As busy as he is, Rayno Nel, SA’s first ever winner of the World’s Strongest Man competition in Sacramento, US, earlier this month, is used to waiting for the good things in life.
Earlier this year he married his university sweetheart, Monja, after meeting her 12 years ago.
“While I was studying electrical engineering at Central University of Technology in Bloemfontein one of my longtime pals, Junior Burger, rather liked a girl who played hockey and we went to watch a match at the Wag ’n Bietjie [Wait a Little] restaurant. One of the girls playing had amazing legs and after the match we all walked back to the car, little knowing that 12 years later I’d be marrying her!”
Yes, the girl from Wag ’n Bietjie (also a well-known SA thorn three) had well and truly hooked her giant of a man — Nel stands 1.91m tall and weighs in at a solid 148kg.
A rugby bursary saw him playing as a flank at university and provincial level (for the Cheetahs) and it was only a few years ago that Nel started dabbling in power competitions.
“In Upington, where I grew up, I dabbled in a lot of things. Monja will tell you, that so many things interest me, I get obsessed with finding out about things and then move on to the next fascination.
“I was actually quite short and only started getting taller in Grade 10, I was very skinny and high jump was actually my sport.”
A two-time winner of SA’s Strongest Man and also at continental level, he was invited to compete at the Siberian Power Show in Russia in 2023, but even giants have Achilles heels as Nel found out.
“That one was actually a bit of a horror-show. I only got an invite three weeks before the competition, got swine-flu a few days before I left and then had 40 hours of travel.
“As if that wasn’t enough I broke my foot in the second of six events but I still managed to get fourth spot.”
In 2024 he competed in the Strongmans Champions League, winning all three of the competitions he entered and that got him a wild card to the World’s Strongest Man in the US.
Did he think he had a chance of being top of the 25 competitors that started.
“No ways. I was never arrogant enough to think I could win. I knew I could maybe win one day but definitely not this year. I would have been happy with a top 10.”
He didn’t have to wait long for success though.
In fact, Nel was the first rookie to win the competition since 1997 and is also the first winner to hail from anywhere other than Europe or North America in the 48-year-history of the event, beating three-time champion Tom Stoltman of Britain by just half a point.
Now the hard work really starts as there is a target on his broad shoulders.
“I must say they’ve all been very nice to me though now that I’ve become a contender they’re more respectful but everyone’s great ... it’s intense and of course it’s a testosterone-driven sport, everyone wants to win.
“But it’s a four-day competition so we stay in the same hotels, eat in the same restaurants, sit in the athletes area for four days, the wives and girlfriends are there... it’s all very interesting.”
As a rugby player he said the exercises involving movement come more naturally to him and he knows that he has work to do in the static and overhead disciplines.
“But I’m going to put myself out there and even enter competitions that feature my weaker events because that’s the only way I’m going to improve and turn them into strong points.”
Talking of putting himself out there, he also knows how to put down a huge amount of food and regularly aims to take in 6,000 calories while in training. “It’s a lot [three-times more than the average recommended intake] but I eat very healthily and avoid any form of sugar while training. So then if I do take sugar during a competition, I can get the most benefit from it.”
Training is very difficult to your average gym workout. “Close to competition your weights get very heavy. People get a fright when I tell them how much I train but what they don’t realise is that sometimes the exercise takes maybe 10sec, or two minutes of maximum power and then I’ll wait for up to 25min to exercise again. I never train less than 2hrs at a time and sometimes it’s eight hours.”
SA rugby is renowned for producing enormously powerful rugby players and Nel can’t remember who the strongest was in the gym, “but what I do know is that I’ve trained with Ox Nche [Springbok prop] and honestly, if I had a pair of legs like him I could have done a lot more already.”
The impact his victory has had on the SA sports psych has surprised him. “I was still in London on the way back and someone phoned to tell me how much the country was embracing the story. I can’t believe it meant so much. I’m an extremely proud South African so to do something as small as I did is very inspirational and it’s lovely to see the country staying together.”
Talking of together, wife Monja has been at his side through thick and thin.
Next week Nel has a competition in Italy and then the Netherlands. By all accounts they only had time for a short honeymoon earlier this year so you wouldn’t bank against her being spoilt rotten between competitions this time round.
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