Defining the strongest woman in history is kind of a mess. Honestly, it depends on whether you care about raw powerlifting totals, weird circus feats from the 1800s, or the modern era of professional strongwoman competitions. Most people just default to whoever is trending on TikTok this week, but if we look at the actual data and the historical records, the answer isn't just one person. It’s a handful of women who defied what medicine at the time thought was biologically possible.
The human body is weirdly resilient.
When people talk about strength, they usually mean Katie Sandwina or maybe Bev Francis. But then you have the modern monsters like Tamara Walcott who are pulling numbers that would make most gym bros cry. It's not just about muscle mass; it's about central nervous system efficiency and, frankly, a terrifying amount of grit.
The Circus Queen: Katie Sandwina and the Early Days
Let’s go back to the early 19th century. There wasn't a "World's Strongest Woman" trophy back then. You had the circus. Katie Sandwina (born Katharina Brumbach) was basically a superhero in a corset. She came from a family of circus performers, and her father supposedly offered 100 marks to any man who could defeat her in wrestling. Nobody ever did.
She stood 6 feet tall and weighed over 200 pounds of solid muscle. Her most famous feat? She took on Eugene Sandow. For context, Sandow is the guy on the Mr. Olympia trophy. He's the father of modern bodybuilding. In New York City, Sandwina challenged him to lift a weight over her head. Sandow managed to lift 269 pounds to his chest but couldn't press it. Sandwina? She hoisted 300 pounds overhead with one hand.
Think about that for a second.
One hand. 300 pounds. No modern supplements, no fancy lifting belts, just raw power and probably a lot of adrenaline. She became a massive star for Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey, often tossing her husband (who weighed 160 pounds) into the air like he was a ragdoll. Is she the strongest woman in history? In terms of relative strength for her era, she’s almost impossible to beat.
The Powerlifting Revolution: Bev Francis
Fast forward to the 1980s. The world of strength changed because we started actually measuring things. Enter Bev Francis. If you’ve seen the documentary Pumping Iron II: The Women, you know she was a total disruptor. Before she became a bodybuilder, she was a powerlifting machine.
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She was the first woman to bench press over 300 pounds. Specifically, she hit a 330-pound bench, a 501-pound squat, and a 501-pound deadlift.
What's crazy is that she did this at a body weight that wasn't even that high. She broke over 40 world records. People didn't know how to handle her. The judges in bodybuilding actually penalized her for having "too much" muscle, which sounds ridiculous now, but back then, the "ideal" female form didn't include massive quads and a thick back. She forced the world to acknowledge that female strength wasn't just a circus act; it was an elite athletic pursuit.
The Modern Titans: Tamara Walcott and the Raw Era
Now, if we’re talking about who can move the most absolute weight right now, the conversation starts and ends with Tamara Walcott.
In 2022, Walcott broke the record for the heaviest cumulative lift (squat, bench, and deadlift) at the World Raw Powerlifting Federation American Pro. She deadlifted 639 pounds. That’s essentially lifting a small vending machine. Her total for that day was 1,620.4 pounds.
- Squat: 600.7 lbs
- Bench: 380.3 lbs
- Deadlift: 639.3 lbs
There’s no "kinda" here—she is objectively moving more weight than any woman in the recorded history of the sport. The scary part? She started powerlifting later in life, mostly to lose weight and get healthy. She didn't grow up in a circus or a specialized Soviet sports camp. She’s a mother of two who decided to see how heavy she could go.
Why We Get It Wrong: The "Old School" vs. "New School" Debate
We tend to romanticize the past. We want to believe that the "Strongest Girl in the World" from 1905 was stronger than today’s athletes because she did it "naturally" or without modern equipment. But science is a thing.
Modern athletes have better nutrition. They have better biomechanical understanding. They have specialized shoes that cost $200 just to keep their ankles stable. Does that make them "less" strong? Probably not. It just means they can express their strength more efficiently.
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Take Chen Wei-ling from Taiwan. She’s a featherweight. At the 2008 Olympics and various powerlifting meets, she was squatting over triple her body weight. If we judge strength pound-for-pound, a 105-pound woman squatting 400 pounds is arguably more impressive than a 300-pound woman squatting 600.
Strength is a spectrum.
The Records Most People Miss
People forget about Becca Swanson. In the early 2000s, Swanson was doing things that looked like typos on a spreadsheet. She is the only woman to have ever squatted 854 pounds (equipped). She also benched 600 pounds and deadlifted 683.
Wait. Read that again.
An 854-pound squat.
Now, purists will argue that she was "equipped," meaning she wore specialized suits that help move the weight. But even with a suit, your bones have to support 850 pounds. Your spine has to not collapse. Your heart has to not explode from the internal pressure. Swanson is a terrifying outlier in the history of human physiology.
How Strength is Measured Today
If you’re looking to follow this world, you have to look at the different federations. It’s not like the NFL where there’s one clear champion.
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- IPF (International Powerlifting Federation): Very strict, drug-tested, usually "raw" (no supportive suits).
- Strongwoman (Arnold Classic/World’s Strongest Woman): Focuses on "odd lifts" like atlas stones, log presses, and truck pulls.
- Untested Federations: Where the absolute heaviest weights in history are moved, often using multi-ply gear.
In the Strongwoman circuit, names like Andrea Thompson and Donna Moore dominate. They aren't just standing over a bar; they’re carrying 600-pound frames for distance. It's functional strength taken to a violent extreme.
The Science of Female Power
There’s a common myth that women can't build as much strength as men because of testosterone. While men generally have a higher ceiling for absolute mass, women actually tend to have better recovery rates and can handle more volume.
A study by the Journal of Applied Physiology noted that while men are typically stronger in the upper body, the gap narrows significantly when you look at lower body power relative to lean muscle mass. Basically, a woman’s legs are built for serious power. This is why you see women’s squat and deadlift numbers skyrocketing while the bench press lags a bit further behind.
What This Means for You
You probably aren't trying to pull a Boeing 747 with your teeth. But the history of the strongest woman in history shows us that the "limits" of female physiology are mostly imaginary.
Every time someone says "women can't do X," someone like Bev Francis or Tamara Walcott comes along and smashes it. If you’re looking to get stronger, the takeaway isn't that you need to be a 300-pound powerhouse. It's that strength is a skill.
Start Building Your Own Strength
If you want to apply the lessons from these legends, stop focusing on "toning" and start focusing on force production.
- Focus on the Big Three: You don't need fancy machines. The squat, bench press, and deadlift are the foundation of every record mentioned here.
- Ignore the Scale, Watch the Bar: Tamara Walcott’s journey started with health, but she stayed for the performance. Shift your mindset from how you look to what you can do.
- Consistency over Intensity: Katie Sandwina didn't lift a horse on her first day. These women spent decades conditioning their connective tissue to handle heavy loads.
- Find a Community: Whether it’s a local powerlifting gym or an online group, strength thrives in environments where "heavy" is normalized.
The records will keep falling. In ten years, the numbers Tamara Walcott just set might look like warm-up weights. That’s the beauty of human evolution. We see what’s possible, we get used to it, and then we go further.
If you're serious about testing your own limits, your next step is to find a reputable coach who understands linear periodization. Don't just wing it. Strength is a long game, and the strongest women in history all knew that the secret wasn't just in the muscles—it was in the persistence.