Life
Andrea Thompson is a professional strongwoman from Melton, in Suffolk, who having begun competing in 2013 has become one of the world’s most successful strongwomen. During her strength career she has won the World’s Strongest Woman title, four Britain’s Strongest Woman crowns, and set numerous world records in a variety of disciplines.
She has two daughters, Olivia and Violet, and when not travelling to contests and training, she works as a part-time assessor, as well as a personal trainer and nutritionist. She originally began training in 2013 to get into shape for her sister’s wedding. She joined CrossFit classes, but soon realised she had a talent for lifting weights and moved into strongwoman soon after.
Andrea’s favourite events are log lift and deadlift; she is in the Guinness Book of World Records for the log lift after she set a world record of 135kg/297lb in 2020. She has also set world records for both the Elephant Bar and Hummer deadlift as well as the regular strongwoman deadlift.
Career
Having begun her lifting career in CrossFit, Andrea’s coach at the time was so impressed with her lifting ability in workouts such as Grace, that he advised her to enter Britain’s Strongest Woman. After a victory or two in some local contests, she entered the 2015 Britain’s Strongest Woman, and though she concedes she was not properly prepared for certain events, such as truck pull, she made the podium, placing third.
Motivated by her early success, Thompson upped her training load to four or five sessions per week and was able to win the British title in 2016, taking four titles in all, to date. In 2016 she made her World’s Strongest Woman debut and finished a highly creditable 8th. The following year she imprived to 4th and then in 2017, in Raleigh, North Carolina, she defeated her greatest rival, Britain’s Donna Moore, to win the title by a single point. She would return the following year to place 3rd.
During the global lockdown in 2020, Andrea took part in the WUS Feats of Strength Series and established several world records. In March, at the Arnold Strongwoman Classic she broke Kristin Rhodes Elephant Bar Deadlift world record with a 281.7kg/621lb lift. Lifting online, with her coach Laurence Shahlaei commentating, she set two world records in the log lift, toppling Danielle Vaji’s 129.5kg/285lb effort with a 130kg/286lb and then a 135kg/297lb lift.
Later that year she turned her attention to Melissa Edward’s 275kg/605lb deadlift world record. She once again broke the record twice, opening with 280kg/616lb and then extended her new mark to 290kg/639lb. Her two attempts at 300kg/661lb were unsuccessful.
Andrea had placed 3rd at the Arnold Strongwoman Classic in 2020 and returned in 2022 to take 2nd place to Victoria Long (USA). Thompson was, however, able to set yet another deadlift world record, this time in the Hummer Tyre Deadlift, where she decimated the competition, achieving a 363kg/800lb lock-out – a truly unbelievable feat of strength!
Best Title
In December 2018 Thompson reached the pinnacle of her sport by winning the World’s Strongest Woman contest. Held in Raleigh, North Carolina, Andrea led a British one-two of the ten-woman field, defeating Donna Moore by a single point.
Of the six events, Andrea was able to win the deadlift ladder and the wheelbarrow carry, taking second places in the medley and the overhead medley and a third in the sandbag toss. Her worst result was a solid 4th place in the Atlas stones.
Competition Results
Best Lifts
Present Day
Andrea’s next major contest will be the Giants Live World’s Strongest Nation event in Liverpool in November, where she will be representing Team GB against the Americans.
In 2022 she placed 2nd at the Arnold Strongwoman Classic; a contest she has made it her aim to win, having also placed 3rd in 2019. If she could achieve her goal, it would plug the only gap in her highly impressive strongwoman CV.
She may well also set her sights on taking back her strongwoman deadlift world record, now owned by Britain’s Lucy Underdown at 300kg/661lb.
Media
Andrea is quite active on social media; her Instagram account, @andreathompson_strongwoman has some 23.5k followers and she has amassed close to 700,000 views on TikTok. She can also be reached on Facebook as Andrea Thompson Strongwoman. On YouTube she does not have a channel but is the subject of many videos and features on Laurence Shahlaei’s channel Big Loz Official in several videos.
She has been the subject of many national press articles, having appeared in The Sun, The Daily Mirror, and The Daily Express.
