Yaworski no lightweight Winnipeg-based firefighter first Canadian to capture World’s Strongest title By: Joshua Frey-Sam Posted: 4:10 PM CDT Monday, Mar. 30, 2026

Carrying a 300-pound fire hydrant and pulling a 60,000-pound fire truck aren’t in Evan Yaworski’s job description, but his employer might find it nice to know that they could be and he wouldn’t bat an eye.

It was anything but another day at the office earlier this month when Yaworski, a Winnipeg-based firefighter with the Royal Canadian Air Force (Canadian Forces Base), showcased remarkable strength en route to being crowned the World’s Strongest Firefighter.

Held at the Arnold Sports Festival in Ohio, the 33-year-old outlasted more than 100 firefighters across the two-day strongman competition that tested his raw strength and endurance in nine competitions.

“This is my first time handling fire hydrants like that, but at the end of the day, I kind of looked at it like loading a keg onto a platform, so the skills were pretty transferable to get ready for the competition,” Yaworski, who was born in Saskatoon, told the Free Press.

“I like to think that it opens the door for people.”

Yaworski set a pair of new benchmarks in the process. At 198 pounds, he was the first lightweight to win the competition. He was also the first Canadian.

“I think it’s pretty neat,” he said of being the first Canadian. “I like to think that it opens the door for people to look at something like that, and maybe give somebody the idea that it’s a realistic possibility to achieve something like that.”

The World’s Strongest Firefighter competition, which began in 2018, had only been won by Americans before Yaworski, and of the 15 finalists in this year’s event, just three were international athletes.

“There’s not a lot of international representation there yet — it’s still a relatively new competition — but I’d like to think that with somebody like me, who is a lightweight and Canadian, maybe it’ll just draw more attention to that sport, where relatively smaller people can succeed and maybe more people will try,” Yaworski added.

“It was something to do…. I just had an itch for a competition.”

Although it was his first time at the Arnold Sports Festival — which draws more than 200,000 athletes and spectators from around the world every year — Yaworski was prepared for the big stage.

Before his strongman days, he was a competitive Olympic weight lifter, but that lost its lustre after seven years in the sport. Yaworski filled his time with jiu-jitsu for a stretch, but ultimately “missed training to be strong.”

“It was something to do,” he said. “I was in-between sports, and I just had an itch for a competition that’s weight-related that wasn’t powerlifting or weight lifting or CrossFit. I just wanted some more variety in my training, and I figured, ‘Why not strongman?’”

Yaworski experienced success almost immediately after turning to strongman, earning bronze and silver at his first two national championships, respectively. Last year, he broke through by winning gold at the Canadian championship and placing 15th at worlds.

“Since the beginning, I think my success has been because of my Olympic weight-lifting background,” he said. “A lot of skills transferred, just having a base of strength.”

Those skills transferred once again at the World’s Strongest Firefighter, as Yaworski carried a fire hydrant 200 feet in 60 seconds, pulled a fire truck 50 feet, deadlifted 585 pounds and carried a 250-pound keg down a 40-foot track, among other tasks.

“Since the beginning, I think my success has been because of my Olympic weight-lifting background.”

He trains anywhere from five to six days per week, up to three hours per session, in preparation for his competitions. Yaworski will look to be crowned Manitoba’s strongest man this summer.

“I think it was just kind of reassuring myself that I am on the right track with my training and what I want to achieve,” he said. “Every competition I go into, I do have a little bit of doubt at some point… so it can feel like a lot to manage, but at the end of the day, the results speak for themselves, and they reassure me that I do know what I’m doing.”

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