Tom Stoltman was a skinny kid: 90kg, 6ft 8in, with glasses and protruding teeth. Diagnosed with autism as a young child, he felt he didn’t fit in. “I was really shy,” he says. “I got bullied in school for being different.” Back then, the boy from Invergordon didn’t like what he saw in the mirror. He lived in baggy hoodies. “Hood up. That was my comfort.” He loved football but “I used to look at people on the pitch and think, ‘He’s tinier than me, but he’s pushing me off the ball.’”
By 16 he’d hit a breaking point. He went from football-obsessed to playing Xbox all day. He’d skip meals in favor of sweets. “Sometimes it was four or five, six bags.”
It was Stoltman’s older brother Luke who got him out of the rut. A bodybuilder at the time, he dragged Tom to the gym and taught him how to lift free weights. “At the start I was just doing the 20kg bar and the next day I’d be so sore,” he says. But after a week he started to enjoy it.
Luke wasn’t just into bodybuilding; by 21 he had become a strongman competitor. Tom remembers watching Luke’s first competition, Scotland’s Strongest Man, where he lifted and towed huge, heavy objects such as cars, logs and atlas stones. “Watching your brother do that, you’re, like, oh, he’s like a Hulk.” Tom wanted in.
He joined a strongman gym, trained nonstop and focused on eating to get strong enough to compete, ditching snacks for protein-rich meals. “Autism became my cheat code.” He could lock into a routine and block out distractions.
Now 31, he weighs 180kg – the same as a large lion. It took 10 years to double his weight. He eats five times a day to fuel training: eight boiled eggs with cheese and mayonnaise on sourdough for breakfast, then two meals of spicy mince and rice before training at 12:30pm. These days he’s a full-time strongman – running a gym with his brother near his home, where he lives with his wife. He spends his downtime like a biohacker – using an oxygen chamber, red-light therapy, a sauna and cold tub – and works with a nutritionist and sports doctor who monitors his health, including his cholesterol (it’s low). “When I go to the doctor, I’m classed as obese,” he says, but his BMI doesn’t reflect his health.
“A lot of people think strongmen are fat guys lifting one rep. But you can be fit at any shape or size.” He can run holding a 200kg atlas stone and can deadlift 350kg for 12 reps. “I’ve pulled two monster trucks.”
How does he feel about his body now? “I’m proud of it.” Not because of the inches on his biceps – that’s artificial, he says – but because of the mental toughness his body represents and the superhuman strength it gives him. Last week he helped a man push his broken-down car off the road.
In 2021, at 27, Stoltman became the World’s Strongest Man for the first time, defeating industry veterans to take the title. He has won it twice more. At 16, when he looked in the mirror he saw a lost kid asking, “Why am I different?” Now he sees someone who turned that difference into a superpower. “I can look in the mirror and smile.” Tom Stoltman is a co-founder of the Stoltman Strength Centre.
Frequently Asked Questions
Of course Here is a list of FAQs about the journey from being bullied to becoming a champion framed around the powerful story of overcoming adversity
BeginnerLevel Questions
1 What is this story about
This is a story about someone who was severely bullied in school for being different which led to a deep personal low point by age 16 Its about how they used that pain as fuel to transform themselves ultimately achieving an extraordinary goallike becoming the Worlds Strongest Man
2 Who is a famous example of this
A prime example is Eddie Hall He was bullied relentlessly as a kid for being smaller and wearing glasses He channeled his anger and pain into weightlifting eventually winning the Worlds Strongest Man competition in 2017
3 What does hit rock bottom mean in this context
It means reaching the lowest emotional pointfeeling utterly hopeless isolated and without selfworth Its the moment where things cant seem to get any worse which often becomes the turning point for change
4 Whats the main message or lesson here
The core message is that your greatest weaknesses and deepest pains can be transformed into your greatest strengths Its about resilience selfbelief and using adversity as a catalyst for incredible personal growth
5 How do you even start to change after being bullied
It often starts with a single small decision to take control of one thing you can changelike your physical health a skill or a hobby This builds a foundation of selfrespect and momentum
Advanced Practical Questions
6 How do you turn pain and anger into motivation without it consuming you
You consciously redirect the energy Instead of letting anger turn inward or outward you channel it into a disciplined goaloriented activity The key is to have a clear target for that energy to flow toward
7 Isnt this just a revenge fantasy Whats the difference
A revenge fantasy is about hurting others This journey is about transcending the past The goal isnt to prove the bullies wrong for them its to prove your own selfworth right for you The win is internal fulfillment not external validation
