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 the world record holder for the log lift after she set a world record of 140kg/308lb in 2022. 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 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 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 improved to 4th and then in 2018, in Raleigh, North Carolina, she defeated Donna Moore to win the title by a single point. She would return the following year to place 3rd.
During her career Andrea has established several world records. In March 2020 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, topping out at 135kg/297lb lift. Turning her attention to Melissa Edward’s 275kg/605lb deadlift world best, she broke the record twice, extended her new mark to 290kg/639lb. In 2022 she would take the Log Press record beyond 300lb with a 140kg/308lb effort.
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!
Andrea placed 2nd at the 2022 World’s Strongest Woman, losing out to Ukraine’s Olga Liashchuk by four points. In March 2023 she took 3rd place at the Arnold’s.
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 Britain’s Strongest Woman in Doncaster on September 30th. As part of the Weekend of Strength double header, it will be the first time Giants Live has featured a female only contest. Thompson’s last competed at the 2023 Arnold Classic, back in March, and has been recovering from biceps surgery in recent months.
Andrea will be representing Team UK at the Giants Live World Strongest Nation contest, where male and female teams from the UK will be taking on Team USA on 8th November 2023 at Liverpool’s M&S Bank Arena.
Media
Andrea is quite active on social media; her Instagram account, @andreathompson_strongwoman has some 26.8k 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. Andrea, along with fellow British World’s Strongest Woman winners Rebecca Roberts and Donna Moore, featured in a Guardian article detailing their involvement in the sport and the growing profile of the female competitors.
