Considering body mass differences, who are the world's strongest women?

Purpose: Allometric modeling (AM) has been used to determine the world's st rongest body mass-adjusted man. Recently, however, AM was shown to demonstr ate body mass bias in elite Olympic weightlifting performance. A second ord er polynomial (20P) provided a better fit than AM with no body mass bias fo r men and women. The purpose of this study was to apply both AM and 20P mod els to women's world powerlifting records (more a function of pure strength and less power than Olympic lifts) to determine the optimal model approach as well as the strongest body mass-adjusted woman in each event. Methods: Subjects were the 36 (9 per event) current women world record holders (as o f Nov., 1997) for bench press (BP), deadlift (DL), squat (SQ), and total (T OT) lift (BP + DL + SQ) according to the International Powerlifting Federat ion (IPF). Results: The 20P model demonstrated the superior fit and no body mass bias as indicated by the coefficient of variation and residuals scatt erplot inspection, respectively, for DL, SQ, and TOT. The AM for these thre e lifts, however, showed favorable bias toward the middle weight classes. T he 20P and AM yielded an essentially identical fit for BP. Conclusions: Alt hough body mass-adjusted world records were dependent on the model used, Ca rrie Boudreau (U.S., 56-kg weight class), who received top scores in TOT an d DL with both models, is arguably the world's strongest woman overall. Fur thermore, although the 20P model provides a better fit than AM for this eli te population, a case can still be made for AM use, particularly in light o f theoretical superiority.