This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Sports

Oswego East Teacher Ranked First In America's Strongest Women Competition

OEHS teacher Kimberly Baum she competed in the middle class weight division in the October competition.

Strongman competitor and OEHS teacher Kimberly Baum took first place in the North American Strongman Competition for women in October, beating her third place rank from the previous year.

Baum already knew that she won overall due to her first place placements in six out of the seven events which caused her gain myriad fans.  

“The ceremony was so fun and so crowded. It was cool because every time they called my name everyone got up and cheered and clapped, and the room got the loudest for me which I thought was awesome,” Baum said.

Find out what's happening in Yorkvillewith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Going into the competition Baum was most worried about the frame carry, but finished carrying the frame to the 60 ft endpoint in 7.94 seconds.

READ:  Oswego East Teacher to Compete in America’s Strongest Woman Competition

“I thought my grip was going to be an issue but I actually won the event flat out and I was pretty surprised. They lightened the weight a little bit and I pretty much ran with it,” Baum said.

Find out what's happening in Yorkvillewith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Her hardest event ended up being the Giant Wheel Barrow Load and Carry where she only completed 67 ft and 5 inches out of the 80 ft and placed third.

“I feel like I’m very well conditioned as far as strength and endurance to a point but this came down to really pushing my capacity of my endurance. It was hard to just keep my breath throughout because you had to carry three different kegs into a wheel barrow, and then you had to pick up the wheel barrow and carry it. By the time all the kegs were in there, it was 1,000 pounds,” Baum explained.  

Baum originally planned to take a break from strongman after the competition but since she is qualified for the World’s Strongest Woman Competition she isn’t certain about her plans for the future.

“I’m kind of on the edge right now whether I want to make that commitment and go. I would absolutely love to go, but since I’m a first year teacher it’s kind of a hard decision whether the school would allow me to go,” Baum said.

Baum placed third at World’s the previous year and feels she could prove herself this year since she let her nerves get the best of her. Baum is also planning on doing a women’s physique show during her break from strongman.

“I definitely in the future want to go back. Ideally my goal would to be number one in the world and number one in the US. But America’s strongest is still pretty cool,” Baum said. 

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?