Plant-Powered Powerhouses Take Euro Strongman Wins

The Pro Strongman League European Championships was a massive challenge for two vegans – who didn’t disappoint.

England’s Tom Butts has made an impact on the u90 kg part of the sport like no other, winning the Natural Strongman World Championships 3 times and this year’s Britain’s Strongest Man at that weight – among others. He recently made the decision to step up to u105 kg, and it went incredibly well.

Events were:

• 130kg Log for Reps – Tom got three and took third.
• 300kg 15″ Axle Deadlift for Reps – he took three and tied first.
• Sandbag Killer Medley (130kg x 3 shoulders, 150kg Husafell x 20m) – his 38 seconds took the win.
• 130kg Farmers 2x10m, 110kg Keg Carry and Load – another win in 19.2 seconds.
• He finished with a 150kg Atlas Stones for Reps – his 7 tied him second and gave him the win.

“Finishing top 3 in each event was a big win for me” Tom said. “Probably my most complete competition performance to date, and definitely my biggest win in terms of the calibre of athletes I was facing and the difficulty of the category itself.” Aside from this being at 105 kg and European level, Tom is natural and the competition was untested.

Meanwhile France’s Angeline Berva was competing in the women’s 82 kg category.

• In Event 1 she pressed a 100 kg Log for 6 reps.
• She deadlifted a 15” 210 kg bar for 8 reps.
• In the sandbag medley she loaded 4 bags (90/100kg).
• 100 kg Farmer’s walk was next – 30 metres in 21 seconds.
• Nine reps with a 100 kg atlas stone was last. With five wins out of five, Angeline won convincingly overall.

Angeline has been vegan since age 17 (in 2011) when she learned enough about the cruelty in the animal agriculture industry to make the change. Now Angeline eats tofu, seitan, tempeh and legumes to ensure she gets her protein and builds strength.

“I became vegan quite young” she says. “So I built my physique and my performance while being vegan.”

Tom has been vegan since 2020, transitioning over most of the previous year. He was also motivated to avoid contributing to animal cruelty., “…purely for animal ethics and not wanting to contribute to animal agriculture.”

Averaging 50g per meal for four meals a day, he eats a lot of carbs too. “Typically I’ll have an oat shake for breakfast before training. This includes soya milk, peanut butter, oats and a bit of protein powder.”

“I also love a red lentil balti curry at the moment with spinach, basmati rice and ‘chicken style’ soya strips.”