Women’s weightlifting in the UK is going through a golden age, and female athletes of all shapes, sizes and disciplines are incorporating lifts with Olympic weight plates into their routines.

Part of it is down to the phenomenal success of athletes such as Emily Campbell, the sensational former shot put, discus and hammer thrower who has already won two Olympic Medals, making her the most successful modern British weightlifter in recent history.

This success is not only phenomenal for its own sake in winning the first British weightlifting medals since the Soviet Boycott of 1984 but because her astonishing lifts will inspire generations of future athletes to follow her lead.

In that way, she is herself continuing the path forged by the pioneering women of generations past, including one that may have started the domino effect in the first place.

The First Modern Female Weightlifter

Arguably the very first female weightlifter was Ivy Russell, who was born in Surrey and made her name during the interwar period as the “World’s Strongest Woman” despite suffering from a multitude of childhood illnesses.

Much like many strongwomen before her, she did not initially choose weightlifting, opting instead for gymnastics, acrobatics and boxing.

However, whilst her strength made her a pivotal part of any artistic gymnastics team she was a part of, it became clear that weightlifting was her calling, and her natural talent at it was so undeniable that it broke a gender barrier and glass ceiling that had existed since the dawn of weightlifting as a sport in Great Britain.

She could deadlift 369.5 lbs, which is a remarkable lift that would be competitive in official British powerlifting championship events today, and she became famous for outlifting many of the men she trained with.

However, because the British Amateur Weightlifting Association (Now British Weight Lifting) had a sexist policy of not allowing women to become members at the time, the limits she had to face had nothing to do with strength but the patriarchy.

She found a novel way around all of this; she challenged the woman believed to be the strongest in Great Britain.

Game on!

Tilly Tinmouth, born in Sunderland, was described as the amateur women’s weightlifting champion at 126 lbs (57.2 kg) but had entered the world of weightlifting through the strongwoman route, where public feats of strength and exhibitions were prioritised over competition.

The public feud between the two managed to draw considerable attention, with a reported 2000 people witnessing their deadlift contest.

Ultimately, Miss Russell managed to lift a 300lb barbell and Ms Tinmouth admitted defeat. She would continue to perform exhibitions before she herself found her natural talent as a professional wrestler, following in the footsteps of the likes of Mildred Burke.

Ivy Russell would reach even greater heights as Britain’s Strongest Woman, arguably the World’s Strongest Woman at the time and she finally opened the door for women to join the BAWA, laying the groundwork for women’s weightlifting in Britain in the process.

Unfortunately, she was a victim of her own success and strength; nobody would accept any other challenges from her and she would follow the same path her rival Ms Tinmouth did and join the world of professional wrestling.

Grappling with success

She excelled at that, and her wrestling career would redefine strength athletics and inspire many other women to lift. Tragically, she was in a major car accident which ended her career and she quietly retired.

She was the first domino, making frequent appearances in Health and Strength magazine, at that time the most popular and influential fitness magazine on the market.

Ivy Russell helped pave the way for women to start weight training, and as she left the public eye, the American bodybuilder Abbye Stockton took the momentum that she had built for women’s weightlifting and made it a global phenomenon.

Her feats of strength in lifting her much heavier husband over her head with one hand on Muscle Beach in Santa Monica led to her writing Barbelles the first magazine column specifically for female weightlifters for Strength & Health magazine.

However, whilst Abbye Stockton’s biggest influence is on bodybuilding, for which she was honoured with a spot in the IFBB Hall of Fame, she also organised the first-ever women’s weightlifting competition sanctioned by the United States Amateur Athletic Union and opened the first women’s gym in the United States.

It would take a few decades, but both Ivy Russell and Abbye Stockton laid the groundwork for women’s weightlifting and transformed strength culture in the process.