Local strongman competes in War of West

Andrea Roberts
Times Intern

 

Standing tall at 5’8” and weighing in at around 200 lbs, Nolan Sauve, who placed third in Canada’s Strongest Man under 200 lbs last year, is a local strongman currently preparing for part two of the War of the West Strongman Competition, which will take place in Calgary on June 11. Participants are trying to make it to the top 10 for a spot in the professional circuit in Québec. The War of the West is a two-part strongman series and is open-weight, meaning competitors of all weight classes compete against each other. Strongman competitions are a weight-lifting based sport that challenge different aspects of mental and physical strength, speed and endurance.
“The first and second part are completely different events,” said Sauve.
“They both have six events in each competition.
The first part of the War of the West took place in Regina on May 22 and Suave placed second last out of 12 competitors, two of which already have pro status.
The competitor with the most points at the end of the competition will be given a pro card. Sauve’s goal though, is to do the best he can in the competition as he is one of the smallest competitors in the event; some of the other participants are around 300 lbs and over. In order to prepare for part two he has been training hard. This includes practicing the implements of the events that are in the upcoming competition. The events of the next part will be a max deadlift, a squat for repetitions, a Viking press, a loading event with a wheelbarrow, and tire-flip. Originally there was meant to be an arm-over-arm truck pull but the event had to moved inside.
While some of the training can be done in a gym, he has to train with the items that will be in the competition, like flipping an 800 lb tire or placing a 230 lb atlas stone onto a 6ft platform- items not usually found in an ordinary gym.
Sauve originally got interested in doing strongman competitions after watching them on TV and YouTube videos and decided to give it a try.
“I did a competition two-and-a-half years ago and loved it,” he said.
His plan after this event is to go on to the Alberta Provincials for Strongman to hopefully earn a spot in nationals.