Mike Jenkins (strongman)
Mike Jenkins was an American professional strongman competitor from Westminster, Maryland. Jenkins worked as a high school athletics director when not competing as a strongman. He was a college and professional football player before switching over to strongman competition in 2007. He won the Maryland's Strongest Man contest in 2007 which qualified him for the North American amateur national strongman championships later that year and he placed sixth in that contest. He placed second in the North American nationals in 2009.
Jenkins competed in the inaugural Arnold Amateur Strongman World Championships in 2010 and won that contest. This victory earned him his pro strongman card, as well as an invite to the 2011 Arnold Strongman Classic. He competed in the 2010 America's Strongest Man later in the year and placed second behind 3-time champion Derek Poundstone.
He entered the 2011 Arnold Strongman Classic placing second overall ahead of the reigning World's Strongest Man, Zydrunas Savickas. and qualified for the finals of the 2011 World's Strongest Man contest, which, though winning the first 2 events, he had to withdraw from after suffering a back injury, finishing in eighth place overall.
Jenkins won the 2012 Arnold Strongman Classic, finishing ahead of former champions Derek Poundstone, Zydrunas Savickas and Brian Shaw, and won the Giants Live event in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia on March 17, 2012, which qualified him for the 2012 World's Strongest Man contest later in the year. He set a joint world record in the hip lift event with Nick Best with a lift of.
Mike Jenkins died on November 28, 2013, aged 31, in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania
