THE GREATEST OFALLTIMETHE BEV FRANCIS STORY

POWER HISTORY

as told to Powerlifting USA by Ron Fernando

Believe it or not, there was atime, in the not too distant past, thatwomen were disparagingly relerredto as "the weaker sex." Which myo-pic, misogynistic, braincell-chal-lenged 18th century pundit formu-lated that term is unknown to thiswriter, but it was a common feelingthat women were long considerednaturally weaker than men-ner-vous and squeamish, wholly unableto perform work requiring muscu-lar or intellectual development. Allof this prattle sounds so ridiculousgiven the amazing accomplishmentsby women today, but in most pre-industrial societies, domestic choreswere relegated to women, leaving"heavier" labor such as hunting,building, and plowing io men. Thistotally ignored the fact that childbirth(which caused death in many cases),caring for children while simultane-ously doing such tasks as garden-ing, gathering crops, milking cowsand washing clothes also requiredheavy. sustained labor. What isstriking about this is that juxtaposedto this demeaning view of women,was that some of the more ancientcultures had female deities in theirpolytheistic pantheons that actu-ally worshipped physical prowess,strength and victory. The Greeks inparticular worshipped a very specialgoddess-one whose name lives ontoday in the hundreds of millions ofshoes, t-shirts and ubiquitous logosof one of the world s most recogniz-able marketing companies-Nike,Inc. The Beaverton, Oregon. com-pany got its name from Nike, theGreek goddess. who was the god-dess of strength and victory, andwhose image is best depicted by theclassic sculpture of the Winged Vic-tory of Samothrace. also called theNike of Samothrace, a second cen-tury B.C. marble sculpture of thegoddess of strength. Since 1884,it has been prominently displayedai ihe Louvre in Paris, and is oneof the most celebrated sculptures inthe world.

No other symbol but Nike-thegoddess of strength and victory-better represents our featuredathlete this month, the great BevFrancis. six time world championpowerlifter. holder of 40+ worldrecords, international irack andfield athlete and hall of fame body-builder extraordinaire-basically asuper elite athlete in anything andeverything that she touched. Herlong list of world records in inter-national competitions and victoriesnotwithstanding. the most impor-tant achievement of her career wasthe total obliteration, once and forall, of the old fashioned notions thatwomen were incapable of activi-ties involving strength and physicalpower. The mold was well and trulybroken when Bev entered this world

some 54 years ago.Born in Geelong, Australia,

home of her beloved Geelong Catsof the Australian Football League, asport she has been passionate aboutsince she was a little girl, Bev camefrom a rather large family of five kids.Her parents were very traditional-Bev's father was a schoolteacher/farmer and her mother stayed homeand raised the kids. Tradition or not,all of the kids learned, and learnedquickly, the value of Aussie self rel!ance-no chore was considered toohard or "gender specific" for eitherthe boys or the girls of the Francisfamily. The boys were thusly taughtthe basics of cooking, ironing andcleaning and the girls were givenequally heavy chores around thefarm as well as more traditional"gender specific" chores. Life wassimple then, really simple. Therewas no Facebook, Twitter or iPodto control one's life. No Blackberry,Satellite TV, X-Box or Wii for cyberentertainment. People iook pride inworking hard and being fit.

Whai people in Australia didthen for entertainment and enjoy-ment after the normal work day wasto compete in a variety of healthfuloutdoor sports. Running. Swim-ming. Cricket. Aussie-rules football.Rugby. All healthy, fresh air activi-ties which created a strong, vibrantsociety. Bev herself claimed thatshe was, even then, quite adept atAussie-rules football, even thoughwomen were not allowed to play thesport: "/ was a reallg good kickerand could mork (catch) the t'oot-boll quite well. Of course I couldhold my own with the local bogswhen I played. I neuer understoodwhy women were not ollowed toplay this sport (until quite recent-ly, unbelieoably so)."

Bev's father and mother wereboth very athletic, her mother be-ing a dancer and her father a verycapable distance runner who wasstrong enough to do a one armpull-up. These genetics proved tobe the foundation of her strengthand power. As a girl, little Bev

could do all of the basic gymnasticmoves-carhryheels, walkovers, theworks. Her mother enrolled her atthe Royal Academy of Dance, butshe quickly discovered her true lovewas track and field. To this day,however. Bev still enjoys dancing. inall of its iterations. Being a naturalmesomorph, she quickly realizedt'wo things-that she loved compe-tition sports and more importantly,she loved to win. She was, naturallythe "tomboy" of the neighborhood,competing with and baiting the boysin all sorts of games. Her educationand love of sports took her to aneventual physical education degreefrom the University of Melbourne,and landed her what she termedwas a "dream jon" as a high schoolphysical education/math teacher."Yes, it was truly my dream job-being able to train ond exercise alldoy and get paid Jor it!"

It was there at the University ofMelbourne that she eventually met,through her roommate. the one in-dividual that would undeniably havethe greatest effect on her overallathletic career-the enigmatic FranzStampfl, the famed Austrian trackcoach whose unique methods de-veloped the first sub 4 minute miler,England's Roger Bannister, and whowas the original architect of intervalbased training. He had trained andcoached in Europe for many yearsand had been invited to Melbournein 1955 as a guest lecturer. Stampflloved the country so much that hestayed there until his death in 1995.Bev Francis was one of his stu-dents, and proudly so. "I ruos sorfof scared of him. He was a tough,uncompromising type ond yelledo lot, but we all loued him, and hismethods, tough as they were, welland truly worked."

Stampfl developed a serious fol-lowing in Australia and eventuallywent on to influence the careersof Aussie Olympic medalists RalphDoubell (800 Meters, Gold, Munich)and Gael Mullhall Martin (Shot-put,Bronze, Los Angeles). Bev quicklybecame a dual threat track andfield athlete. performing the uniquedouble of the 100 meter sprint andassociated relays PLUS the shot-put, eventually becoming AustralianChampion in the shot-somethingthat is virtually unheard of thesedays. Stampfl radically changedher running style plus emphasizeda tremendous amount of volume inher training, and was to eventuallyintroduce her to the world of weighttraining to improve both of herspecialties. Stampfl had a seriousauto accident in 1980, which lefthim a quadriplegic, but true to hisiron nature, he continued to coachnonetheless. "Franz demanded a

(continued on page 93)

Six-time world champion powerlifter, Bev Francis, at a meet in l9B3

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(continued irom page 22)

lot from us, ond o lot of other trock coochesoJ the day looked askance on them, thinkinghis methods a bit brutal----especially his moinriual of the doy, Percy Cerrutty- (Author's noie:Percy was a proponent of heavy weight training).Franz was a true inspiration to all of us espe-cially after his accident."

Brutal doesn't begin to describe the trainingand lifestyle regimen Bev put herself through inthose early years. Up at the crack of dawn for a

Ieisurely 3 mile trot with a local businessman s

jogging club in Melbourne "just to clear thecobwebs." After a hearty breakfast, then on toher job as a high school P.E. and math teacher,one that also involved a lot of running as well asteacher-student interaction. After work, back tothe university to begin her real training. whichcommenced with another 2 mile run as a warm-up. several intervals of between 100 and 400meter sprints, a subsequent trot to the field areawhere she would perform a long series of weightihrows using standard women's shot as well as

with lighter AND heavier implements. Still notdone. she would go back to the weight room andfinish her marathon training session with 20 setsof bench presses and squats. "When I started toIift in those days, pretty much all I did and allI really thought necessary were bench pressesond squots. My t'oundationol training t'or theshot'put consisted of 10x10 of the bench pressond 10x10 of the squat, done in a superset.My initial weights were uery modest-735 t'or10 in the squat and 90 Ib. t'or 70 in the benchpress (ot o bodyweight of around 150 Ib.) Iwould do a set of squots. the a set of presses.rest 5 minutes and then repeat until I had qll70 sets complete."

This unimaginable regimen was done a whop-ping six days a week. week in, week out. OnSaturday. she also "played" at the gym by do-ing a variety of bodybuilding movements-curls.lat pull downs. sit-ups and dumbbell work. Hermetabolism was hotier than the fire of a hundredsuns and she ate heaps of food, all sorts of goodAussie food' to keep her bodyweight up. She didadmit to me that her diet was, well, no diet atall-lots of red meai, cheeses, pasta, veggies. theworks. Her constant training regimen kept hermuscular and lean, and this foundation would payhuge dividends some years later when she wentinto professional bodybuilding. As far as a socialli|e. "my whole life reuolued around athletics,troining ond sports. I only socialized with thosewho had these sirnilar gools. " The results of thislifestyle and training regimen were selection toseveral Australian international track teams, in-cluding the 1978 Commonwealth Games inEdmonton. Canada. Her 100 meter time wentas low as 11.5 and her shot-put exceeded 50feet. Liftingwise, she was now squatiing in thehigh 300s and bench pressing in the mid 200s.In 1977, she and some of her track teammateswere invited to compete in a new sport called''powerlifting." Bev, having never heard of it.thought that it was great that two out of the threeevents in this sport were the cornerstone of hernormal training -the bench press and ihe squat.The deadlift they were taught (at the meet site).Well. she won, and -as usual-with a prettybig bench press. Quite the sensation, she wasamongst seasoned gym rats, a girl coming out ofnowhere. Her simplistic routine was also creat-ing some head scratching amongst the same gym

hall. a SHW of the Aussie team, going head to head with the heavilyfavored USA Team led by such American powerlifting pioneers suchas Ann Turbyne. Jan Todd, Pam Meister and Terry Dillard. all futurehall of famers.

Bev had made quite a splash earlier, at the 1980 Mr. Olympia inSydney. This was. as most bodybuilding aficionados remember, thescene of Arnold's last -and most controversial-Olympia victory.Bev was invited as window dressing to do a behveen-posing sessionlifting exhibition. "l was preparing t'or the Worlds and didn't want tomax out. so I decided to do some reps with modest weights t'or thecrowd." The modest weights wound up being 150 kilos (330 lb.) for20 reps in the squat and 100 kilos for 20 in the bench press.Look at the last number. in a few weeks. the NFLwill hold its annual workout. track meet. andthree day interview process known as theCombine. where players-some over300 lb. in bodyweight. hitting 225Ior 20+ reps on the bench press-are lauded as strength beasts andhanded millions in bonuses. "1

think thot I got more applausethan Arnold thot day becauseI was on Aussie. and well.most people neuer belieued a

girl could lift these sorls o/weights ONCE, much less

for reps."Bev was now ready for

her first World PowerliftingChampionships. Feeling'likea country bumpkin" in theUSA, Bev was pitted against165 lb. USA champion Steph-anie Moody. "l didn't knowmuch about lifting equipmentand kind of shocked t'olks when Iwalked out to squat in my trainers(authors note: trainers are runningshoes). 1 was still training prettymuch the same old way, with anodd deodlift session thrown innow and then. To tell you thetruth. the deodlif t wasn'tmy fouorite euent." Ofcourse, in those daysno one used theradical gear that is

used now. so Bevwas pretty muchon a level play-ing field. This. ol

rats: "I used to get quite peeued, and, well, rather confused when blokes osked me u)hat I did toget such a big bench. 'Just bench' I would say. 'What else do you need?"' 1979 saw Bev selectedon the Australian squad for the World Cup of track and field where she was to compete in both theshot-put and javelin. It was there that she saw the huge Soviet girls of the old USSR team. "1 ruos fo-tolly intimidated by them. Remember,I u.,os sti// onlg about 150 160 Ib., while they were in somecoses os much as 700 lb. heauier. '' The Olympics were rolling around, just a year away, and Bev wasgunning for her first Olympiad, this one the ill-fated "Afghanistan" Olympics in Moscow, where theUSA boycotted the Games in response to the then Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Australia was not inthe coalition that boycotted the Games, but Bev sustained a knee injury in preparation for the Games,heartbroken and frustrated at the still secondary role that women wer€ playing in world sport. Remem-ber, this was only 30 years ago, but therewere still a lot of dinosaur-minded athletic's officials whoconsidered women the 'weaker sex." Need proof? Before the 1980s, therewere no women's distanceraces in the Olympics. In the Moscow Games, the longest race for women was 1,500 meters, whichhad been instiiuted in 1972. Women had been excluded from track and field competition altogetheruntil 1928, when the longest race was 800 meters. "Women were not allowed to run anything morebecause it was Jeared that this would damage their delicate constifufions. I wos amazed, and euenshocked thot some of the new actiuities I reolly wanted to try in those days-hammer throwing,rowing, Austrolian-rules Jootboll, and especially Olympic weightlifting, weren't open to women

for some ridiculous reason."The one sport she was interested in that opened itself up to women, not just in Australia, but finally

the world over, was her newest venture -powerlifting.

At a scant nine years of age, as far as interna-tional competitions were concerned. 1980 saw a watershed event in the sport, when Joe Zarella oIthe USA hosted the Inaugural Women's World Powerlifting Championships in Lowell, Massachusetts.Bev was, quite naturally, one of the cornerstones along with her friend Gael Mul- a t tt,*

;il,:s

"#

Bev with her razor-cut physique (c. R. DeHaan)

course, was a new sport for her, but since sport

was and will always be her life, Bev took to it like

the proverbial duck to water. Translated, Stepha-nie Moody, US Naiional Champ goi clobbered by

a little Aussie girl from Geelong. Bev's lifts were

outstanding considering her lack of experienceand essential lack of equipment. Bev squatted a

deep and easy 385, bench pressed a creditable253 and pulled 375 to Stephanie's 336-220-396. Stephanie tried in vain to catch up on thedeadlift, but her lower subtotal held her back. Bev,

now World Champion, returned to Melbourneand was hailed as a "True Aussie Hero." Withthe help of Franz Stampfl, whom, despite beingconfined to a wheel chair, formulated and refinedthe now famous bench press program that would

enable her to smash a historic barrier-the first

300+ bench press by a woman. Remember now,this was when an honest to goodness unequipped300 lb. press was (and still is) a pretty difficultchore for most College Division I Football play-

ers. and the bench shirt was but a twinkle in JohnInzer's eye. Her training regimen still involved a

tremendous amount of volume, bui with a fewwrinkles:

"l would do the 70 set complex six doys

o week, but would waue between 10s 8s, 6s,

5s, 4s and 3s. I would pert'orm the 70x70s onMondoy, 70x8s on Tuesday, 10x6s on Wednes'day, 70x5s on Thursday, 70x4s on Friday ond

finally the 70x3s on Saturdoy. My weight in-creoses per series were small--only 5 Ib perseries. but I wouldn't increase the weights onthe series until I was able to complete the fulll0 sets. That was the key, and euery once in

a while I would ramp up the 70x70s to a 20set workout. which seemed to take Joreuer"(no kidding! RF). Although this flew in the face ofconventional thinking and the training templatesof the day, this ultra high volume regimen added

BIG numbers to Bev's lifts, and not just her benchpress. Look at some of the high volume Russian

training templates such as those postulated by

Sheiko. Bev was on to something quite special.

Concentrating primarily on powerlifting now,her sights were set like a laser guided missile onone thing-the 1981 Women's Worlds in Hono-lulu. Hawaii. Bev by this time had heard aboutthe American wonder girl Vicky Gagne, a teen-age phenom breaking record after record in the181 class. and the absolutely huge training liftscoming from her father Bernie's Garage Gym inCarson. CA. Remember. Vicky was a big girl and

her normal weight always hovered around a solid

195 lb. Radical dieting was always part of herpreparation. Not content to remain at 165, Bevdecided to move up to 181 and meet the ieenagesensation head on, and Vicky grudgingly startedher starvation diet, a few days before leaving LosAngeles for Hawaii. Vicky was no match for Bev,

especially in the psyche-oui departmenl. "l re-

allv put this psyche job on young Vicky andher grouchy old mon. I purposely wore theseshorf-shorfs and tight knee high socks tuhich

emphasized mg big quads. and strutted aroundbasically shon,ing ot'f. I also wos in great shapeu'eightwise. just ot around 175 Ib., so I couldeat oll I wonted to. I would fill up my ploteuith the works-meot, potatoes, bread, des-

sert-and stroll by Vicky trying to make a mealout of her little plate of lettuce. I enjoyed theabsolute look of horror on her foce knowingshe sfill had to lose weight." Remember folks,these were the days when weigh-ins were a scant

2 hours or so before lifting, so forget about 24

hours of rehydration and resting like lifters donow. Even though teenaged Vicky was depletedand more than a little psyched out, she battledBev down to the wire. Bev took the lead with a

473 world record squat, but Vicky was right be-

hlnd at 462. Remember, no monolift, no canvas

suits and extreme depth judging was the name ofthe game. Bev had by now upgraded her liftinggear and was using a pretty basic squat suit, pow-

er belt and power wraps plus standard weightlift-ing shoes. "l would only put on the knee wropswhen the bar hit 400, and put the suit on 6weeks out." Vicky pressed a creditable and very

good 270 lb., but then Bev calmly strode outand pressed a beautiful world record of 150 kilos(330 lb.), a weight that most 175 male powerlift-

ers then (and now) could not do, especially withnothing more than wrist wraps. She added a nice

462 dead\ft for her 3rd world record of the day,

a 1262 total. Not to be outdone, Vicky pulled

a historic 501, the first woman to conquer thequarter ton barrier, and inexplicably timed out ona swing-for-the-fences attempt at 540. She fin-ished with a then American record of 1234lb.

Returning to Australia as a 2-time worldchampion, Bev resumed her out of the box train-ing regimen, which was destined to garner heran additional four world titles and a iotal of 40women's world records.

Something was by now gnawing at her-iheever increasing desire to conquer new worlds.While Australian-rules football and Olympicweightlifting were still years away from admit-ting the "weaker sex" into their ranks, ihe sportof bodybuilding was not. ln 1977, George But-ler and Charles Gaines made history with theirground-breaking documentary into the subculture

of bodybuilding with the iconic film Pumpinglron which thrust Arnold Schwarzenegger intothe public spotlighi, a role which he has never

relinquished. lt was now time to let the ladies

shine. Pumping lron ll featured the elite femalebodybuilders of the day as they prepared for a

showdown at Caesar's Palace in one of the earlyIFBB Grand Prix events. As in most Hollywoodfilms (and reality shows of today), this was no freeform "documentary." lnstead, it was highly struc-

tured and pitted the "sultry" Rachelle Mclishagainst the "almost manly" and super muscularBev Francis, and two "cute" newcomers, LydiaCheng and Lori Bowen. as they trained and pre-pared for a 1983 IFBB Pro Event at the Caesar's

Palace in Las Vegas. "Training" for Rachel and

the others consisted of grunting and shoutingthrough some basic bodybuilding movementswith peanut weights, including a lot of scream-

ing and encouragements by the spotter/trainers.Bev, of course, effortlessly moved through the latpulls, leg presses, curls and so on like she was

born to do it, though in reality she rarely if ever

did these movements except on her once a week"play day."

The perception of the female physique then

still echoed the centuries old theme of womenbeing the "weaker sex" where skinny, model-like beauties like Mclish, Lisa Lyon and otherswere ihe supposed ideal female representation ofphysical perfection, and Bev, unforiunately, was

brought on to provide the hard edge-almost toplay the villainess with her muscular physique.

honed interestingly enough from years and years

of powerlifting with very little, if any, actual body-

building training. "l wasn't terribly interested inbodybuilding, but this wos a greot opportunityJor me. I needed a new challenge and since Iquolified t'or long seruice leaue with my job, Iwas allowed to spend the seoerol months in LosVegas needed to film the mouie while still beingpaid by my school, ond----of course-l earnedsome additional money in Vegas. So here Iu-ros, this muscular Aussie girl with a thick oc-

cent and short hoir, going against women whoIooked more like models thon bodybuilders "

The movie obviously tried to create a sense ofrivalry between the uber-muscular Bev and Rachel

Mclish as well as the eventual winner, Carla Dun-

lap. Most bodybuilding fans looked at Bev's phy-

sique as the one with the most defined muscle,

but was this the "ideal" female image? The judg-

es, under some vague and ridiculous notion on

how to judge femininity, thought otherwise and

Bev finished a distant 8th. Although she garnered

a lot of praise and respect for her efforts, this(relatively) low placing infuriated and frustrated toher to no end. Remember, she had been used towinning, and breaking national and world records

in two very difficult sports, and now this.

There was a huge consolation prize for Bev,

however. The director had paired her up withIFBB judge/powerlifter Steve Weinberger of NewYork, sort of as a buddy for her to train and hangout with. Well, it wasn't long before Ihey werean item, and continued their relationship fromafar when Bev returned to Melbourne. Now, for

Strong family - Bev Francis, husband Steve Weinberger, & their daughters Haley and Tara

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those of you out there who have experienced the exquisite joy and pain ofa long distance relationship, try and imagine what it must have been likein 1985. No e-mails, silly little texts and cheap cell phone plans. No spurof the moment instant messages, and certainly no Skype or Web Cams.People actually had to write letters (gasp), which sometimes took as longas a couple of weeks to arrive. Phone calls, especially international ones,were at the mercy of the only game in town-good old Ma Bell. What shecharged, you paid and that was that. No haggling, no veiled threats io goto another phone company. It was that or nothing. Steve and Bev had anarrangement. They would talk for a few moments once a week in betweenletters. Steve, however being an impatient New Yorker, started to call twice,then three times, and then daily. An international phone call in those dayscould cost you $3 a minute and higher, with absolutely horrid connections. Ican assure you from personal experience that calling someone half a worldaway was not only expensive, but frustrating. One often shouted more thansimply talked, just to make oneself understood, so a romantic call to a lovedone would often end up sounding like a bar room brawl. But love does funnythings to people-even to powerlifters! Bev never told me, but I can almostbet that Steve's phone bill was over $1000 at times. She by now had hadmore than enough of the phone romance. She asked Steve plain as daywhether she should just "come and live there."

This was, of course a huge step for Bev-leaving her family, university,training headquarters and her beloved Australia with its tranquil weather,laid back atmosphere and sunny beaches for the concrete jungle and fastpace of New York City. Like I said, love does funny things. Bev and Stevemarried about a year after she got to the States, and she found a brandnew support system for her training with her husband Steve and around-the-corner neighbors Ken and Kathy Leistner. It was during this time thata decision was made that she would compete in powerlifting one moretime-at the 1985 Worlds in Melbourne and then retire, devoting herselfto full time bodybuilding. Unfortunately, she blew out her lower back intraining. Ken and Steve were diligent with her and helped her through hertraining which culminated in one more glorious victory-in front of herfriends and family in Australia. Six titles, 40 world records and it was timefor new challenges.

The loss in Las Vegas at the hands of a bunch of skinny underfed modeltypes still rankled her, but she could not ignore the fact that she was, forthe first time, in a sport where she was being judged not on pure abilityand performance, but on the strength of opinion, much of it preconceived.Something had to give. Bev, knowing that she would have to win over thejudges one way or another. made a vain attempt to re-shape her physiqueand image. even to the extent of having minor cosmetic surgery to reshapeher nose. and shedding her natural brown locks for a lighter shade and mostradical of all. abandoning her normal power based training that emphasizedmulti loint movements for one strictly on bodybuilding movements. Bevcompeted several times at very high levels and in 7987 was finally crownedIFBB World Bodybuilding Champion. The one title, however, she desper-ately wanted was the big one, Ms. Olympia, which by now was on par, atleast prestige-wise, with the Mr. O version. Winning the "O" would finallysolidify her in her new sport as a legitimate champion. By now, she andSteve were running their own gym, the Bev Francis World ChampionshipGym and she was garnering great publicity, being the subject of many dif-ferent exercise videos and programs. The gym was (and still is) a huge suc-cess and in today's rocky economic climate where "mom and pop" gymsare being swallowed up left and right by the behemoths like LA Fitness andLifetime, this is no small feat. Bev placed as high as 2nd at the Ms. "O," buteverybody knew who the real winner was.

In 1991, Bev decided to go for it, and critics be damned, by shelving herattempt to be cute and svelte, and make ONE more attempt to win the bigone, but on HER terms. This time, the Olympia crowd was treated to 170lb. of rippling, razor cut, beautiful female muscle, presented by a world classathlete in not one, not two, but THREE sports. Not good enough, again,as Bev was nipped once again by the great Lenda Murray. Fair decision?Ripoff? Or just a reflection of ludging which wanted desperately to shun amuscular woman as a feminine ideal? Posterity will be the real judge, buttruth be known. Bev Francis would not be out of place with today's supermuscular femmes like Iris Kyle or Yaxini Oriquen. In fact, her physique, con-troversial placing, and ensuing public backlash in 1991 forced the powers tobe to finally re-evaluate judging criteria for women bodybuilders.

Today, Bev is a healthy, happily married mom, businesswoman, phy-sique contest promoter and IFBB judge. Looking far younger than her 54years, she and her husband oI 25 gears are the proud parents of teenagersHaley and Tara and lead a typical hectic schedule of wearing multiple hats-gym owners. personal trainers, spouses and parents. Bev still lifts, albeit notwith the same kamikaze style intensity she did in her younger years. "You

con't euer get away Jorm lifting, it's always going to be port of your lit'e."She reduced her weight down to around 62 kilos (135 lb.) to take the stress

off her knees and spends a lot more time in the cardio theater now. '?f rhisage you'ue got to be sensible."

Surprisingly. Bev hasn't kept up with the latest in powerlifting, andwhen told about some of the records, equipment and gear used, she wasabsolutely stunned. One would love to speculate how much more she couldhave lifted with today s gear but at the end of the day, why? Her lifts weremade under the strictest of judging standards and with the minimal gear ofthe time. Besides, what little experience she had with a bench shirt wasn'tterribly positive. "l remember trying on an early version of a bench press"suit," and frankly couldn't wait to get the miserable thing off."

I have penned an article called lron Hgbrids, in which I talked about thegreat crossover athletes of the lron Game-Roy Hilligenn, Ernie Frantz,Franco Columbu and others who successfully competed in both lifting andbodybuilding. I neglected to mention who, in my opinion, I felt was thegreatest lron Hybrid athlete of all time. I neglected doing so then, becauseI hadn't yet written about the one who is the greatest, regardless of gender.The one who not only paved the way for thousands of female athletes inthree sports, but who literally blasted down the doors of discrimination forwomen forever and ever laying to rest the ridiculous notion of women beingthe weaker sex. I hadn't written aboui this athlete-until now. I give youBev Francis, 6-time World Powerlifting Champion, National Champion inthe Shot-put, World Champion in Bodybuilding-greatest multi sport (lronHybrid) athlete of all time.

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