Longtime Phoenix-based professional strongman Jerry Pritchett (Chickasaw) isn’t ready to retire just yet. For now, his focus is on his son, Bubba, who at 15 years old, recently locked out a 615-pound deadlift at a competition. Pritchett is a veteran strongman and powerlifter who was named America’s Strongest Man in 2017 and was later named a World’s Strongest Man finalist. Other Native strongmen who have earned professional titles like Pritchett is Harold “Iron Bear” Collins (Lumbee). Collins was a popular competitor in the 1990s who broke six Guinness World Records, one for pulling a 50,433-pound semitruck and flatbed trailer 160 feet in 44 seconds. In Canada, Colten Sloan (Whitefish Lake First Nation) is working hard to join the ranks of these strongmen. In 2021, he became the first Indigenous man in Canada to earn a pro card in the sport and has since competed around the world.
Colten Sloan, left, at the 2026 Western Canada's Strongest Man competition, Harold "Iron Bear" Collins in a heavy backsquat in his heyday, and Jerry Pritchett lifting a 430-pound Austrian Log (photos courtesy of Colten Sloan/photo by SMORS Media; photo courtesy of Harold "Iron Bear" Collins; photo courtesy of Jerry Pritchett).
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