Internet research leads to training assistance
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| About the Strongwoman Championships |
| Multiple-time world champion Aneta Florczyk of Poland is favored to repeat at the championships, which will take place on May 24 in Florczyk’s hometown of Tczew, Poland. Lacy Okey of Camas is one of four Americans who were invited to participate in the World Strongwoman Championships, along with competitors from Bulgaria, Denmark, Finland, Great Britain, Germany, Poland and Sweden.
Scoring
The competition is scored by place. With 12 women at the world championships, the winner of each even will score 12 points, the second-place athlete 11 points, etc. The woman with the most points is world champion.
The events
Yoke: The competitors wear an apparatus on their shoulders and back loaded with 440 pounds for an 83-foot race.
Farmer’s walk: Competitors carry 176 pounds in each hand and see how far they can go on a course that includes turns.
Axle: The axle is a pipe 2 inches in diameter that lacks grips. Competitors clean and press as many repetitions as they can. It weighs 154 pounds.
Deadlift hold with car: Competitors use an apparatus with side handles to lift a car. The weight at the world championships will be 374 pounds, and competitors hold it up for as long as they can.
Log lift: This contest is for maximum weight using a steel log that is 9 inches in diameter with weights on the ends. Lacy Okey’s personal record is 165 pounds. The world record is 253 pounds.
Deadlift: Competitors lift large truck tires that weigh about 400 pounds. They lift the tires from the ground and the woman with the most repetitions wins.
Weight for height: Each competitor throws a 28-pound weight as high as they can. The highest throw wins.
Conan’s circle: A long bar, loaded with 440 pounds, is held by a competitor across her chest as she walks in a 100-foot circle. The competitor who carries the bar the farthest wins. |
Lacy Okey flips a 400-pound tire as part of her training for the upcoming World Strongwoman Championships on May 24 at Tczew, Poland. (STEVEN LANE/The Columbian) |
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Tuesday, May 13, 2008
By Paul Danzer Columbian Staff WriterThe world of athletes who compete in strength contests is a small one.
Lacy Okey learned this when she began researching the sport on the Internet — an interest piqued by watching World’s Strongest Man competitions on TV.
She learned that one of the sport’s elite women — Julie Havelka — lives in Portland. Okey contacted Havelka, who helped her start to acquire the apparatus needed to train for strongwoman.
An Internet chat room was where Okey connected with James Alexander, a Vancouver man who has been competing since 2003 and placed as high as 25th in the nation in strongman competition.
Okey and Alexander now train together several days a week at Alexander’s Heights neighborhood home where he has made or acquired the various apparatus used in strongman competition.
Strongman and strongwoman competitors would like to expand their world.
Anyone interested in learning more or in giving the sport a try may contact Lacy Okey by e-mail at:
roguelacy@comcast.net. | 
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