Daniel hoping to sit on Irish ‘Throne’ to cap comeback…

He hadn’t gone away, you know!

Daniel McElroy burst onto the Strongman scene in 2017 and within a year he was competing against the very best including the likes of future and former world champions like Eddie Hall and Tom Stoltman, but almost as quickly as he arrived on the scene he seemed to disappear.

And while he had stepped away from the sport, he hadn’t completely vanished and earlier this year he announced his return in style by winning the Ulster Strongest Man crown to qualify for today’s (Monday’s) Ireland’s Strongest Man competition at Crumlin Road Gaol where he will be quietly confident of success when competing on Glenn Ross’s promotion that will involve Bar Bending, Car Deadlift Hold, Log Press for Reps (140kg), Truck Pull, and the ‘mystery event’, which has been announced as the punishing Super Drayman Barrell Load.

“You can’t really be too confident because the guys who are competing are really good,” Daniel admitted. “They are good, strong lads and they have been doing Glenn’s shows for years, using his equipment.

“It’ll be a good battle though and now that I’ve qualified for Ireland’s I’d like to win that because then you qualify for UK Strongest Man.”

It’s been quite the journey for the former Rainey Rugby Club forward and Ardboe O’Donovan Rossa’s GAA player, who has not only shone in sport but he also had a, quite literally huge, behind the scenes role during the filming of epic television saga Game of Thrones.

Standing at a towering six foot six inches tall and weighing 150kgs, Daniel is physically imposing and well-suited to the sport of Strongman in the main and his natural strength shone through two months ago when he made a stunning return to action by winning Ulster Strongest Man during which he produced a remarkable 19 reps during the 120kg Log Press!

While he admits winning the title was nice, making a competitive comeback wasn’t initially on his mind but after he started training again following a break of several years, the offers to compete started to flood in so he thought ‘why not?’.

And even with little to no preparation behind him, McElroy was able to not only match his rivals and defeat them to win the provincial crown against some top opposition, boosting his confidence ahead of Ireland’s Strongest Man on May 5th.

“ In 2017 when I started, I was a novice, but I hit it hard for two years and then I stopped, so it’s only quite recently that I started training,” he explained.

“ I only came back to training last year and because ones had seen me training and stuff, they were like ‘will you do this show? Will you do that show?’ and I was like ‘aye’.

“ Even at Ulster Strongest Man, that was a last minute decision to do it. It paid off and now I’ve qualified for the Ireland’s and beating the likes of Gav [Strabane’s former under-90kg World’s Strongest Man, McNamee] and Matt [McKeegan] was a pretty good confidence booster because those two lads are great.”

Having returned to the sport in style, Daniel is keen to continue to build on that early momentum, much like he did when he first started in 2017 and he believes there’s no reason why he can’t match the big hitters once more.

“ I was a novice in 2017 and I won the Irish qualifier for Britain’s Strongest Man the same year, so I was thrown straight in at the deep end,” he explained.

“ I had always been sporty. I had played Gaelic, I had done boxing and rugby and Olympic weightlifting, but a friend of mine, Davy Wallace, he won the under-90kg Ireland’s and I went to see him and I thought ‘that’s class!’.

“ They were lifting Silver Dollar Deadlifts and lifting cars and I thought ‘that’s unreal’ so he said to come and train with him and that’s where it started for me.

“ I started training, then I started winning and I kept winning more and more against guys who had been competing for years!

“ I did the World Strongman Games in 2017 too and that was an eye-opener. Going internationally you get your eyes open to the standards.

“ But that’s how you get experience and that’s how the best become the best, literally. They aren’t always winning, most of them were dead last when they started out because you’re jumping in with the big fish.

“But the weights are getting ridiculous – the deadlift world record is over 500kgs and the log press world record is 230kg. I mean, come on, that is insane!

“ Now don’t get me wrong, if I qualify for the right final, there’s no reason why I couldn’t reach those levels but it’s about winning the right show because if you win the bigger shows then you qualify for the bigger, bigger shows.”

Looking back on his early days in the sport is something that fills Daniel with mixed emotions. On one side hes incredibly proud of how well he did so quickly, but on the other side that pride is tinged with regret that he didn’t continue with it, which leaves the inevitable thoughts of what might have been.

“I competed against Eddie Hall and all those guys,” beamed the 33 year-old. “I hit it hard in 2017 to 2018 and the last competition I did was the Official Strongman Games European Championships when I came fourth.

“But the level was going from advanced to elite, the step-up was crazy and I couldn’t afford to make that next step.

“It was taking up a lot of time, work was flat out and it took its toll because all that heavy training really does leave you exhausted. If I had podiumed [at the European’s] things might have been different, but because I didn’t podium, I hadn’t qualified for anything, so that sort of put me off.

“But a lot of them boys who are doing Europe’s Strongest Man, I’ve actually beaten them in events, it’s crazy.

“I mind beating Tom Stoltman at a few events at Britain’s Strongest Man in 2017 and he’s now a three time World Strongest Man!

“There’s definitely a part of me thinking ‘what might have been’ if I hadn’t walked away from the sport because I mind [Oleksii] Novikov, he competed against me in Belfast for a Giants Live qualifier and he won World’s Strongest Man a year or two later.

“That’s what I’m saying, the standard I was up against was incredible.

“I was taken a little by surprise by how quickly I rose through the ranks. I didn’t think too much about it when I was doing it because it was just all clicking but when I’d been away from it for a couple of years and looking back at it, if I had stuck at it, where could I be?

“But competing against those guys was life-changing, it was insane and in front of all those people roaring and shouting. I went from competing in a gym or a car park here to going across to that, a screaming arena, it is scary with cameras in your face and all that. It was a different level.”

Having cameras thrust into his face was something Daniel soon had to get used to shortly after he called an end to his time as a Strongman the first time around as he found himself on the Game of Thrones sets as a stand-in for Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson, who played ‘The Mountain’ on the show.

And it was through their Strongman connection that they struck up an instant rapport on set, much to the surprise of the crew.

“I had an ‘extras department’ account and I had forgotten I’d made it and then one day I received a phone call asking me to be Hafþór Björnsson’s stand in on Game of Thrones, it was unreal!,” he beamed. “I told them I had been talking to him the week before as I had gone to Europe’s Strongest Man and they were like ‘really?’.

“But when I got on set he recognised me from that and he was chatting away to me from that and the ones in the crew were like ‘I haven’t seen him speak to anybody for the entire time I’ve been here!’ so it was amazing.”

Daniel admits that his time on the set was far from challenging but it was an enjoyable experience that ended with a special wrap party at the Waterfront Hall in Belfast.

“ It was the handiest number I’ve ever had in my life!,” he laughed.

“When he [Björnsson] was called in they had all the lighting and all set for me standing there so they would know how to set up the shot for him.

“ It was crazy, I’d maybe only stand there for 10 to 15 minutes at most and that was them set up for the next scene. It was pretty class to be part of something like that and they made a couple of different endings for the Game of Thrones and I think they went for possibly the worst one!

“ But it was amazing to be part of that and I was at the after-party and everything. It was a different world all together! There was a free bar in the Waterfront and they had Snow Patrol playing at it!

“It was crazy and I’ll never forget those experiences.”