For the first time ever, some of the world’s strongest people are being measured on a pound-for-pound basis. Rob Kearney and Rhianon Lovelace were crowned the Strongest Man and the Strongest Woman in the world, by weight.
Strongman Eddie Hall recently announced he was on quest to find the strongest woman and the strongest man in the world, measured pound-for-pound to their weight. This is probably the most honest measure of strength there is since it shows how much force you can truly exert per pound of muscle you have. After an intense search, Rob Kearney and Rhianon Lovelace were determined to be the Strongest Man and Strongest Woman in the world relative to their weight.
Rob Kearney was able to deadlift 920 pounds (421 kg) with a body weight of 290 pounds (131 kg). Rhianon Lovelace was able to deadlift 577 pounds (262 kg) with a body weight of 145.5 pounds (66 kg). This doesn’t come as a surprise to many fans of either of the two athletes since Kearney will be competing at the World’s Strongest Man competition this year and Lovelace was already the World’s Strongest Woman in 2018.
It’ll be interesting to see if the concept of a pound-for-pound evaluation of strength fitness athletes takes off as a concept. Obviously, watching someone pull absolutely massive weight is a huge part of what makes the sport entertaining to fans. But in thinking about how to make it more fair on the athlete’s end of things, it’s obviously not fair to smaller athletes who maybe are stronger than their larger counterparts but simply can’t achieve the same weight due to genetic limitations. Measuring it by weight is a great way to show how much force an athlete can truly exert; it’s a much fairer assessment of their skills and abilities. Dividing the categories into men and women also makes it more fair.
Lovelace in particular was celebrating her win because she’s already broken so many records in quarantine this year! Take a look at the recap she posted to Instagram below.
“If you’d have told me at the start of the lockdown I’d be setting a minimum of 7 world records this year, across 4 events and all 3 weight categories I’d have laughed at you. But here we are!” She captioned the post that went on to list all of the challenges she’s taken on since going into quarantine and the amazing successes she’s had with her training.
Clearly, lockdown has been beneficial to both Rhianon Lovelace and Rob Kearney, since they’ve been able to focus in on their training like never before and achieve things they never thought possible. It’s a great reminder to always consider the silver lining of situations. Even though they didn’t think they were in a place to succeed, the rules changed and both of them were able to walk away with a title that hadn’t even existed the year before. It just goes to show what you can accomplish if you work hard and are adaptable to the many changes life throws our way.
*All images and media courtesy of Instagram.
