Tea resident wins S.D. 2018 Strongest Man Competition

Picking up the back end of a car might not be everyone’s idea of a good time, but for competitors in the South Dakota 2018 Strongest Man Competition it was. The United States Strongman Association recently held the South Dakota competition in Sioux Falls at the Fairgrounds. One of Tea’s own was named South Dakota’s Strongest Man in his weight class —Travis Klinghagen. Klinghagen, age 25, won the South Dakota Strongest Man Competition in the Light Weight class in a tie breaking round.

This lifelong Tea resident has been an athlete since he was young, running track for the Tea Area Titans until he graduated in 2010. He then went on to collegiate track for the University of South Dakota, and also did some Olympic weight lifting.

“I started with track. I liked pushing my body and seeing what I’m made of. I lifted a lot of weights to improve my performance,” he said.

After graduating from USD he became a personal trainer. He now works at two gyms — Coast 2 Coast and Primal.

“It all fits together nicely,” he said.

He started getting serious about weight lifting about seven years ago. His ultimate goal is still to do Olympic Weight Lifting.

He said, “I was out training with California Strength. It’s a really hard journey [to compete in Olympic Weight Lifting]. Hopefully I can do that someday.”