Shanice Hairston understands, there are no shortcuts to excellence.
by Douglas Hairston
Shanice Hairston, a powerfully built 26-year-old, standing 5 feet, 9 inches and weighing 290 pounds, waited nervously back stage where she was about to be called out to compete against a Swedish competitor for the 2019 Arnold Strongman (Strongwoman) Classic on March 1-3 at the Arnold Sports Festival in Columbus, OH. They were the top two finishers on the last event of the last of three days of fierce competition among a field of 10 world-class amateur competitors. The score was such that whoever won that event won the prestigious Arnold International Strongman (Strongwoman) Amateur Heavyweight Championship and earned the title of the “Strongest Amateur Woman in the World.” Also, hanging in the balance was the opportunity to earn her “pro card,” stepping her up from amateur to professional, at which time she could compete for cash prizes.
Hairston, a 26-year-old Salem resident is always quick with a dimpled smile. She is a 2014 graduate of Virginia Tech where she competed three years in track-and-field as a shot putter. The Martinsville, native also graduated from Magna Vista High School where she played basketball and ran track.
“I felt as if I was going to throw up,” Hairston said as she nervously paced – shaking and loosening limbs while waiting to be called out before event judges and a throng of fans. But she gathered herself and imagined dropping 495 pounds to the floor for her final repetition (rep) and raising her arms in victory and sheer ecstasy.
For those unfamiliar with the sport and this event, “Arnold” is Arnold Schwarzenegger, world renowned body-builder, movie actor and former governor of California. Strongman is a powerlifting sport. But unlike lifting stationary weights, in strongman you also might find yourself carrying it, pulling or pushing it.
Additionally, it differs in testing competitors’ strength and endurance through a series of unconventional events. Some are: “The Atlas Stones,” lifting massive, round stones from the floor over a bar or onto a platform; “The Yoke Cary,” carrying large weights over a certain distance hung from a yoke draped over the shoulders; and “The Circus Dumbbell,” snatching up a fat, round dumbbell to the shoulder with one hand and then pressing it overhead. Such events conjure images of the early 1900’s circus strongmen with their handlebar mustaches and tights pressing a clownishly large dumbbell. The sport is scored by maximum reps, shortest time or maximum weight lifted.
For the women, there were two competition events on Sunday, as there had been two on both Friday and Saturday. Hairston had been targeting the 2019 Arnold for months now. While she is no longer a rookie in the sport, she is a long way from a seasoned veteran. She competed in her first meet in March 2017. After a string of victories and a top four finish in the Nationals held in Las Vegas of that year, she earned an invite to the Arnold Strongman (Strongwoman) a year later in March 2018. She came in fourth overall. “You could say that she is a ‘natural,’” says her cousin Marcus Hairston, a fitness trainer in Martinsville. Shanice Hairston was told at the 2018 Arnold that what she did was unprecedented in that it usually takes athletes years to accomplish what she had accomplished in months.
So how did she get involved in a sport that admittedly is still not high in public recognition? Hairston said she was looking for new athletic outlets to stay in shape after graduating from Virginia Tech. A gym-trainer told her about strongman, and her introduction to and love of the sport grew from there.
One aspect she loves most about the sport, she said, is the sense of community among the competitors. Even at the pro level few can expect to make a full-time job of it, so the competitors know the sacrifices each has had to make; who like her, are balancing family and a career in gym training. “It’s that knowledge and mutual passion for the sport that bonds them,” she said.
This year, however, Hairston said she didn’t come to the Arnold with uncertain expectations; she came to win it. She added she had trained hard, was mentally prepared and knew what to expect.
She felt sure she would have a good performance on Friday and her placement reflected it. In the first event she tied for 2nd behind 1st place finisher Anna Harjapaa of Sweden. In the second event, Hairston placed 4th and Harjapaa 1st. But the way the scores spread out in the 10-woman field, Hairston stood in 2nd place overall behind Harjapaa at the end of the first day of competition.
Hairston said she was most concerned about Saturday, as those two events weren’t her best.
“My hope was that I could come out of Saturday in the top four to make it to Sunday.” She did better than that. On the first event, Hairston tied for 4th place, Harjapaa 1st. On the second event, Hairston placed 4th, Harjapaa tied for 3rd. End of day two, Harjapaa and Hairston would go into Sunday sitting atop the leader-board, first and second respectively, along with the third and fourth place qualifiers.
Nevertheless, going into championship Sunday, Hairston clearly had some work to do. She said her coach told her that to win it; she would have to place first in one event and no lower than second in the other. Harjapaa must not place first in either. “I can do this. I am going to win both events outright,” she told herself.
“Our final event here at the Strongman Corporation Amateur World Championships will be the … ‘Deadsled Deadlift’ for reps,” echoed the public announcer, as he neared completion of a day’s work. “It all comes down to this. They have fought all year long just to qualify to be here. They have trained for months and months to prepare for this very moment,” he roared in excitement.
The deadlift is a powerlifting event in which a loaded bar or apparatus is lifted from the floor to the knees from a squat to an erect posture, dropped and repeated. The final event at the Arnold uses an apparatus, a bit reminiscent of a Fred Flintstone car without the upper chassis. You step into a frame that has weights on all four corners and you lift for as many reps as possible.
However before getting to the “The Overhead Medley” – Hairston had to place first or second in the first event of the finals. In that event, the competitors faced three sets of weights evenly spaced. One type of barbells in the event, weighed 210 pounds, another 225 pounds and a 125 pound dumbbell. Successfully pressing the dumbbell completed the run. The shortest time won the event.
Hairston confidently walked out with a wave to the crowd, as she tends to have a fan-friendly style and brings lots of physical expression into her performances. She stepped into her lane.
In lane two was Harjapaa, a short, muscularly-compact woman with a blond Mohawk haircut who reportedly has been training for 20 years and began strongman in 2015. She was Sweden’s and Europe’s strongest woman in 2016, holding a world record in a powerlifting event–known as the “crown lift.” The translation is unclear, but it is believed to be the “deadlift.” This was Harjapaa’s fourth consecutive year competing in the Arnold, with a best top finish of sixth-place to date, reportedly. Harjapaa undoubtedly would be a formidable opponent for Hairston.
Sports such as powerlifting, strongman, and Irish Highland Games are very popular in the Nordic region, comprising Sweden, Iceland, Norway and several other northernmost countries. Their athletes consistently dominate international championships. In fact, Hafthor Bjornsson of Iceland won the 2019 Arnold Strongman pro heavyweight division earlier that weekend for the second consecutive year, and may have been on hand to watch his nearby countrywoman compete. For those who don’t recognize that name, Bjornsson is the actor that plays “The Mountain” on Game of Thrones, the mega-popular HBO TV series.
A whistle kicked off the start. Both competitors successfully snatched the weight up to their chest, pressed it overhead; dropped it, stepped over and moved to the next. Hairston did the same with the second. Harjapaa had the second bar on her chest, but was having trouble pressing it. Meanwhile, Hairston had moved on to the giant dumbbell. Harjapaa was still struggling with the second bar. Hairston snatched the dumbbell up to her shoulder and pressed. A judge signaled it a successful press; and stopped the watch on Hairston. Hairston dropped the weight, stomped and fist pumped to a cheering crowd.
She then headed backstage, but looked back and saw Harjapaa still fighting the second bar. There appears to be a great deal of pride among strongmen and strongwomen to finish each event – rather than strategically concede defeat early to conserve energy for the next event. Hairston turned and ran back to her competitor to encourage her on. As was stated, the sense of community is strong in Strongman, even in the midst of competition. Harjapaa conceded to the weight, dropped it, and high-fived Hairston. They both walked back stage for the final and deciding event. Hairston won that event going away, as no other qualifier was able to complete the gauntlet. “Now I’m thinking, I got this! All that I’ve worked so hard for is about to happen!,” Hairston recalled. “The gold medal, the title, the pro card!”
The final event: “The Deadlift” – Harjapaa’s strength and Hairston’s necessity.
They both started cranking out the reps on their near 500 pound chassis, Harjapaa smooth and steady, Hairston more strenuous and labored. But they were both going eye for eye and tooth for tooth over a number of reps. Eventually, Hairston slowed, briefly pausing between lifts; Harjapaa still pumping machine-like. Hairston strained for one last rep, which proved too much.
“Out of the corner of my eye, I could see that Harjapaa was still repping when I had stopped,” she said, as disappointment began to rise in her. Hairston staggered out of the apparatus, lightheaded from the exertion, a condition that often causes strongmen and women to actually faint to the floor. She was steadied on her feet by one of the judges. After Harjapaa’s last rep, the two competitors embraced, emotionally acknowledging their mutual respect, and headed back stage.
In the final event, Harjapaa won with 15 reps; Hairston tied for second with 11. Although Hairston had not achieved her ultimate goal, she said she quickly regained her composure, “knowing I had given all I had.”
On that day, Harjapaa was the “Strongest Amateur Woman in the World;” Hairston was the second strongest.
Long after the bars and weights, matts and whistles had been put away, the four finalists reveled in their achievements and the company of each other, particularly at the medal-awarding ceremony where they conducted themselves with decorum and dignity for the draping of the medals, and with play and frivolity for the taking of pictures.
The following day as she and her entourage headed home from Ohio to Salem and Martinsville, Hairston reflected on her effort. “It was poor technique,” that lost her the championship, she critically acknowledged in a phone interview.
At home in Martinsville, Marcus Hairston, who watched the internet live-stream of the event, agreed. “She was bending over the apparatus rather than squatting over it,” he noted. “It led to her lifting with her back rather than her thighs and butt. Shanice was lifting with raw power. If she gets her technique down, she will blow her (Harjapaa) away,” Marcus Hairston added, pledging to get with his cousin to help her work out some flaws in her techniques.
Perhaps a bit over confident in her meteoric rise in the sport, Shanice Hairston now understands. Experience trumps talent; technique trumps strength. There are no shortcuts to excellence. “I want to win this thing. I want to be the best,” she said. “Come tomorrow – or at least the day after tomorrow,” she added with a chuckle, “I’ll be back in the gym.”
As for her pro card, she could still earn it, she said. National and international events are held all year long around the world, operating under the umbrella of the “Strongman Corporation,” of which the Arnold is a part. Only so many pro cards are given out each year. So, depending on how things wash out, she still might be notified that she is being awarded a pro card, she was told by one of the governing officials – who, by the way, congratulated her on an “‘excellent performance,’” Hairston said.
At some point along Arnold Schwarzenegger’s climb to the top of the ladder, he learned what Hairston is learning, “Strength does not come from winning. Your struggles develop your strengths. When you go through hardships and decide not to surrender, that is strength,” he stated.
Though Hairston did not come away from the 2019 Arnold with the gold; she may have come away with something more.
Shanice Hairston, 26, of Salem, is a 2018 and 2019 finalist at the Arnold Strongman (Strongwoman) Classic in Columbus, Ohio, placing fourth and second respectively. She also placed fourth at the 2017 Sharp Nationals in Las Vegas, NV; and again fourth at the 2018 Strongman Corporation National Championships in St. Charles, MO. She is a 2014 graduate of Virginia Tech. She is a fitness trainer, as well as an online trainer and a USPS employee!
