From strength to strength
MEET Wales’ ultimate power couple!
Sam Taylor, 42, and Sue TaylorFranklin, 52, have became the UK’s strongest couple – after taking home 1st and 2nd place at the Brits Women Masters 2020.
The married pair first hit it off over a mutual love for the gym, and now they’re at the top of their game.
“We couldn’t quite believe it, we were stood there looking at each other waiting for someone to come along and say it was a mistake,” Sam said.
Training four days a week, the pair put away an impressive 3,000 calories a day which increases to 5,000 a day in the run-up to a competition.
Sam, who works for Newport City Council and who started competitively lifting in 2018, soon became addicted after coming fourth in her first local competition.
Now, just two years later, Sam currently sits as the World’s fifth strongest woman and is a four-times Welsh champion.
“I went to my first powerlifting competition in 2018 and came fourth. It’s hard work, but I became addicted really”, she said.
Sue, who works for the Probation Service, started professionally powerlifting two years ago at the age of 50 following Sam’s encouragement.
“Within the first six weeks I did my first powerlifting contest and beat four Welsh records that day”, she said.
Sue currently sits as Britain’s strongest woman over 50 and holds an impressive two British deadlift records.
The couple, from Llanrumney, Cardiff, put their success down to their strong support network.
Sue believes they both perform well because they push each other to achieve big.
“We’re very supportive of each other”, she said. “We’ve both got different strengths in different events but I think it’s good because we challenge and push each other all the time. It works, it works really well.”
For Sam especially, the gym has been an important lifeline to manage her mental health.
She said the gym gave her a new perspective on life and advocates for people to find what makes them happy and become the best at it.
“I had more to give and more to do in life,” she said. “I kind of feel now that life is too short, and I need to go out there and achieve things. My story is very much you can go out there and achieve things and become the best person you can possibly be.”
Being women and LGBT+, the couple – who are trained by former World’s Strongest Woman Rhianon Lovelace – say it has been hard for them to gain recognition and sponsorship similar to top performing men in their sport due to stereotypical setbacks.
“The men at the top levels will get thousands of pounds for winning and women at the same level will get £500,” Sam said.
“World’s Strongest Woman is out there now, it’s getting more popular, but it is more of a struggle.
“Women have this perception that if they lift weight they’re going to look like men, so there’s all these barriers.”
The couple live at home with their 10-year-old son and hope people will be inspired to take up sports regardless of age, sexuality and gender after reading their story.
Looking forward to future competitions post-Covid, the couple hope to compete against each other after they both qualified for World’s Strongest Woman 2021, which takes place in Florida.