Beverley “Bev” Francis: A Pioneer in Women’s Powerlifting
Beverley, or Bev Francis as most know her, was one of the very first big names in women’s powerlifting. She entered the sport and became the first woman to truly dominate it.
Born in 1955 in Australia, Bev started her athletic career in track and field. She competed in several events but was especially successful in shot put. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, she represented Australia on the national athletics team. The only official result I’ve found is a throw of 15.16 meters / 49 ft 9 in the shot put in 1979.
Bev stood around 165 cm / 5 ft 5 in tall, with a physique that combined compact power and dense muscle mass. Traits that would later define her dominance in both powerlifting and bodybuilding.
Her track and field coach was Brian Hewson, who had also trained Roger Bannister, the first man to run a mile in under four minutes. It was Hewson who introduced Bev to strength training. He believed that women were capable of far more than people thought at the time.
From Track to Powerlifting
In the late 1970s, Bev began experimenting with competitive powerlifting. Her first competition was in 1977, the same year the first official women’s powerlifting championships were held. At just 22 years old, she competed in the 75 kg / 165 lbs class and totaled 412.5 kg / 909 lbs, which included a classic (raw) bench press of 102.5 kg / 226 lbs.
Her success quickly earned her a spot on the national team. At the first Women’s World Powerlifting Championships in 1980, she competed in the 75 kg / 165 lbs class and won with a 460 kg / 1,014 lbs total. Keep in mind that this was during the early days of squat suits and knee wraps, so the lifting was still very close to what we’d now call “classic” or raw.
The following year, at the World Championships in Honolulu, she returned, this time in the 82.5 kg / 182 lbs class, and totaled 575 kg / 1,268 lbs, benching 150 kg / 331 lbs in just a T-shirt. The runner-up that year was Vicky Hembree, who would go on to become a strong advocate for classic bench pressing.
Bev sometimes competed in the 75 kg / 165 lbs class and sometimes in 82.5 kg / 182 lbs, but it didn’t really matter. When she lifted in the lighter class, she often beat the totals of the heavier one anyway. Much of this was to set records in both classes. In the 75 kg / 165 lbs class, she posted an incredible 550 kg / 1,213 lbs total, with a 140 kg / 309 lbs raw bench press.
Transition to Bodybuilding
By the 1985 World Championships, Bev decided to step away from competitive powerlifting and focus more on bodybuilding, something she had been doing alongside her lifting career. Today, she’s probably better known as a bodybuilder, even though her accomplishments in powerlifting were even greater.
She competed in several Ms. Olympia contests and placed as high as second multiple times. It’s often said that she never won because she was simply “too muscular” for what the judges wanted at the time. However, she did win the 1987 IFBB World Pro Championships. Had she competed twenty years later, the standards would likely have been different, and with her physique, she probably would have been the champion back in the 1980s.
Breaking Barriers
Bev appeared in Pumping Iron II: The Women, which followed her journey and the debate around what women’s bodybuilding should look like. The judges back then were searching for something between what Jane Fonda represented and what Bev Francis embodied. Bev was the first woman to truly push the limits of muscular development, and that made her difficult to fit into the existing mold.
She made her first Ms. Olympia appearance in 1986, just one year after her last World Powerlifting Championship. She finished eighth, a result that caused the audience to boo. It was obvious that she had been marked down for being “too big.”
Strength Records and Legacy
In competition, Bev reportedly squatted 230 kg / 507 lbs, benched 152.5 kg / 336 lbs, and deadlifted 227.5 kg / 502 lbs. Her best total came at the 1983 World Championships in Australia: 577.5 kg / 1,273 lbs in the 82.5 kg / 182 lbs class, weighing in at 80.0 kg / 176 lbs.
She broke major barriers, becoming the first woman to squat and deadlift over 500 lbs (227 kg) and the first to bench over 300 lbs (136 kg). To this day, a 150 kg / 331 lbs raw bench press by a woman is extremely rare and truly remarkable.
Bev Francis won six consecutive World Championships, setting over 40 world records along the way, before moving on to the world of bodybuilding.
Bevs Best Official Lifts
Belt and Bandages:
Class – 75 kg
Squat: 145 kg
Bench Press: 102,5 kg
Deadllift: 165 kg
Total: 412,5 kg
Single ply (no bench shirt):
Class -75 kg
Squat: 212,5 kg
Bench press: 140 kg
Deadlift: 200 kg
Total: 550 kg
Single ply (no bench shirt):
Class -82,5 kg
Squat: 217,5 kg
Bench press: 150 kg
Deadlift: 215 kg
Total: 577,5 kg
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