The 11 Strongest Women of All Time

Abbye ‘Pudgy’ Stockton

Born: August 11, 1917 in California

Died: June 26, 2006

Accomplishments: Abbye “Pudgy” Stockton performed in a hand-balancing act with her husband and a friend that toured around the Los Angeles area, a routine that required the 5’2, 115-pound Stockton to hold her husband straight above her head in adjoining handstands for extended periods of time. “Pudgy” was such a pioneer in the world of women’s weightlifting that she even earned a second nickname, “The Queen of Muscle Beach.” Stockton wrote a monthly column for Strength and Health called “Barbelles” back in 1944, giving advice and encouragement to other women who wanted to learn weight training. She inspired women to be fit at a time when it was common belief that lifting weights would make women masculine.

Bev Francis

Born: February 15, 1955 in Geelong, Australia

Accomplishments: Bev Francis started as a member of the Australian track and field team from 1977-1982 (excluding 1980 due to a knee injury) competing in shot put, discus, and javelin. She later went into the sport of powerlifting where she was named World Powerlifting Champion from 1980-1985. She has broken more than 40 world powerlifting records and is undefeated in her career as a competitor. Most notably, she was the first woman to bench 300 pounds. Her PRs are: squat 500 pounds, bench press 335 pounds, and deadlift 501 pounds.

Chen Wei Ling

Born: January 4, 1982 Tainan, Taiwan

Accomplishments: Chen Wei Ling can lift over three times her body weight! She won a bronze medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Wei Ling also set the world record in the squat and deadlift while competing in the 2009 World Games. The 101-pound weightlifter deadlifted 430 pounds and squatted 457 pounds, securing her a first place finish at the World Games.

Iris Kyle

Born: August 22, 1974 in Michigan

Accomplishments: Iris Kyle is a bodybuilder who has dominated the sport since her first overall Ms. Olympia win in 2004. Kyle went on to win the competition each year from 2006 through 2014, which makes her the bodybuilder with the most Olympia wins—beating out all of other men and women competitors.  Her long list of wins alone explains why she deserves to be on this list.

Aneta Florczyk

Born: February 26, 1982 in Malbork, Poland

Accomplishments: Aneta Florczyk started her career in powerlifting at age 16. In addition to earning the title of Europe’s Strongest Woman in 2004, she was also named World’s Champion and World’s Strongest Woman in 2003, 2005, 2006 and 2008. She’s won the competition more than any other woman in history, according to Guinness World Records. In addition to this world record, Florczyk also holds a Guinness World Record in lifting up adult men overhead (that would be 12 men in two minutes).

Tatiana Kashirina

Born: January 24, 1991 in Noginsk, Russia

Accomplishments: Tatiana Kashirina took top spot in the 2014 World Weightlifting championship and now holds five new world records.  She has been able to complete a 341 pound snatch, which broke her own previous record from the 2012 Olympics in London. Her highest weight for the clean and jerk was approximately 425 pounds, surpassing Chinese weightlifter Lulu Zhou’s record.

Robin Coleman (Helga)

Born: March 30, 1973 in Texas

Accomplishments: Robin Coleman has a diverse fitness background including a history in both figure and strongwoman competitions. In addition to these, she appeared on American Gladiators as “Helga” in 2008. While Coleman was competing in a 2001 strongwoman contest, she crushed the competition in an event where the challenge was to squat a car as many times as possible. She completed 15 reps while many couldn’t lift it once. The closest person to Coleman’s score was Jill Mills with eight reps. See Robin dominate the event here.

Heini Koivuniemi

Born: June 6, 1973 in Finland

Accomplishments: Heini Koivuniemi competed in the World’s Strongest Woman competition in the early 2000s.  She fared well, snagging second place in 2001 and then third place in 2002 and 2003. Koivuniemi also holds the Guinness World Record for throwing a beer keg for height. She threw a 27-pound beer keg over a bar set at 11 feet, 4 inches high. See her break the world record here.

Becca Swanson

Born: November 20, 1973 in Nebraska

Accomplishments: Becca Swanson started competing in strongwomen competitions in 2002. She’s currently the only woman to squat more than 800 pounds. Swanson’s best lifts are 854.3 pound squat, 600.8 pound bench, and 683.4 pound deadlift. In 2006, Swanson weighed in at 197 pounds and squatted 804.7 pounds, which was four times her bodyweight at the time.

Jan Todd

Born: May 22, 1952 in Pennsylvania

Accomplishments: Jan Todd got into the sport of powerlifting in 1973 after marrying her husband, Dr. Terry Todd, who was a powerlifter and the United States’ first powerlifting champion. It was at Jan Todd’s first competition in 1975 that she broke her first record: a Guinness World Record that had been held for 49 years with her lift of 394 pounds in the two-hand deadlift. The following year, she was the first woman to exceed 400 pounds in any powerlift—with a deadlift of 412 pounds. She was also the first woman to total over 1,200 pounds in the three powerlifts (squat, bench, and dead lift). Sports Illustrated once named her the strongest woman in the world.

Jill Mills

Born: March 2, 1972 in Nebraska

Accomplishments: Jill Mills holds the titles of World Champion Powerlifter and World Champion Strongwoman.  Her most notable accomplishment in the strongwoman competition has actually been winning the World’s Strongest Woman contests in 2001 and 2002, and finishing third in 2005.

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