The Women’s Strength Coalition is an awesome Brooklyn, NY-based organization founded earlier this year by Shannon Kim Wagner.
The WSC’s mission is to “inspire and support others through inclusive events and opportunities focused on the benefits of training for strength.”
In April they hosted their first event, Lift for Planned Parenthood. At the LFPP powerlifting meet, participants raised a dollar for each pound they lifted. The event raised over $14,000 for Planned Parenthood.
In June they hosted Pull for Pride events in four cities nationwide.
According to the WSC website: “This deadlift-only friendly competition happened in four different cities throughout the month of June, and raised a total of $30,000 for nonprofits that are dedicated to providing mental health care, housing, basic needs, and supportive services for homeless youth and the LGBTQ community.”
“In true Pride fashion, PFP is completely inclusive of all people and strength/skill levels. Unlike traditional meets, Pull for Pride is non-gender specific (open to trans and cis, intersex, agender, non-binary, women, men), and prescribes no dress code or weight classes. If you want to lift, you get to lift.”
Team Lis Smash is so excited to be working with the Women’s Strength Coalition in plans to host an Atlanta Pull for Pride event this June!!
We also are working together to host some women’s-only inclusive lifting sessions coming this fall.
Stay tuned to the Team Lis Smash and Women’s Strength Coalition Instagram pages for Atlanta event collaboration updates.
To support the mission of the WSC, volunteer on their website, buy a WSC tank top, or get an Iron Strong barbell necklace!
And for more info on the Women’s Strength Coalition, check out their recent media coverage:
In the New York Times:
“The playlist was more Beyoncé than Black Sabbath at the Lift for Planned Parenthood, the first female and nonbinary powerlifting competition organized by the Women’s Strength Coalition, a new weight lifting group that combines feats of strength and political activism. The event, which took place on April 23 at the Brooklyn Athletic Club in Williamsburg, had 35 participants and about 150 spectators.
Many lifters replaced the traditional singlet with whatever outfit made them feel most comfortable. Children zipped through the crowd on scooters. One woman triumphantly hoisted her giggling son into the air after a nearly 300-pound dead lift.
Shannon Wagner, 31, the founder of the coalition, describes her relationship with powerlifting, a sport where competitors deadlift, squat and bench-press as much weight as possible, as a ‘revelatory experience.’ After years of battling eating disorders, she stumbled across the sport in 2014 and taught herself to lift. ‘Once I realized what it was like to focus on getting strong versus getting thin,’ she said, ‘it really helped heal me.'”
Read the full article at the New York Times.
In the Brit & Co blog:
“I’m not a victim. I’m not helpless. I’m strong, and I’m taking up space,” says Shannon Wagner, founder of the Brooklyn-based Women’s Strength Coalition, an inclusive powerlifting club with a mission based in activism and accessibility.
Finding her own epic brand of self-confidence and body-positive vibe was no small feat for Wagner, whose experience with an eating disorder left her feeling unmotivated and alienated from her physical self. Getting into lifting helped her reconnect with her body while having the added benefit of equipping her with a new kind of mental strength at the same time. It’s a discovery she’s determined to share with as many people as she can through the WSC and their lineup of events, like the female and nonbinary powerlifting competition they had to benefit Planned Parenthood last spring.”
Read the full article at Brit & Co.
