Shauna ‘still defying the odds’ as she celebrates 10 years atop strongwoman podium
Shetland’s most successful strongwoman reflects on a decade of competitions
WHEN Shauna Moar was a child, her parents were dealt a shock.
They were told their daughter would likely spend her adult life in a wheelchair after being diagnosed with a rare muscle tone condition.
More than three decades on, Shauna has not just defied the odds in that regard – she is also now Shetland’s most successful ever strongwoman.
Shauna has been reflecting on 10 years in the sport this week, a decade which has seen the strongwoman scene, and Shauna’s career, literally go from strength to strength.
To mark the anniversary she will travel to Florida next month to compete at the Official Strongman Games (OSG), the world’s largest strongwoman contest.
Shauna is a reluctant interviewee when it comes to her own achievements, preparing instead to talk about the future and what’s still to come.
But even she can admit that her success has been staggering.
“I think it’s only when you look back that you realise how well you’ve done,” Shauna told Shetland News from her Teesside home last week.
“I’m quite hard on myself, so I’ve never really looked at it in that way, but it is pretty crazy what I’ve done.
“I’ve tried to stop and give myself a pat on the back, because I don’t do that very often.”
The achievements Shauna alludes to are numerous. She was the first ever Shetland’s Strongest Woman in 2021 – with brother Dhanni scooping the men’s title on the day.
Perhaps most impressive has been her trap bar deadlift world record, which she first set in 2021 at 210kg.
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Since then she has broken her own record year on year – setting a new world record of 285kg this year.
Competing against the best in the world at the OSG games, which she will do again next month, also ranks highly.
Strongwoman has undoubtedly become a staple of the Shetland sporting picture in recent years, but Shauna said that was most definitely not the case when she started in 2016.
In fact, she credits its growth in the isles as one of her proudest accomplishments.
“When I started in 2016 then World’s Strongest Man was on the TV every Christmas, my brother was doing really well at competitions, but there was barely anything in strongwoman competitions,” Shauna said.
“There were none of the beginner or novice competitions that you see now happening.
“It has grown massively over the last 10 years.”
That did not just come naturally though. Shauna said she had to fight for Shetland to have a dedicated annual strongwoman competition.
“I was working hard for years behind the scene for the Shetland competitions to include women,” she said.
“I asked for three years in a row before they agreed to it. They said there was not enough women at the time, which was fair.
“So for the 2021 competition I went around trying to get as many people involved as I could.”
Her subsequent win in that 2021 competition, in front of her family, “was a big thing for me”, she said.
“It is pretty crazy what I’ve done” – Shauna Moar
Though Shauna is celebrating 10 years since she started competing in strongwoman competitions, she has only been competing for seven of those.
In 2017 she focused fully on playing rugby for Shetland and then moved to Aberdeen in 2019, where she also stuck to rugby instead.
With 2020 a lost year due to Covid, Shauna said that 2021 was a “bit of a comeback year for me”.
“I worked really hard when we were allowed to get back to it, and I had a bit of fire to get back to where I was,” she said.
“I went on to do six competitions that year – I was just on a roll. It would have been more but I injured myself before Scotland’s Strongest Woman as well.”
Shauna now devotes a lot of her time to coaching the next generation of strength athletes, including Lauri Siegel – the teenager who earned a spot at a world championship event in Phoenix this year after just one competition.
“The coaching gives me a lot of joy, it’s definitely something I’m doing more of. I absolutely love it,” Shauna said.
“I’m always to help people, because a lot of people don’t know what to do when they get started.
“I had four competitors last weekend, and I was coaching them at the same time as competing myself.
“I’m really proud of getting them to that point.”
Shauna is admittedly “modest and humble” about all that she has achieved, but said that she was proud that she had paved the way for other Shetlanders to follow in her footsteps.
“I’m doing my bit to grow the sport and the next generation,” she added.
Despite all the highs, the loss of strongman Jonni Manson – a close friend of Shauna’s – in 2024 was a considerable blow.
“He was a big part of my strongwoman career,” Shauna said.
“I went to my second ever competition in Fort William with him, and we had quite a wild night out after the competition.
“That’s one of my favourite memories of Jonni. He was always there to do competitions together.”
And through all of the pain and grief, the trophies and success, it’s easy to lose sight of the fact that Shauna is doing all of this with a muscle condition which makes every lift just that bit harder.
Shauna was diagnosed with benign congenital hypotonia as a child, a rare condition which leaves her with “severely weakened muscles”.
The diagnosis “took quite a lot” of work from her parents, she said, with Shauna struggling to walk and stay upright as a young child.
Explaining how it affects her now, she said: “I have to work incredibly hard just to get to the same level as everyone else.
“Some days I can push through it, and some days I just can’t lift anything. I can only do as much as my body lets me.
“But I fight it as much as I can, I know I can rest after it’s done.”
Stories about Shauna’s success tend not to touch on her condition, which Shauna says she has only felt comfortable talking about in the past two years.
“It’s a big part of my story but I have never used it as an excuse,” she said.
“I never ever let it stop me. I’m still defying the odds.”
And as she closes the chapter on her first 10 years as a strongwoman, Shauna said she had no plans to stop just yet – and pledged to “keep going as long as I can”.
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