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Personal information | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Born | Papillion, Nebraska, U.S. [1] | 20 November 1973|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Occupation(s) | Powerlifter, strongwoman, professional wrestler, bodybuilder | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Height | 5 ft 10 in (178 cm) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Weight | 89.4–117 kg (197–258 lb) [2] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Website | https://beccaswanson.com/ | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Becca Swanson | |
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Professional wrestling career | |
Ring name(s) | Becca Swanson |
Billed height | 5 ft 10 in (178 cm) |
Billed weight | 105 kg (231 lb) |
Trained by | Harley Race Harley Race's Wrestling Academy World League Wrestling |
Debut | 2009 |
Retired | 2010 |
Rebecca 'Becca' Swanson (born November 20, 1973) is an American powerlifter, strongwoman and former professional wrestler. [3] [4] [5] [6] She broke multiple powerlifting world records, including the heaviest squat, bench press, deadlift and the total. [7] [8] [9] Due to her many accomplishments including unbeaten strength world records to-date, she is regarded as "the strongest woman to have ever lived". [10] [11] [12] [13]
Swanson was born November 20, 1973, in Papillion, Nebraska. [1] She graduated from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 1998 with a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering. [4]
Becca Swanson started out in 1996 with the desire to be a bodybuilder, but ended up powerlifting. According to her, the larger and more muscular women had fallen out of favor in bodybuilding after a few shows. She was told that she was just too big for bodybuilding, which motivated her to take up powerlifting. At the same time, she was very close to some powerlifting world records and thought it best to focus her efforts there. [14] Her squat is 601.9 pounds (273.0 kg) (equipped), bench press is 523.6 pounds (237.5 kg) (equipped with bench shirt), and she is the only woman to deadlift 621 pounds (282 kg) (equipped). She is also the first woman ever known to be a member of the 2,000 pound club, as she is the first of two women ever to total over 2,000 pounds in a meet on the same day. [9] She has also competed in strongwoman contests, beginning in 2002. Swanson is also known for doing 35 kg dumbbell curls for 10 repetitions.
Swanson was a professional wrestler in Harley Race's World League Wrestling based in Eldon, Missouri.
Swanson (as a heel) won the WLW Ladies Championship from Amy Hennig on October 3, 2009, at the WLW Tenth Anniversary Show. [15] On March 12, 2010, Swanson would lose the title to Lucy Mendez in a triple threat match which also included Hennig. [16] On March 13, Swanson was unsuccessful in capturing the WLW Women's Championship for a second time as Hennig would defeat both Swanson and Mendez in a triple threat match. [16]
Jón Páll Sigmarsson was an Icelandic strongman, powerlifter and bodybuilder who was the first man to win the World's Strongest Man four times and the first and only man to win the World Muscle Power Classic five times.
Magnús Ver Magnússon is an Icelandic former powerlifter and strongman competitor. He is a four-time World's Strongest Man, having won in 1991, 1994, 1995, 1996 and is widely regarded as one of the greatest strongmen of all time.
The deadlift is a strength training exercise in which a weight-loaded barbell is lifted off the ground to the level of the hips, with the torso perpendicular to the floor, before being placed back on the ground. A primal test of brute physical strength, it is one of the three powerlifting movements along with the squat and bench press, as well as a quintessential lift in strongman. Widely regarded as the king of all exercises, the all-time world record deadlift stands at 501 kg (1,105 lb), achieved by Iceland's Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson.
Paul Edward Anderson was an American weightlifter, powerlifter and strongman. He was an Olympic gold medalist, a world champion, and a two-time national champion in Olympic weightlifting. Anderson contributed significantly to the development of competitive powerlifting; due to his many world records and outstanding feats of strength, he has often been called "the strongest man who ever lived."
Dwight Douglas Furnas was an American professional wrestler and powerlifter. He was an APF National and World Powerlifting Champion, who set multiple world records in the 275 pounds (125 kg) weight class. As a wrestler, Furnas worked for, among other promotions, American majors World Championship Wrestling (WCW), Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW), and World Wrestling Federation (WWF) best known for being part of the tag team The Can-Am Express with tag team partner Phil Lafon. Furnas was also a longtime mainstay of All Japan Pro Wrestling.
William Kazmaier is an American former world champion powerlifter, world champion strongman and professional wrestler. During his illustrious career, he set over 40 powerlifting and strongman world records, and won two International Powerlifting Federation (IPF) World Championships and three World's Strongest Man titles. In the 1980s, Kazmaier became famous for his claim to be "the strongest man who ever lived" by equaling and surpassing spectacular and versatile feats of strength of famous strongmen of the 20th century. He is widely considered to be one of the greatest strength athletes of all-time, and was inducted into the International Sports Hall of Fame in 2017.
Donald C. Reinhoudt was an American powerlifter and strongman. He won the IPF World Powerlifting Superheavyweight Championship four consecutive times (1973–1976), and won the World's Strongest Man in 1979.
Aneta Florczyk is a Polish strongwoman and the only 4 times winner of the World's Strongest Woman.
Thomas Magee is a Canadian former world champion powerlifter and strongman competitor from Winnipeg, Manitoba. He was also a bodybuilder and a professional wrestler from 1985–1990.
Benedikt "Benni" Magnússon is an Icelandic strongman and powerlifter, who is widely regarded as one of the greatest deadlifters of all-time. He held the raw deadlift world record from 2011 to 2022 with 460.4 kg (1,015 lb), and it remains the heaviest raw deadlift ever done in conventional stance.
Stan "The White Rhino" Efferding is an American IFBB professional bodybuilder and a powerlifter competing in the Southern Powerlifting Federation (SPF). He held the all-time raw world powerlifting records in the 275-pound-class in the Total without knee wraps and in the Squat without knee wraps (854 lbs). Due to his enormous physical strength, regularly competing in professional powerlifting contests along his career in professional competitive bodybuilding, Efferding is often referred to as the "world's strongest bodybuilder".
Konstantīns Konstantinovs was a Latvian powerlifter of Russian descent. His raw deadlift of 426 kg (939.2 lb), set in 2009, was the heaviest raw deadlift for the 140 kg (308 lb) weight class until 2022, and to this day remains the heaviest beltless deadlift in the history of powerlifting.
Jon Frederic Cole was a discus thrower,powerlifter, Olympic weightlifter and strongman from the United States. He competed in powerlifting just prior to the formation of the International Powerlifting Federation (IPF). Having set world records in the squat, deadlift and Total during his career, he was multiple times AAU US National Powerlifting Champion as well as an outstanding Olympic weightlifter, discus thrower and shot-putter. Being the "premier strongman" of the early 1970s for his overall excellence in powerlifting, Olympic lifting and strength-based track and field, Cole was at one time known as the "strongest man in the world" for holding the greatest combined powerlifting/weightlifting super total of all time. Jon Cole was not only officially the first man in history to total 2200 lbs, he also became the first man to squat over 900 lbs as well as the first to total 2300 lbs in competition on October 28, 1972. Today, he is enjoying legendary status in the powerlifting scene and is widely considered to be one of the all-time greatest powerlifters in the history of the sport. His lifts, which are considered as raw by today's standards, are still mostly unequaled in his weight class: He still holds the all-time greatest raw (unequipped) powerlifting totals in the 242 and the 308-pound division. While past his prime as a lifter, he competed in the first annual World's Strongest Man competition in 1977, where he finished in 6th place.
James Talbot Williams was a record holder professional competitive powerlifter from the United States of America. He competed in powerlifting just prior to the formation of the International Powerlifting Federation (IPF). During the early 1970s he set bench press national and world records in the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU). On November 9, 1972, he performed bench press of 675 lbs. Jim Williams was the first man to bench press 300 kg (661.41 bs) in competition the international governing body for the sport of powerlifting.
John Haack is an American powerlifter. Haack is considered one of the greatest powerlifters of all time along with being the greatest pound-for-pound powerlifter of the modern age. Haack is a multiple all-time raw world record-holder in multiple weight classes. He is the current world record holder in the raw 90 and 100 kilogram weight class.
Michael Hall is a retired American powerlifter, who is perhaps best known for being a pioneer of the drug-free movement in powerlifting. Hall is considered the first African American Super Heavyweight powerlifter to win a World Powerlifting Championship.
Viktoria Vasylivna Posmitna (Larsson) (Ukrainian: Вікторія Василівна Посмітна (Ларссон); born 7 April 1966 in Kyiv, Ukrainian SSR) – Ukrainian athlete (powerlifting, bodybuilding, fitness), coach, TV host. Honored Master of Sports of Ukraine, Master of Sports of Ukraine of international class, twelve-time champion of Ukraine, multiple winner of the European and World Championships.
Tamara Walcott is a powerlifter and strongwoman from the United States Virgin Islands. Weighing in at 138 kg (304 lb), she started powerlifting in 2018 and after four years in 2022 at American Pro, totaled 735 kg (1,620 lb) in sleeves and broke April Mathis' 11-years standing 730.5 kg (1,610 lb) world record, establishing the heaviest raw powerlifting total of all-time by a woman.
Olga Liashchuk is a Ukrainian pro Strongwoman from Donetsk. She is a 2 x time Arnold Strongwoman Classic champion and winner of World's Strongest Woman, Strongest Woman in the World, and Shaw Classic Open (Women) competitions.
Bonica Brown is an American powerlifter competing in the IPF. She is a World Games champion, a 4-time Equipped World Champion, a 2-time Sub-Junior Equipped World Champion, and a 7-time Classic World Champion, and she has held multiple world records in each division.
"#1 Becca "Strongest Ever" Swanson is quite a physical specimen; her best lifts of 854lb squat, 600lb bench, 694lb deadlift, and 2050lb total makes her the only woman to ever lift over 2000lb".
"Becca is considered by many to be the world's strongest woman who ever lived".