We consider the problem of optimal contest design in an environment where contestants choose not only their effort, but also the distribution of shocks affecting their output. The presence of such strategic risk taking has a stark effect on contest design: The winner-take-all contest, whereby the entire prize budget is allocated to the top performer, maximises the expected effort (or output) of the agents for a wide variety of cost functions, including those with fixed costs or scale effects.  The results also extend to settings where the designer values greater variability in output.