This is the second victory for Ukraine in the history of the tournament. The Ukrainian Vasyl Virastiuk first managed to win the World Strongest Man in 2004.

Almost all of the world's "strongman" competitions were canceled due to a pandemic, but "World Strongest Man-2020" was held, although postponed for six months. Participants from all over the world were competing for the title during 5 days in a row. First, Oleksii passed the group stage of the competition and entered the top ten. On the first day, he set a world record by lifting a barbell weighing 537.5 kg. In the finals, consisting of six competitions, the Ukrainian proved to be the most durable and scored 47 points. Despite severe muscle pain and constant tension, Oleksii managed to defeat Tom Stoltman (UK) and Jean-François Caron (Canada), who took the second and the third places correspondingly. The Ukrainian athlete dedicated his victory to his grandfather, who had passed away a week before.

On November 17, the Ukrainian athlete returned to Ukraine. Relatives, friends, groupmates, the KNUTE ATLANTS tug-of-war team and Vasyl Virastiuk met him in Kyiv. The meeting was extremely emotional, joyful, full of pride and gratitude.

Oleksii, we are proud of your achievements and contributions to Ukrainian and world sports. We wish you good health and new impressive records! Only the strongest man could pass this difficult competition and show the world what he is capable of.

We wish you to achieve your goals and always stay on top of the pedestal!