World record holder strongwoman from Suffolk inspiring Black women to get involved in the gym
Andrea Thompson never intended on becoming a role model for Black women, but after winning World’s Strongest Woman and multiple national titles she became an important figure to many.
The mum-of-two from Melton, Suffolk got into ‘Strongwoman’ six years ago and found she had a natural talent for heavy lifting, quickly becoming a formidable athlete.
She now has four Britain’s Strongest Woman titles, 2018 World’s Strongest Woman and holds the current world record log press of 135kg which she achieved last summer.
The 38-year-old has since become an inspiration to other Black women in strength sports.
“It feels a bit weird for people to tell me that I’m a role model,” she admitted, modest as ever.
“I talk to a lot of people online who follow me and look up to me, I’ve even had a few women who got into the sport because of me and are now doing well at quite a high level which is amazing to see.
The 38-year-old has since become an inspiration to other Black women in strength sports.
“It feels a bit weird for people to tell me that I’m a role model,” she admitted, modest as ever.
“I talk to a lot of people online who follow me and look up to me, I’ve even had a few women who got into the sport because of me and are now doing well at quite a high level which is amazing to see.
“When I met her she was treating me like a super star and said ‘I just want to thank you for women of colour’. I realised I just didn’t even think of it but I was the only one there.
“Since then I’ve had a lot of people of colour message me about how they felt represented for the first time seeing me compete.”
Amazingly, Strongwoman is not Andrea’s only pursuit as her job at Suffolk College takes up most of her time. She sees the sport as a hobby, a very expensive one now, but something she ultimately does because she loves it.
Despite some improvement in diversity over the years, she can only count on two hands the number of people of colour involved in the sport now.
However, Andrea believes this is more due to the fact that the sport itself is relatively unknown over any other reason.
But she says she sees a lot more women in the weights section at the gym and believes the sport is slowly getting out there.
It was at the World’s Ultimate Strongwoman competition in Dubai this September where she had a moment of frustration, after failing to land a podium spot.
“There isn’t enough representative for women of colour to step up and I experienced this myself,” she explained.
“I came fourth and all three women on the podium had blonde hair and blue eyes, and I was really angry that it had happened because it’s always the same.
“I was so upset that I wasn’t up there with those girls and imagine how others felt watching at home.”
She was disappointed that other Black women and girls wouldn’t be seeing themselves represented on that podium that day, and felt personally responsible in a way.
Andrea says she doesn’t like to make things always about race, and never wants to feel she had been restricted by the colour of her skin.
Living in Suffolk she doesn’t feel this has happened too often, perhaps a handful of times in her lifetime, but hasn’t let it hold her back.
She credits Strongwoman as something that has helped her feel real pride in her achievements and added: “It has made me feel quite powerful what I’ve done, to represent a culture and people that often gets dismissed.
“Black people are known for a prowess in running but not much else, now we are represented in an unfamiliar sport and I have a reputation as a strong Black woman – and I am proud of that.