And the incredible thing is she’s nowhere close to calling it a career.
Why would you when you’re the reigning world champion in your weight class and a medal hopeful for the upcoming World Games next year?
Stinn recently competed in the International Powerlifting Federation (IPF) Open world championships in Stavanger, Norway and came away with her second title in the under-84 kilogram division, doing so in such dominant fashion that the gold was largely hers before the final lifts even took place.
“All in all it was a good day,” Stinn said in describing her win. “Obviously winning my class was the goal going in and we achieved that. The squat wasn’t quite there that day, I squatted a little bit less than I anticipated based on training and that’s how it goes sometimes, but everything else went really well.”
Stinn got things going with a 242.5 kilogram squat and missed on her final attempt at 247.5 kg, leaving her in seventh place after the first event.
As anyone whose followed Stinn’s career, that wasn’t too much of a concern. Not with the next event coming up. And by the time the bench press was over, the competition was essentially over.
Stinn would clear 210 kg on her first lift, and despite that being nearly 30 kg more than any other competitor would lift in the event, it was essentially a warm-up.
She’d break her own world record of 212.4 kg with a lift of 218 kg on her next attempt and then better that mark with a 223 kg effort to close out the bench press 40 kg better than second-place finisher Ankie Timmers from the Netherlands.
“The bench was really good, even after getting 223 it felt like there was a little more in the tank,” Stinn said. “So that’s good heading into the future.”
That set the stage for the deadlift, and with a substantial lead over the field, it was a matter of just getting things done.
“After bench, I sort of knew that unless something very strange happened I was in the driver seat and in a good spot heading into deadlift, so I just needed to make my attempts,” Stinn explained. “I dropped my deadlift opener a little lighter just to secure the total and the win.
I missed my second deadlift with a silly little wobble at the top, but got it on the third attempt to finish the day.”
That translated into a 190 kg lift to start, 202.5 kg miss and 202.5 lift to cap off the event. She would finish eighth in the event, but her 668.0 kg total was good enough for a 40.5 kg victory.
“I knew what my competition was capable of deadlifting, so unless they had an incredible training cycle heading in, with my lead from the bench press it was looking really good,” Stinn said. “It didn’t come down to the final pull, so it wasn’t a crazy stressful competition in that sense, I just had to make my lifts and control what I could do.”
The world title was the second Open championship for Stinn after she won her first in 2019 in Dubai. The 2020 event was cancelled for the usual reasons.
The world championship wasn’t Stinn’s only honour at the meet. She was inducted into the IPF Hall of Fame during the awards banquet, marking her second Hall of Fame induction in the last year after being enshrined in the North American Powerlifting Federation Hall of Fame this fall.
“I don’t know what’s going on lately, when I heard about the IPF one, it was like ‘is this a sign I should be retiring or something?’” Stinn said with a laugh. “It’s something I didn’t really expect, it wasn’t even on my radar and it’s pretty incredible to be included with the phenomenal athletes that are in that Hall of Fame… you never think something like that is going to happen, but when it does, it’s always amazing.”
Next up will be the Canadian powerlifting championships in March, followed by the one major event that has eluded her grasp -- the World Games.
The massive multi-sport event is set to run July 7-17 in Birmingham, Ala., featuring competitions that aren’t on the Olympic Games slate, powerlifting being one of those.
The format features fewer weight classes and awards medals based on a bodyweight-to-weight-lifted formula, adding an couple of extra wrinkles to the competition.
The good thing is Stinn is more than familiar with what it’s all about -- and what it will take to get things done.
“This is my fourth World Games coming up, it feels like quite a few years since my first one in 2008,” Stinn said. “I’ve never been on the podium at World Games, so we’ll see how this one goes. Based on the placings from worlds, I should have a good shot if I have a good day… So now it’s keeping the body healthy and moving well and seeing what happens.”
