OLLIE CLARKE
Ollie Clarke on his journey from battling anorexia to competing at World’s Strongest Man
Ollie Clarke is one of the strongest men on the planet. The 22-year-old from Bishops Stortford was smashing powerlifting world records when he was 15, and has spent the following years competing in powerlifting and strongman events on both sides of the Atlantic. But his journey to the top of the sport didn’t have the best foundations.
Bullied at school for being “quite fat and chubby”, Clarke suffered with body dysmorphia: a mental health condition that caused an obsession with losing weight. Over the years, it developed into anorexia, and it wasn’t until he was old enough to join the gym when he was 11 that a switch was flicked, and Clarke shifted his focus from losing weight and dropping body fat to being as strong as he could be.
From his first set of weights, to dreaming of joining the World’s Strongest Man tour, Clarke shares his journey to becoming a strongman…
When I was in primary school, I was really overweight and bullied because of it. I didn’t want to be fat any more but, being so young, I didn’t have any idea how to diet or exercise safely. I developed some really unhealthy habits and obsessions with losing weight, and over time it developed into anorexia. I was seeing counsellors and doctors, [I was] in and out of hospitals, but nothing really helped until I was old enough to join a gym.
I was interested in bodybuilding. Seeing people like Arnold Schwarzenegger in movies, I couldn’t understand how they got that big and muscley. Coming from the anorexia stuff, and being body-focused and having body dysmorphia, I just wanted to gain loads of muscle and look big and powerful. But by actually doing that and training, I got more interested in the idea of building and having functional strength. Standing on stage posing didn’t really appeal to me as much as lifting, competing and being more of an athlete.
When I was 13, I got a powerlifting coach and did a competition four weeks later. At that first competition, I benched 100kg, which was a British record at the time. From 13 to 17, I competed in powerlifting and went to the World Powerlifting Championships for 15 and 16-year-olds. I won that and broke a few world records. When I turned 17, I wanted a new challenge, so I did a strongman competition. I was hooked.
A powerlifting competition is just testing the squat, bench press and deadlift. Strongman is a little bit different, which is what I like about it. You’ve got to be testing your strength as well as your speed, because you’ve got to do a lot of running
