Harvest woman excels in 2025 Strongest Man-Woman Contest

GULF SHORES – With the sound of waves slapping at the nearby shoreline, the reverberations of the strongest men and women from across the state were easily heard over adjacent breaking waves in the 2025 Strongest Man-Woman Contest held at the Hangout on the sands of Gulf Shores. One of the most dedicated and passionate to compete in the annual event was Stephanie Plummer of Harvest who demonstrated pure strength with great technique in her third state competition.

“I did my best as I trained extra hours of being focused on heavy lifts and the sort of strongman activities and concentrating solely on strongman lifts helped me on those actual movements in the contest,” said Plummer, who recently turned 41. “I trained with another competitor who lives in Killen, Ala. Because of my dedicated strongman workouts I was better prepared with the implements of better form in my lifts.”

The strongman contests test full-body power and stamina in a variation of lifts in different events of lifts and carries. Divisions were setup in both men and women competitions with a total of 73 competitors. Plummer qualified in the Women’s Masters Division. In the past two years of competing among the strong and fit, the 5-foot-8, 185-pound finished in fifth place. This year, with better training the employee of Huntsville City Schools and who earned her degree at Middle Tennessee State University, she scored the most points (11.5) in her three years of competing and took second place in her designated division behind the first place efforts of Jennifer Turner who scored 19 points.

The competition consisted of five lifts/carries with a variety of components thrown in to make each individual event a challenge even to the strongest of the strong. The Axle & Keg Press Medley- each component (axle 125-pounds and keg 115 pounds) to be lifted overhead. “I did well with the axle, but was unable to lift the keg over my head,” said Plummer; Max Axle 13-inch Deadlift- deadlift the axle and weights of 285 pounds. “I lifted the maximum weight on this lift;” Sandbag Carry-Max-Distance in Sandpit- “The sandbag was wet from recent rain and weighed 150 pounds. Once lifted, we had to carry the sandbag in a sand pit without dropping. I did so for 55 seconds;” Frame Carry to Iron Cross Medley- “We had to lift and carry this frame which weighed 325 pounds for 50 feet and then pick up the 140-pound iron cross and carry back to the start line. I didn’t train for this event;” 3 Tone Carry & Load- “I wasn’t able to lift this component.”

Plummer finished second in three of her five events and was tops in the Frame Carry among her division.

“I felt unusually calm during the event and I attended alone,” said Plummer. “I do plan on attending again next year.”

Easily one of the highlights of the competition for Plummer, who suffered a near-death auto accident 20 years ago where she sustained with brain injuries, which caused for her to spend years in rehabilitation where she relearned to write, walk and talk, was the fact she was chosen the recipient of the Shannon Willits Athlete of the Day Award. Named after a longtime strongman contestant, the award is presented to the one individual who showed complete dedication to the sport of never giving up and supportive of others with outstanding sportsmanship.

“The event judges and promoters voted on this award which is given to the ‘model athlete,’ and I’m proud of the award that is in honor of Willits who died several years ago,” said Plummer.

Stephanie Plummer displays with pride the award she was presented for Athlete of the Day at the 2025 Alabama Strongest Man-Woman competition held in Gulf Shores.