Matjaž Belšak was born in a village Seničica, near Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia on September 23 of 1992. He grew up in a family of cooks; his parents own a restaurant "" where he still occasionally works as an apprentice chef. He graduated in Tourist Studies.
Powerlifting career
Matjaž started working out in 2008, when he was 15, with a goal to become stronger. As his strength was increasing really fast, it has soon became clear that he might be able to show some really decent results in couple of years. He decided to compete on his first powerlifting meet in 2010, when he was 17 years old. During his early years of strength related sports he set quite a few Slovenian national records in powerlifting and he even won the overall gold in GPC Slovenian Powerlifting nationals in 2010. In 2012 he won his first and only international powerlifting meet, totaling 875 kg / 1929 lbs. After that competition he only focused on the sport of strongman.
Strongman career
Beginnings
A former Slovenian strongman and Slovenia's strongest man at that time Gregor Stegnar saw the potential in the young powerlifter and inspired him to try strongman for the first time in 2012, offering him his mentorship. Matjaž placed right on top and was immediately in love with the sport. He started competing on better even better competitions in Slovenia and surrounding countries.
Becoming a PRO strongman
Matjaž became a PRO strongman after winning Savickas classic competition in 2015, which enabled him to compete in the Strongman Champions League in the next season and rise his name on a whole new level, competing against some of the world's strongest men, while being just 20 years old and with that one of the youngest athletes to ever compete on this level.
Almost immediately after starting to compete in strongman, Matjaž won the title of Slovenia's strongest man in 2014 and did it again in 2015 He keept that title until now. In 2018 and 2019 he, besides competing and winning, also took over the organisation of this very competition as there were not any in the years of 2016 and 2017.
During the 2013–2016 seasons Matjaž did only a few competitions during his first two years of competing in the Strongman Champions League, as he was mostly focusing on becoming stronger, but he competed in a lot of SCL events in 2016 and finished the season by taking the 5th place in the finals.
In the season of 2017 Matjaž won all of the SCL competitions he took part in and even won the final in Mexico, becoming the 2017 Strongman Champion's Leagueworld champion, achieving one of his biggest goals to that day, as he stated in a video made a year before.
In 2017 World's Strongest Man in Botswana he was unable to made it to the finals, but he finished 3rd in the heat 1.
In 2018 World's Strongest Man in Philippines Matjaž showed his best performance on a competition of this level, finishing on 7th place overall in the finals.
1st place at 2017 Arnold Strongman Classic Europe in Barcelona, Spain.
2nd place at 2018 Arnold Strongman Classic Europe in Barcelona, Spain.
1st place at 2017 Arnold Strongman Classic Poland.
Physical characteristics
Matjaž is 187 cm tall and weights around 150 kg during the competitions season.
Daily life
Matjaž trains most of the time in his home gym. He usually trains for 3–4 hours a day, besides his regular stretching and mobility routines. He usually has 5 meals per day and consumes between 5000 and 7000 calories daily. He tries to sleep for at least 8 hours every night.
Personal records
Best lifts:
Log-lift: 200 kg
Raw squat with wraps: 400 kg
Raw deadlift: 410 kg
Max. dumbbell lift: 141 kg
Dumbbell lifts for reps : 92 kg x14 reps WR
Dumbbell lifts for reps : 102 kg x 9 reps WR
Atlas stones: Fibo atlas stones set 140–180 kg FIBO Record
Flipping 10 cars : 36sec WR
Media appearances
Despite being one of the strongest people on earth, Matjaž does not get that much media attention in Slovenia. However, he made a few appearances in Slovenian's most important media:
In 2016 he gave an interview on a popular Slovenian radio show, hosted by Denis Avdić, where he was asked to pull a truck.
In 2018 he gave an interview for the Slovenian national television.
