THE UK's Strongest Teen is aiming to become the next Eddie Hall by eating 7,500 calories a day.
Joe 'The Animal' Oliver played rugby in his youth but turned to Strongman competition during the first Covid lockdown in Spring 2020.
Injury curtailed his rugby aspirations but it did not take long for Oliver to find success in a different field.
After winning the UK's Strongest Teen and UK's Strongest Under-23s in 2022 the Warwickshire-based athlete qualified for UK's Strongest Man, finishing sixth despite only have two weeks notice.
He told SunSport: "I had a natural ability for it from the start. My main attribute in rugby was physical power. Most of my family is quite strong.
"I went in with the goal of hitting the podium [at the U23s].
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"It's quite a big standard and a lot of the guys who have won it in the past have gone on to achieve quite big things – the likes of Tom Stoltman and Paul Smith.
"It can skyrocket your career and I ended up winning it, beating the reigning champion at the time which earned me a spot at UK's Strongest Man 2022.
"I managed to get through to day two which is the semi-finals, so I was the youngest competitor to reach the semi-finals."
Oliver, 20, also received a late call-up to England's Strongest Man where he finished sixth – with Paul Smith claiming top prize.
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Smith also took the top gong in the UK's Strongest Man 2022 and Oliver admitted it has been "surreal" competing with the 28-year-old.
Oliver knows he has to emulate the likes of Smith, Hall and Great Britain's Strongest Man 2007 Terry Hollands if he is to write his name in the history books.
He added: "Doing a couple of competitions last year put me in the spotlight and all of a sudden people I've only seen on TV are following me on Instagram which is proper surreal really because you realise you're actually making a name for yourself in the sport when people like that are following you.
"[I was] doing the UK's and I was sat next to Paul Smith in the changing rooms, Terry Hollands comes in and sits next to me. It's quite surreal, especially as these are guys I can just message and talk to freely, it is quite weird, I can nearly call them a friend at this point.
"I'd always watched World's Strongest Man but you never really look at it and think 'oh I could do that'.
"Terry Hollands, Eddie Hall, you look at those guys and you think 'how can I be like them'."
For Oliver the journey to become the next Hall is made even harder due to his size.
At 6ft0 he is one of the smallest Strongmen in the field but weighing 142kg he is more than able to compete – though maintaining his power is a full-time job in itself.
He explained: "I eat 7-7,5000 calories a day. You might think 'oh I could do that' and you might be able to do it for one day, but when you have to do it every single day, consistently all the time it's hard.
"Every morning I have seven Weetabix and a lot of milk, along with six eggs.
"Then straight into a snack which is normally fruit and breakfast bars which are easy carbs.
"I have three portions of chicken and rice or chicken and pasta or potatoes.
"Before training the focus is carbs and potentially a bit of sugar, normally pancakes or bagels, something that is simple carbs – you can't think of diet like how a bodybuilder would think, because we don't have to look good.
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"During training I'll have sugary things like Haribo or a flapjack. Then come home and it's back to the meat and carbs, I'll normally have something a bit different like fish, meatballs or burgers.
"I finish off the day with a protein shake and peanut butter on toast. Every now and then I have a bit of cheesecake too."
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