Canmore strongwoman takes top 5 spot at Ireland world championships

Strongwoman Fiona Groves poses for a portrait in Canmore on Tuesday, Sept. 16. (RMO PHOTO/Leah Pelletier)

GALWAY, IRELAND — Digging deep for the sandbag toss or locking in for a Hercules hold is no sweat for Canmore strongwoman Fiona Groves.

A seasoned bodybuilder and fitness coach in the Bow Valley, Groves added a new title to the list after she punched her ticket to the Natural Strongman World Championships in Ireland last month.

“ I am the fifth strongest, natural, lightweight masters woman in the world. It’s still a mouthful to say… there’s no quick way to say it,” Groves said with a laugh.

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Earning a top-five spot in her weight class, most wouldn’t guess the Canmore athlete had only competed in three other strongman comps before earning a national title.

“ I went into day two in sixth place, which I was already surprised at and then I was able to climb up into that top five bracket,” Groves said.

“ I was in shock, to be honest, and like, just disbelief because I really didn’t think that I would come away with that placing, but I was also very proud of myself too.”

Groves’ first dipped her toes into the strongman competition world back in March after hearing about the games from a client.

“I kind of started training for the strongman comp at the beginning of the year and then I did my one comp and I just loved it.”

One competition soon turned into five and Groves was hooked, heading from provincial qualifiers in Medicine Hat to provincials in Edmonton and representing Canada in her next stop, Galway, Ireland from Aug. 23-24.

“ I think one of the things that really got me hooked was just how welcoming everybody is because … I mean, everyone’s competitive, but everyone seems to be more concerned about everyone else doing their best and hitting a [personal record],” said Groves.

“This particular comp really stood out to me because it’s a natural comp’, so it’s tested and I pride myself on being a natural athlete,” Groves added.

Featuring seven events for athletes to test their strength and grit, Groves competed against nine other women in the master’s lightweight division.

“I was quite self-conscious going into this sport … being a lightweight and I’ve just been welcomed from the very beginning. …I really love it because it’s very inclusive of all body types and … it’s empowering too, seeing the strengths of all the athletes, but in particular the women,” said Groves.

From the sandbag dash, carry and toss to yolk and power stairs and axle bar deadlift, competitors rack up points for weight and reps achieved in each event.

“The thing with strongman is that you can have someone who can win a couple of events and then be in the bottom of the field for a couple of events because there’s just so much variation,” said Groves.

“All of my best events were all of the newer events or the ones that I hadn’t touched the equipment before, so that was definitely a surprise.”

Groves recalls the rush of emotions leading up to the competition weekend.

“ I struggle with anxiety, so the morning of the comp, I had a really big anxiety ... or panic attack,” said Groves.

“ I almost didn’t go back after I checked in. … Going into the comp I was really low on confidence, really low on self-belief.”

Pushing through, the energy amongst the other female athletes helped ease her nerves, said Groves.

“It was actually the inaugural year of the masters lightweight category for women … so we were the first group of women, so we were all just super happy to be there and to have our own weight class. It was just such an amazing group of women.”

Reaching her third event, the axle bar deadlift at 352 pounds, with only a few seconds left on the clock having not yet been able to lift the bar and complete a rep, a beaming smile lit up Grove’s face.

“ When I zeroed the deadlift event, there’s a great photo from that event and that’s not me happy because I did really well. That was me being happy and proud of myself simply for showing up because I didn’t actually score any reps or any points in that event,” she said.

“I had gotten through the anxiety attack and gotten through a couple of events, and then I was just proud of myself for showing up.”

Creative training

Without a designated strongman gym in the Bow Valley, Groves said she and her coach, Matt Lavigne, had to get creative when it came to prepping for the games.

“For example, for the Hercules hold, I was just working on single arm cable holds because that’s kind of like the closest that we could replicate it,” she said.

“ Then, say, for the sandbag toss even just working on things like cable pull-throughs and kettlebell swings because it’s similar to the movement [in competition].”

Training at Anytime Fitness in Canmore, Summit Lifestyle and Performance in Banff, Groves then spends one day a week in Calgary where she’s able to access the big, bulky strongman equipment that is most similar to what’s used in competition.

“Typically I work out six days a week, but we scaled that back to five days a week for this competition prep because the training is very taxing on the nervous system because the weights are so heavy,” she added.

Always setting new goals and not afraid of a challenge, next up on Grove’s competition docket is Strongman Corporation Nationals in Calgary on Oct.4.

For this competition, Groves says she’ll compete against women ages 40-50, outside of a specific weight division.

“It’ll just be really amazing to experience this level of competition, so the Canadian nationals, in an open division versus in my own weight class,” she said.

Then, Grove says, it’s back to the drawing board to see what she can dream up for 2026.

The Local Journalism Initiative is funded by the Government of Canada. The position covers Îyârhe (Stoney) Nakoda First Nation and Kananaskis Country.