Event Recap · Women's Barbell Classic
316 Women.
Four Platforms.
Zero Apologies.
The largest Women's Barbell Classic to date. Every single moment of it was a reminder of what women are capable of when they stop making themselves small.
There are days in this work that remind you exactly why you do it. The Women's Barbell Classic was one of those days — multiplied by 316.
This year's event was the largest Women's Barbell Classic to date. Three hundred and sixteen women stepped onto a platform and showed the world what strength looks like when it belongs to women across every age, every background, every starting point. It was empowerment in its purest form, and I am still processing the gift of getting to witness it.
Here's my attempt to put it into words.
The event316 Women Taking Up Space
Let that number land for a second. 316 women. All-women. Across four platforms. In one room. Cheering each other on like they'd known each other for years — because in the way that matters most, they have. They share something. The decision to stop getting smaller and start getting stronger. The willingness to step under a bar in front of a crowd and show what they've built.
The energy in that room was something I don't have a clean word for. Loud doesn't cover it. Emotional doesn't cover it. It was the sound of a narrative changing in real time — women who've been told their whole lives to shrink, to tone, to take up less space, standing at a platform and doing the exact opposite.
The momentsThe Ones That Stay With You
Every year, there are two moments at this event that get me. Every single time. I know they're coming and it doesn't matter — I'm not ready for them. I don't think I ever will be.
The little ones — eight years old, stepping onto a platform for the first time.
There is something about watching a girl that young stand up to a barbell — confident, focused, brave — that breaks you open in the best way. She doesn't know yet that the world is going to spend the next decade trying to make her feel like her body is a problem to solve. Right now, in this moment, she knows it's capable. That it's strong. That it can do something remarkable. I want to bottle that and hand it to every woman in the room.
The masters women, 60 and older, stepping up to show what decades of life looks like on a platform.
The roar that goes through the room when a masters woman steps up is unlike anything else. These are women who grew up in an era that told them the gym wasn't for them, that strength was unfeminine, that aging meant shrinking quietly. And here they are — on a platform, in front of hundreds of people, showcasing what they've built. Every single one of them is proof that frailty is not the default.
"From the eight-year-olds lifting for the first time to the masters women in their 60s, 70s, and 80s claiming their strength — every woman in that room was changing the narrative. Getting smaller is not the goal. Getting stronger is."
The communityWomen Cheering for Women
If you've never been in a room of hundreds of women cheering for a stranger — a woman they've never met, whose name they just heard called — I want you to know that it is one of the most quietly radical things I've ever experienced.
This is what community looks like when it's built around something real. Not comparison. Not competition in the way the word usually means. But women who understand, at a cellular level, what it took for the woman on that platform to get there and who show up for her accordingly. Loudly. Completely. Without hesitation.
That's the Women's Barbell Classic. That's what 316 people in a room who all chose strength looks like.
The villageNone of This Happens Without Them
An event like this doesn't materialize from nothing. Behind 316 athletes on a platform is an army of people who showed up before the sun came up and stayed until everything was put away. The volunteers. The staff. The people who loaded plates, ran flights, kept the day moving, and made sure every single lifter had an experience worth showing up for.
This event supports Raise the Bar Initiative — a Des Moines nonprofit doing important work in this space. The Women's Barbell Classic serves as their annual gala, and the fact that a strength competition can also be an act of community investment is something I don't take lightly.
To every volunteer, every staff member, every person who gave their time and energy to make this day what it was: thank you. You are part of why 316 women walked away knowing what they're made of.
See you next year.
Every year, this event gets bigger. Every year, more women decide that strength is their story. Every year, I stand in that room and feel the weight of what it means to be part of a movement that is genuinely changing how women see themselves and what they believe their bodies are for.
Frailty is not your story. It never was. And days like this one — 316 women strong — are proof.
To every woman who lifted, cheered, volunteered, or showed up in any capacity: you made this. See y'all next year.
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