MAPLETON — At 330 pounds, one of America's newest professional strongman can lift well over his own body weight.
The 6-foot, 2-inch Van Hatfield, whose day job is installing sprinkling systems in commercial buildings, spends evenings and weekends training for his next competition, the Arnold Classic in Columbus, Ohio, this coming March.
The booty for the winner of the contest named after the Terminator-turned-California-governor? Some $50,000 cash and a new H2 Hummer.
All he has to do is to lift more weight than the other guys to take home the top prizes.
Strongman competitions, which have roots in Europe, are full of burly men who couple brute strength with honed techniques to lift hundreds of pounds.
"He's so much stronger than most of those guys. He's a natural fit. He has a lot of strength, and he's quick," Brigham Young University strength coach Justin McClure says.
Hatfield's strengths are in his legs, his over-the-head movement and his grip, McClure said. Occasionally, Hatfield works out or helps out at BYU, but most of the time he trains in his basement, which he's turned into a mini-gym.
"Sometimes I have four guys training with me, but at least we're not training in the snow like we did last year," he said.
Much of the equipment he uses is home-made, like the 240 pound, 12-inch steel log his uncle made. He also has two 8-inch logs and a plethora of other weights that are hand-me-downs from BYU.
He also trains with round, concrete balls — Atlas Stones, or more simply, rocks — weighing from 250 pounds to 360 pounds. He lifts them onto stands 5 feet high. Hatfield made his first rock by covering a beach ball with papier mache then taking out the ball and filling it with cement. The others were made from molds.
Hatfield trains with more weight than he faces in competition.
"I'm fortunate to be able to come down here (in the basement) and lift heavy stuff," he said, complimenting his wife, Jennie, for supporting him.
Jennie Hatfield, about 10 inches shorter than her husband, says she prefers him training at home, where he can also take time for their three children, 5, 4 and 2. The competitions give the couple time alone as they travel to exotic locations around the world, traveling they would never do except for the sport. And they give the couple something both enjoy — the camaraderie of other strongmen.
Van Hatfield had his first amateur strongman competition just a mere 18 months ago at the Strongest in the West competition in Eagle, Idaho, just outside Boise. He won.
Already in his early 30s when European strongmen are thinking about retirement, Hatfield went on to compete in a few more competitions around the country before the St. Louis pro-am Show Me competition. He won his division and immediately turned pro.
That was last May.
"I thought he'd go pro earlier," McClure said. "He struggled with the Conan's Wheel — that's not his best event."
It cost him a few wins, he said. Conan's Wheel is a competition where the strongman picks up a weight connected to a pivot, holds it in to his chest and walks in a circle. Just like in the movie, "Conan the Barbarian" that starred Arnold Schwarzenegger. Those struggles made Hatfield train harder, McClure said, and led to a string of wins.
The athlete worked into the sport from his interest in body building, weight lifting and powerlifting. In 1994 he was named Mr. Utah.
At a powerlifting contest in Chicago in 2002, Hatfield was doing his last bench press of 567 pounds when the bar slipped out of his hands and landed on his chest, tearing his rib cartilage and breaking a thumb in four places. It took him eight months to recover.
After healing up and with the urging of friends, he ventured into the strongman sport. That's where he found his niche, taking pride in his values that include staying drug-free in a sport that's pocked with drug use.
"I'm drug-free," he says proudly. "I don't use steroids or recreational drugs. I take pride in this."
Many strongmen use drugs, he said, some recreationally and others because of the pain their sport causes.
"They really beat up their bodies," he said.
Discussions about steroids are usually in whispers.
"I'm sure there's a couple" of drug users in the sport, McClure said, considering it's a strength sport. But he was reluctant to discuss it.
"I wouldn't know," he added. "I'm not sure of the extent of the drug tests."
Earlier this month Hatfield was planning a trip to Poland as the only American in the Poland vs. World competition. But the event was canceled unexpectedly — some say because of drugs. One of the main competitors, professional strongman Mariusz Pudzianowski, was reported to have tested positive for drugs. Since the competition was scheduled for his country, it was canceled, McClure said.
So Hatfield and his wife, Jenny, traveled instead to England where they met with the 12 strongest strongmen in the world for an unofficial competition and to discuss the future of the International Federation of Strongmen Association. The association picked up the tab, Hatfield said.
"I'm the token American," he said. "It's just a bunch of guys getting together."
E-mail: rodger@desnews.com