to lift heavy things. I started powerlifting in 2014, did that for a few years, and wanted to go to strongman. That’s a much more fun sport; it keeps your ADHD much happier with a lot of variation to it all. You’ve got to be strong in all the ways, so it’s a much more attractive sport to me, and I made the shift over there in about 2019,” Hayes said.

To compete at such a high level, you’d think Hayes only has time for strongman, but training is just one herculean effort in the regimen of his life.

“I’m working full time. I’m in school about two-thirds of the time, working on my master’s degree — my MBA — and I’ve got kids at home. I’m a single parent with three kids. I bought a house last month, so everything’s been 24 hours a day right now,” Hayes said.

The strongman sport is experiencing a popularity surge, and yes, there are many strongwoman athletes as well, with Canada’s Sam Belliveau the 2025 North American Strongwoman champ.

If people are interested in taking up the sport, Hayes has some advice.

“The first step to getting into strongman is finding out where the nearest shows are and finding yourself a training facility,” said Hayes.

Hayes trains other strongman athletes out of his home every Saturday. “We get together in my one-car garage. It’s one of the top teams in the nation in the last five years. We have a lot of higher-level athletes come through and a few lower-level athletes, as well.”

Hayes says people interested in strongman can absolutely contact him through Instagram @sirseaningtoniii.

To stay up-to-date with Hayes as he competes in the Aug. 30 Canada’s Strongest Man competition, follow Circuit Hommes Forts on Instagram @circuithommesforts.ca.