The United States Joins the Winner’s Circle at WorldSkills Lyon 2024

The 47^th WorldSkills Competition took place in Lyon, France, from September 10 to 15, bringing together 1400 competitors from 69 countries and regions to compete in 62 skills. The competition welcomed 250,000 visitors, including students, international delegations, families, professionals in search of future employees, young people interested in vocational training, people looking to retrain, and many others. Held every other year, the event encourages young people’s development in vocational training and creates future generations of skilled talent. 

Wyatt Hansen represented the United States in the welding competition and took home the bronze medal, making this the second consecutive competition that the United States has won a medal in welding since 2013. Sanghyeok Lee, Korea, won the gold medal; Zehong Hu, China, won the silver medal; and Ben Rainforth, Canada, and Harrison Field, Australia, also took home bronze medals.

“It’s been an honor being able to represent the United States of America at the 47^th WorldSkills,” Hansen said. “I brought home the bronze medal. All of the hard work, time, and dedication paid off. Thanks to everyone who helped, and thank you to all my sponsors as well.”

The Welding Skill Competition

The welding skill competition is based on four modules that must be completed in 18 hours over three days. Module one consists of two test plates, two fillet weld tests, and one test pipe to be welded with either shielded metal arc welding, gas metal arc welding, gas tungsten arc welding (GTAW), or flux cored arc welding, or a combination thereof, in a selected position. The position and welding processes are unknown until familiarization day. The coupons get nondestructively and destructively tested for assessment. Module two features a pressure vessel to be welded with all the aforementioned processes in position. The pressure vessel gets visually assessed and hydrostatically tested to 1000 lb/in.². Module three comprises an aluminum sheet metal project to be welded in position with the GTAW process. Module four consists of a stainless steel sheet metal project to be welded with the GTAW process. Both modules three and four receive a visual assessment.

Guided by his technical expert, Ray Connolly, Hansen trained roughly 95 hours a week beginning in the summer of 2023, when he was chosen to be a part of the AWS WorldSkills Competition Committee’s U.S. Pre-Trials Selection process. Some weeks, Hansen trained on multiple competition simulations, while other weeks, he worked on individual modules to identify weaknesses, followed by specific training on those weaknesses. Despite the many hours of hands-on work, Hansen found the mental aspect of training to be the most challenging.

“You have to have the right people behind you helping you with your mental game. The mental game makes or breaks this competition,” Hansen said.

In this case, his mettle triumphed over metal in securing a place in the winner’s circle, a victory that Connolly was proud to see.

“It was a great pleasure and honor to witness him grow and advance his skills over the last year and to see his dedication and talents pay off in the end,” Connolly said. “The AWS WorldSkills Competition Committee and I have been working with Wyatt since the summer of last year . . . He’s an extremely dedicated and hard-working individual who will be welcomed in our AWS committee with open arms to help the U.S. continue medaling at the WorldSkills Competitions.”

What’s on the Horizon

Hansen recently graduated from Utah State University Eastern, Price, Utah, with an associate of applied science degree in welding technology. He plans to work for a few months and then return to school to get his welding engineering degree at Weber State University, Ogden, Utah. He’s also working on starting his own welding business on the side. He plans to use the same dedication that earned him bronze at the WorldSkills Competition to serve him well in future endeavors.

“I’ve had this goal [of winning a WorldSkills Competition medal] since I was 13 or 14 . . . So, finally, I accomplished this goal,” Hansen shared. “To get here and compete, it’s a huge milestone. I hope to make all my other new dreams and goals a reality just like this one.”

This article was written by Alexandra Quinones (associate editor of the Welding Journal) for the American Welding Society.