Birdsley competes at Strongman competition

Porshia Birdsley recently placed 16th out of 23 in the world at the 2024 Official Strongman Games World Finals held in Madison, Wisconsin at the Veterans Memorial Coliseum on December 6-8. Birdsley's weight class is under 73kg or 160lbs.

There were four events to compete over two days. First was the log and trump log. This is where one rep on the bigger log (190lbs) beats any amount on the little log (165 lbs). Second was the car yoke walk with 620 lbs. Third was the axle deadlift with 405 lbs or a trump weight of 470 lbs. Fourth was the sandbag medley, with each bag 175 lbs and a 50 foot sled with 300+lbs on the sled, and then a 200lb Húsafell stone. 

Birdsley explained that she faced an initial challenge with the first event of the log and trump log. She said, "Doing 190 lbs several times in the gym and in competitions and it was a weight that was doable for me. I was feeling good in warm up. So I went for that. But it wasn't happening there. After I didn't go up the second time, I ran back and got one rep on the baby log, which was really easy. If I would have just originally started with that, that still would have landed me fifth place in the event and I would have made the top ten. So that kind of set the preface for me to be very discouraged, because that's something that I'm capable of doing and I wasn't able to perform."

Birdsley added, "It was something that should have been my strongest event, and I was very confident because the warm up went well. However, we had to wait a long time between the time we were warmed up and the time we got to go perform. It's hard to gauge the time when it's in a big, huge space because you're waiting for them to finish up. They're projecting you to be ready at this time. So you have to be ready then. But like, hey, we're a 20 minute delay. Sometimes the warm-ups are a factor. You didn't get very good sleep, which I did not. A lot of those do come into play. However, like I said in warm up, 180 lbs was fine. It was easy. And so I was very confident. But then you get out there and they got the large ceilings, the bright lights coming in your eyes as you get that weight on you. I was a little bit unstable, and it just didn't happen."

If Birdsley chose to pick up the small log of 165 lbs and did 10 reps, that would enable her to place fifth in the event and would let her be in the top 10.

Birdsley continued and said, "I think knowing though, that my capabilities are even better for placement in the world than it is. That was my best performance straight across. So I think that gives me a lot of encouragement moving forward." 

For the second event, Birdsley had to pick the height of a yoke for a 620 lbs car. One of the problems the athletes faced with the cars was the tires were fixed and did not rotate. So, while carrying the car, if they dropped the car, the entire 620 lbs weight would come to a halt on them. Getting the right height of the yoke was key. In hindsight, Birdsley would have picked a higher yoke of the car so that the tires would not drag.

Birdsley said, "When I practiced 620 pounds on the yoke here in the gym, it was going fine, but it also wasn't a car. You don't know how to prepare yourself for something you've never tried before. But having that experience now, I feel really confident that if I ever had to do it again, I'd be able to do even better."

Day two the athletes performed the axle deadlift, which is a two inch thick bar that doesn't have any bend to it. This is much more difficult than a standard deadlift. For this event, the same style as the log. There is a smaller weight of 405 lbs and the trump axle deadlift of 470 lbs.

Birdsley said, "Deadlift has always been my weakest event. So to me, 405 pounds for one rep would have been great for me personally. However, I was able to do three, so that was my biggest win for the entire competition. My weakest event became, for me personally, like a huge victory because I was able to get three reps at 405."

In this event Birdsley knew she could have done a fourth rep, but she strategized to conserve her energy knowing she had the fourth and last event coming next.

Regarding deadlift as one of Birdsley's weaknesses, she is getting additional help. Travis Ortmayer from Texas is taking over coaching Birdsley. Ortmayer has been a strongman competitor for over 22 years. Birdsley said, "I'm really excited to see how my ability can progress under such an experienced coach. He's already helped me so much in dead lifting where I was able to progress under my knowledge or Chad Lowry's knowledge. He's not as experienced as Travis. And Travis has helped me a lot."

The fourth event was the sandbag medley where there is a 175 lbs sandbag running 50ft into a sled. The sled's weight is over 300 lbs. Then the athlete runs back and lifts a 200 lbs Húsafell stone, which has a triangle shape.

After all four events over the two days, Birdsley placed 16th in the world for weight class. 

Now Birdsley is preparing for her next event, the "Arnold's" on February 28-March 2. This event is also for the best in the world and is even harder to qualify for. There are fewer invitations for that world competition. The Arnold's will be livestreamed from Columbus, Ohio.

Reflecting on her own journey as an athlete and taking stock of her growth or transformation, Birdsley said, "I think from the very first starting the sport until this moment, from going from just not knowing anything about the sport basically, to being two and a half years later, qualifying to be the best in the world in the sport is, an accomplishment in of itself and one that I'm very grateful for and blessed to have."

Birdsley added, "My confidence has grown in the sport because of my abilities being able to handle all of the weight that's required of me for the event."

Birdsley continued and said, "The part of learning how to be okay with not performing as good as you're capable of is disheartening. But it's also motivating to be able to take different struggles or weaknesses and failures and then you persevere through that."

She added, "Just like with life, when we encounter things that don't go our way, we can either let it defeat us and define us, or we can let it help us, grow us and give us more wisdom and give us more experience. And so I think I took this more than anything, because I know that I could have done better, and it just didn't happen that way. I'm just going to use this experience to help me grow as an athlete and grow as an individual."