Man wins World's Strongest Woman 2025 competition

[Autumnhasarrived2025]

It appears a man (Jammie Booker) has won the 2025 World's Strongest Woman competition in Arlington, Texas. Beating Andrea Thompson, who is a superb British Strongwoman, by 1 point to take the overall win.

If you don't know anything about the sport, there are reguarly accusations of strongwomen being men, as it is a normal part of the sport for both men and women to be on gear which does mean quite a lot of the women do end up with some masculinsation of their bodies and deeper voices.

However, it appears this time the accusations are correct. There is a video of Andrea angrily leaving the podium. There is a thread on the Strongman HQ Reddit(!) which links to a video of Jammie talking about being a "trans girl" complete the usual anime drawings. Same profile photo and voice, so appears to be him. The Reddit thread has not been taken down and comments, apart from pronoun policing, is largely against men competing in Strongwoman competitions.

So well done to Andrea Thompson on her first place win.

definitely playing the hits. 'this 6'4", 28 stone bloke had been on the pill for months if not years, how can these idiots possibly claim an unfair advantage?'.

There’s a poster on that thread called ‘ftmfitness’ talking about competing soon.

If ‘ftmfitness’ is a female then either they’re (a) doping on anabolic steroids (banned substances) or (b) on a hiding to nothing against actual males.

I guess ‘ftmfitness’ might be able to get a TUE for anabolic steroids if competing against males, but still - a female on cross sex drugs is no match for males that have gone though male puberty (and who may or may not have dabbled with PEDs).

This is a wiki page about April Hutchinson.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/April_Hutchinson

Based on that and her X account, back in 2023 she was suspended for identifying another TIM "Anne Andres".
April got 2 years off asociation shortened to 1. "Anne" got 6 months for death treats.

It's not clear to me whether she identified both and got suspended AGAIN for that, or whether the tweet combined the two things.

That Reddit thread is hilarious.

“I bet she came 47th out of 50”

”Er, she won”

”Best to try let this slip by unnoticed”

🤣🤣

Ah, good spot. You're right, same poster popped up in the Strongman Reddit on this topic and said they're a transman. If competing in the mens then carry on and good luck to them. If they're competing in the women's competition for powerlifting and they've been on cross-sex hormones then they shouldn't be competing.

Anyway, I think this has been a massive own goal. Those Reddit posters might be hoping no one notices but unfortunately (for them) it has been covered by a lot of the big fitness accounts and video of Andrea walking off the podium is all over social media. By not just standing there and plastering on a fake smile, Andrea inadvertedly provided perfect visuals to highlight the unfairness of the whole thing.

So for quite a niche sport, this has gained a lot of publicity. And the visual that podium provided are just so bad and very easy for anyone with half a brain to see how unfair it is.

My god! They even covered this on 5Live this morning (are the BBC starting to learn?) So pleased the true winner has been crowned.
I don't understand what blokes like him feel like they're achieving when they cheat their way into a competition. He knows he has an advantage that he wouldn't have if he was in his own category.
I'd be very surprised if nobody in authority hadn't questioned his eligibility before he initially won. He's 6'5". That's massive. DH is that tall and he's almost always the tallest person there wherever we go. I have several female friends and family friends who are around 6 foot yet he's visibly taller than them. A woman that tall is really unusual.

Update from Rebecca Roberts
“The athlete who originally won has now been stripped of the title, and the rightful World’s Strongest Woman has been crowned. Thank you to the organisers for responding quickly and protecting fairness in our sport.”
“I’ve taken a lot of heat for speaking up but I stand by every word. I’m not against transgender people. I am for fair female competition, and women’s categories exist for a reason.”
“Acting now protects the future of the sport we love and have committed our entire lives to. Not just for us today, but for the next generation of women coming behind us.”
“I will continue to use my platform to defend that fairness, even when it’s uncomfortable. Because the integrity of strongwoman is worth fighting for.”

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/weightlifting/articles/c33meyrd3vro

9th article down on their mobile page.

It is for us too. Will watch with interest! Have seen Andrea Thompson compete, she is amazing in person.

Absolutely brilliant video from Eddie Hall. Be who you want to be, just don’t be unfair and cheat someone else out of what they deserve.

Good that the organisers have made a swift decision. Fairly easy for them to do so I think, they will know that they will not get the kind of pushback that others would. The Eddie Hall video (and the comments on it) is evidence of that. But definitely questions to ask about how this came about, at best they have been exceedingly naive.

Covered in The Times today.
I think I prefer the bbc report which focuses on the true winner rather than the cheat, and sensibly uses direct quotes from her and the Strongman organisation which are so admirably clear.

https://www.thetimes.com/article/f99479ad-f814-4f11-ba02-ca92f5ba4c03?shareToken=7baa971ef75ef38479125368a780edd3

Oh a happy note GB won something, yay.

And by GB I mean Andrea Thompson of course, congratulations to her, and way to fly the flag, yay. 🥳👍👏

Anyone know how the Canadian press are reporting this?

Impossible. Never happens. Or so we’re told.

Finally getting back to say that the realmrbench was indeed mistaken and it was Andres not Booker that April misgendered and was suspended for.

Hopefully when Andrea Thompson looks back on that day she’ll remember it with pride not only for her physical achievement but also her strength of character, not bowing down under the injustice, not taking the shit, being a true strong woman standing up for women’s rights. She’s ultimately won more than a title and a trophy. Massive respect to her and also Rebecca Roberts.

My guess is that they aren’t.
And tbh I’m somewhat dubious as to whether the U.K. press would have covered it if Andrea wasn’t British.
Maybe just in Gary Linneker’s podcast on issues in women’s sports - “The Rest is Silence”. (sorry… irresistible quip)

There was a post upthread of a (I assume) a tiktok that Jammie Fooker posted. A message about his 'victory', thanks to all his enablers and the people that, for the moment, he had successfully duped. He used speech to text which wasn't fooled. It translated his words 'lost for words' to 'lost rewards'. Struck me as very appropriate.

Congratulations Andrea Thompson - a true winner and a true woman! 🏆🥇

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/weightlifting/2025/11/25/worlds-strongest-woman-jammie-booker-accused-of-being-trans/

Great to see so much coverage. At last reality is sinking in.

Something I’ve learned since all this trans nonsense kicked off is that lots of people have no idea just how much stronger men are than women. The reality is that even the very strongest women are no match for an averagely male.

I watched Mitchell Hooper's video linked above where he pointed out some of the differences in the weights used in the events - for example the heaviest one in the women's being less than the starting weight in the men's - and how Jammie would have been absolutely nowhere if he competed in the correct category.
Both he and Eddie Hall pointed out that if this stood - what would stop them entering next year? Would be ridiculous.

I don't think that's quite true. Can you match a single one of Rebecca Thompson's PRs? I'm an average man and I am not even close.

Rebecca Thompson is a world leading woman though.

I'm an average woman who works out a bit with a husband who is a lot lighter and doesn't work out at all. I was shocked to find quite how much stronger he is than me when he wasn't even trying

yeah definitely the gap between men and women is real and tangible when you talk about average men compared against average women. Us normies can really feel it and see it.