Keri Thibeault and Anthony Martinez each set adaptive world records at Saturday’s Strongman Static Monsters World Championships
As Kari Thibeault wheels out to each adaptive Strongman competition area, she never knows what she’ll be lifting until moments before – if at all. That’s because the 52-year-old Ontario, Canada, resident lets her husband, Emmanuel Poitras, pick her totals for both the log press and the 18-inch axle deadlift.
Somehow, it reduces her anxiety. Yet, it also makes for one wild adventure, including during Saturday’s Strongman Static Monsters World Championships at ATP Gym in Phoenix.
“Because when I hear my numbers, I get extremely nervous and I’ll talk myself out of the lift. I’ll be like, ‘I can’t do that. There’s no way I can lift that,’ and then I’ll just talk myself out of it,” says Thibeault, who was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS) in 2002. “He picks my numbers, and honestly, I have no clue what I’m lifting half the time. It’s just a lot easier that way.”
But it certainly works. Thibeault lifted her way to max overhead log press and max 18-inch axle world records and titles in the Women’s Neuro Seated Adaptive Division at the Static Monsters World Championships, while Anthony Martinez, an Army veteran and above-the-right knee amputee who competes in the National Veterans Wheelchair Games, broke an 18-inch axle deadlift world record in the Adaptive Men’s Seated division.
Thibeault broke her own world records in the max log press – recording a 187.393-pound world-record lift on her third log press lift attempt that broke her previous world record of 176.37 pounds on her second attempt. Athletes had three tries to lift a log over their heads, with locked knees, hips, shoulders and head throughout, and then control it to the ground. They had 1 minute during each try and could take multiple attempts each try.
“The first one, honestly, was like a relief because I was extremely nervous all day long,” Thibeault says. “So, to get the first lift out of the way and then hit the record, it was a relief. Like just a big ball of anxiety off of me because I knew that I had at least reached one goal that I had set for myself for today.”
She took a chance on a fourth attempt at 200 pounds, but which wouldn’t have counted in her total. Still, though, she was proud of herself.
“My coach and I, we set like specific numbers that we had wanted to reach. And then, I reached the first one and then the second one. And then, I was even more proud of myself. And then, I hit the third,” Thibeault says. “I really wanted the fourth because it’s like 200 [pounds] is obviously something that I’m like, ‘I’ll die happy if I do.’ So, I’m very close. So, I think if I work really hard, I’ll get it by qualifiers in February.”
A few hours later, Thibeault set a world-record of 815.71 pounds on her third max 18-inch axle deadlift, which bested her previous world-record of 733.07 pounds on her second attempt and 650.364 pounds, which had tied her world record, on her first attempt.
So, in total, she tied or broke world records on five of her seven lifts.
Six years ago, around 2020, Thibeault was in a nursing home, and she says doctors had essentially written her off. They thought her MS was going to catch up to her.
During that time, she and Poitras went home and looked for ways for her to stay in shape. She tried resistance bands but wanted more of a workout. So, Poitras looked up how to start a gym workout with no equipment on the internet. Then, they found some big rocks.
“And so, we were just like lifting rocks and lifting whatever we could find in our yard. And then we found people that were doing Strongman and it just grew into this,” Thibeault says.
Martinez Finds His Fuel
As for Martinez, frustration is what fueled him on Saturday. He was disappointed with his log press performance, in which he lifted just one of his three attempts (300.297 pounds on his second attempt).
“Usually, for me, it’s the roll-up. It’s that clean up onto the chest. Today, for some reason, the press was just eluding me,” says Martinez, who was injured in a 2013 single-car vehicle accident in Lemoore, Calif. “I couldn’t find my base. Like, yes, I only have one leg. So, I couldn’t get it planted hard enough to create a good foundation for that press. So, I kept getting stuck right at my face, and I’m like, ‘I just couldn’t beat it.’”
With his family there, though, he crushed it in the 18-inch axle deadlift. After deadlifting 848.78 pounds on his first attempt, and then 925.942 pounds on his second, he went after the over-1,000-pound mark. And he cleared it – as he deadlifted 1,003.103 pounds on his third and final attempt and let out a loud yell afterwards. It was the first time his wife and children all got to see him compete together at an event.
Martinez has competed in adaptive Strongman competitions since 2022. He was actually competing in an able-bodied powerlifting competition at the time when another competitor told him about adaptive Strongman.
“He’s like, ‘They kind of tailor the lifts to your disabilities and your limitations,’ because we were talking and I was like, ‘Oh, that’s cool.’ He’s like, ‘Yeah, so, for you being an above-knee amputee, a lot of the lifts you would do would be seated or kind of modified in a way where your prosthetic doesn’t hinder you,’” Martinez says. “So, he told me like, ‘Yeah, there’s a competition coming up and they’re known for their adaptive division. You should look into them.’ So, I looked up Static Monsters, and I signed up for that competition for like two weeks notice. And I’m like, I just saw it. And I saw it was about three hours away from where I live. So, I was like, ‘You know what, let’s do this.’”
But it’s the family-friendly atmosphere and respect that he really appreciates about it. It makes it more enjoyable for him.
“It’s serious, but at the same time, they’re going out of their way to help you,” Martinez said. “ … Like here, we want to win, but we want to win against the best version of our competitor.”
Justin Young agrees. The 35-year-old was injured in July 2023 during a road rage incident in Greeley, Colo., in which he was shot, leaving him a level T7 complete paraplegic. After spending five months at Craig Hospital in Denver, he was introduced to different adaptive sports by John Vcelka. And he quickly gravitated to adaptive weightlifting and Strongman competitions. Later in 2024, Young earned the USS America’s Strongest Athlete with Disabilities Neuro Division title in Atlantic City, N.J.
Young finished third Saturday in the Adaptive Men Neuro Seated division in the log press (159.835 pounds) and 18-inch axle deadlift (0 pounds, didn’t make any of his three lift attempts).
“For one, I like training … You can’t really just go to the gym and like train like, you know, for benching, you know, you’re just bench-pressing or you’re doing squats, you know. With Strongman … like, how do you train yourself to get stronger to do an Atlas stone or, you know, an overhead press with a log when most gyms don’t even have a log, you know what I mean? So, that’s one thing I love about Strongman,” Young says. “And then, especially for the adaptive community, just how we are, just how we all come together, we are competitive within each other, but it’s almost like a family, you know.”