Montana’s David Sturzen beats the Strongest Man on Earth in steinholding competition

It was not long before David Sturzen knew he was going to beat the 2024 Strongest Man on Earth in a steinholding competition.  

As he peered over his shoulder, the Whitefish-born national steinholding champion saw Mitchell Hooper’s outstretched arm begin to falter. Sturzen knew that once the shakes started, they were nearly impossible to stop.  

After Hooper dropped his stein, Sturzen kept his hand outstretched, stepping out toward the enlivened crowd at Denver’s Great American Beer Festival in October. Onlookers watched as he continued hoisting the stein for 9 more minutes. Hooper himself raised Sturzen’s free arm high in the air, stoking more cheers.  

The “King of the North” had bested the Strongest Man on Earth.  

Since his first steinholding competition at the Great Northwest Oktoberfest in Whitefish in 2019, Sturzen has been on an undefeated streak in state and national championships across the country, even setting a national record of 23 minutes and 22 seconds.   

The relatively new but popular sport in America was born from a traditional Bavarian strength contest in which competitors hold a full 1-liter beer stein out in front of their bodies, parallel to the ground, according to the U.S. Steinholding Association, the governing body for the sport.  

Sturzen’s love for the steinholding community and affinity to the sport has even brought him across the world, giving him the chance to connect him with his German heritage.  

But on Oct. 12, 2024, Sturzen found himself side by side with the world-renowned weightlifter almost by chance. 

In 2022, Sturzen won the Hofbrau National Masskurgstemmen Championship in New York with a time of 12 minutes and 37 seconds. To get there, he won the Whitefish’s local Oktoberfest competition and then beat 600 competitors in a month-long competition in Vegas, where he got the nickname “King of the North,” a nod to the HBO television series “Game of Thrones.”  

Making his way to New York, Sturzen defeated around a dozen of the nation’s best steinholders, earning himself the national title and a victory tour through Europe.  

While he enjoyed the glitz and glory, his champion status barred him from competing in the national circuit again. Sturzen didn’t know what to do next.    

“I’m sitting there on the couch after work like man, what am I going to do with my life now? I’m just the former national champion; I have to figure out a new hobby,” he said while laughing.  

Then, in September 2024, he came across a Sam Adams Boston Brewery commercial of a bare-chested Hooper touting lederhosen and a beer-filled stein in each hand. He was inviting any hoister to compete in a regional competition hosted by Sam Adams, where the top three times would earn a trip to Denver’s Great American Beer Festival and go up against the Strongest Man on Earth.  

Behind Sturzen’s upbeat and affable personality is a motivated worker, and his first thought after seeing the advertisement was that he had to start training again.  Every two days Sturzen practices using an official stein recognized by the U.S. Steinholding Association. 

A filled stein weighs around five pounds. Without training, a typical male can last somewhere in the 3-to-5-minute range, females between 1 and 3 minutes, according to the association. Sturzen said he hits the 25-minute range when training but has yet to hit the time in competition.  

Regular practice helps build up the deltoid, Sturzen said, which is the thick shoulder muscle that forms the curvature of the shoulder. But when he is in a competition, he is regularly shifting his stance so as to not use the same muscle for too long.  

“I’m slowly engaging different muscle groups as I’m competing,” he said. “Because if you are stuck with one position for too long, that’s when you start to fatigue.  

Grip technique is also a key skill to master. Different competitions use different steins so Sturzen practices with different types of steins that will vary in handle shape.   

While he doesn’t remember every competition he’s won, Sturzen does track every single hold time when he trains. “I keep track of all my times. If there’s ever a time where I don’t go over 20 minutes, it’s like a red mark on my phone, err fail,” he said.  

Before going head-to-head with Hooper, Sturzen had to win the regional qualifier, so he headed over to Slainte Butte America Pub, the newly established and only regional qualifier location in Montana. 

It was there that he set the national record by surpassing 23 minutes. Sturzen said that he never spilled a drop, but he had been going so long he forgot to bend his knees, leaving him dizzy. 

After that it was off to Denver to face a new challenge.   

Sturzen’s kids are fans of Hooper, who has a large media presence. They showed their dad videos of the 300-pound man pulling a semitruck and lifting hundreds of pounds straight up in the air. 

“What’s nice is that when you know your competition, you know how they train, you know their times,” Sturzen said. But facing against Hooper was a different ball game because he didn’t specialize in steinholding.  

“Is this guy secretly training? Can he really go as long as it looks like he can?” Sturzen said. 

During a competition, Sturzen will choose a spot in the crowd, “just look at that one spot and try to go to my happy place. Just relax,” he said.  

But in Denver, he didn’t get that nicety. Sturzen said the steins were overfilled, leaving little room for error. To make sure nothing spilled, which would have disqualified him, he had to constantly watch the glass.  

“I literally just stared at my stein, which I hate doing the whole time,” he said.  

But his training paid off, and he got to bring home a signed photo of Hooper to his children. “I took the victory home for Montana,” he said.   

Through his competitions, including winning the 2021 Arizona Steinholding State Championship, Sturzen earned family trips across Europe. He was even able to meet his German relatives for the first time in the town of Rothenburg.  

“We are blessed because I’ve been to so many different towns, so many different Oktoberfests,” he said. Sturzen said after all the celebrations he has been to though; Whitefish’s Oktoberfest is still top-notch. 

Sturzen continues to be an active member in the steinholding community, working as a judge for the past few contests at the Oktoberfest celebration in Whitefish. And when he is not hoisting beer, he works as an X-ray technician with Logan Health Medical Center.   

What’s next for Sturzen? He is working to establish Montana as a U.S. Steinholding Association competition location.  

Reporter Jack Underhill can be reached at 758-4407 and junderhill@dailyinterlake.com.