St. Paul’s Sarah Reasoner is the fifth strongest firefighter in the world.
Reasoner was the first woman to compete in the World’s Strongest Firefighter competition, which was held for the second time on Saturday during the Arnold Strongman USA Championship in California. It was started by Arnold Schwarzenegger, whom Reasoner met.
“I’ll never forget him coming up on stage yelling at me during the sandbag carry and helping me up after the event,” Reasoner said Monday. “He gave me a hug and said, ‘You are amazing Wonder Woman,'” which is Reasoner’s nickname.
Each challenger used the same amount of weight and, in the contests of reps in one minute, Reasoner took four for the 170-pound log press and 10 for the 450-pound deadlift.
“‘Wonder Woman’ stole the show,” said Brent LaLonde, Arnold Pro Strongman spokesman. “She was an instant hit with the crowd and drew a huge reaction every time she came out to compete. The crowd went crazy when she completed the Sandbag Carry at 200 pounds for 260 feet, which was a first-place effort at the time. She ended up finishing third in that event, which was her best of the day.”
Overall, Reasoner tied for fifth of nine contestants. She became a St. Paul firefighter last summer.
“I was blown away by the support from my St. Paul Fire crews,” Reasoner said. “I got a number of photos from crews watching the stream live on the TV in the kitchen. I can’t explain that amazing feeling that was to see.”
