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.