In October Tyson Delay became the Canadian national middle weight strongman champion.
He competed at the 2024 Strongman Corporation Canada National Championships in Moncton, New Brunswick Oct. 11 to 13.
"I'm finally an official pro athlete," he told Black Press Media.
Delay said it was the heaviest show the corporation has ever run.
"I have never seen weights this heavy in this corporation before. It was very, very impressive."
There were five events he competed in of which he won three, tied for first in one and got second to last place in another one.
Firstly, it was the sled drag, where he had to pull a sled of an unknown weight with a rope for 50 feet then jump up and drag it backwards the other way.
"This was a very chaotic event and I ended up taking second to last place, which put me very far behind right off the bat," he said.
The second event was the log ladder, which Delay said was an incredibly heavy and challenging event with 20 pounds being added to the log for every successful lift.
"I have struggled a lot with log in the past and was hoping for a top-three finish. I ended up winning the event outright by being the only athlete to successfully lift a 295-pound log overhead."
For the dead-lift, the third event, he had to lift a car weighing 600 pounds with his hands.
"There were a lot of dead-lift specialists there and so I was hoping for a top-three in this event," Delay said. "The best dead-lifter on the day got 15 reps and I matched him so we took joint first in that event."
The sandbag steeple chase was the fourth event. He said they had to load multiple 250-pound sandbags over a bar and then pick them up and run further with them for a total distance of 260 feet.
"Despite me training incredibly hard for this as one of the shorter athletes I did not expect to win but ended up winning it by a whole lap which was surprising. I'm very, very proud of this," Delay said.
Finally the five-stones event saw him lifting weights from 245 to 335 pounds up to a series of podiums.
"Again height helps a lot in this event and even though I trained very hard was only expecting a top-three finish in this event. But I ended up winning this one as well."
Considering he started off placing second to last, his performance for the other four events was "a hell of a comeback," he said.
Delay would like to attend the worlds in early December, but needs sponsorships to do so because the trip to nationals drained his bank account.
"I have invites to the worlds and to the Arnold's Classic in the new year, but I don't have money to go," he said.
After our interview, Delay followed up with a few comments in an email saying by far this is the capstone of his entire career in this sport.
"It was the hardest and most stressful competition of my life with factors of my personal life trying to pull me away from training and competing at my best I persevered anyways and somehow got the win and did so definitively," he noted. "I'm very proud and grateful for a healthy body and a strong enough mindset to push through and believe in myself even when everything seems crazy and impossible."
Delay also offered his thanks to Stefan hall from Rebel Fit Nutrition.
"He has been hugely supportive in this endeavour sponsoring an Air BnB and also suffering through my weight cut with me even though he didn't need to."
Finally he thanked Jayme Young, also a strongest person athlete from Williams Lake, for helping him on the day of the show in Moncton.
