A trans woman who had been awarded the title of World’s Strongest Woman, surpassing a British competitor, has now been disqualified after event organizers discovered she had not disclosed her status as ‘biologically male’.

Jammie Booker, 28, emerged victorious after narrowly defeating professional strongwoman Andrea Thompson from Melton, Suffolk, at the competition held in Texas.

Andrea Thompson, a mother of two and a four-time champion of ‘Britain’s Strongest Woman’, was visibly upset on stage when she received second place, despite being anticipated to win the event.

However, an announcement on Instagram by the Official Strongman Games clarified that they had been unaware of Booker’s biological gender before awarding her the title.

The statement explained, “It has come to our attention that an athlete, who is biologically male but identifies as female, participated in the Women’s Open category. Official Strongman officials were not informed of this prior to the competition, and we have been conducting an urgent investigation since being notified.”

Efforts have been made to reach out to the competitor involved, but so far, there has been no response.

‘Had we been aware, or had this been declared at any point before or during the competition, this athlete would not have been permitted to compete in the Woman’s Open category. 

We are clear – competitors can only compete in the category for the biological sex recorded at birth. Official Strongman is inclusive and proud to run events which do not discriminate against athletes based on personal characteristics. 

Any athlete is welcome. But it is our responsibility to ensure fairness and ensure athletes are assigned to men or women’s categories based on whether they are recorded as male or female at birth’.

They said they had now disqualified the athlete from the Official Strongman World Championships 2025. 

‘All athlete points and places will be altered accordingly to ensure that the rightful places are allocated to each of the Women’s Open athletes.

‘The Official Strongman World Championships is an event which is rightly one of the pinnacles of the strength world. 

‘We are disappointed on behalf of all those who fairly and legitimately took part that the attention has been taken away from their efforts which deserve celebration, no matter how they performed or where they finished. We stand with them and stand with fairness.’

In footage from the trophy ceremony, Thompson could be heard saying ‘this is bull****, can we go?’ before marching off stage, as Booker celebrated on the winner’s podium.

The rivals competed over six weightlifting events that took place from November 20 to 23, including ‘log press challenge’, ‘timber frame carry’, ‘deadlift ladder’ and more.

In what proved to be a costly mistake, Thompson placed seventh in the final event, scoring 46 overall points to Booker’s 47. 

After Booker was crowned the winner, speculation began swirling online that she was actually biologically male, sparking uproar among fans and fellow athletes.

The personal trainer, who is apparently 6ft 5in and weighs around 400 pounds, allegedly admitted in a YouTube video from 2017 that she is transgender.

Fans of the tournament tracked down a YouTube channel entitled ‘Jammie Booker’, with a profile picture of a person wearing sports gear while flexing their biceps, who appears to look like the competitor. 

In one of two videos uploaded by the account, which only has 12 subscribers, a voiceover can be heard saying: ‘Everyone on Earth is dying to tell their own story and I am no exception to that.

‘I’m a 21 year old trans [woman] with a history of abuse struggling to stay true to herself while under the rule of her religious parents.’

In the wake of the competition results, several fans rushed to support Thompson on a social media post where she uploaded a picture of her second place trophy.

‘You ARE The Worlds Strongest Woman!! No trophy can make me believe otherwise,’ one person wrote.

‘Winner in my eyes. Proud of you always,’ another added.

Colten Sloan, who won Western Canada’s Strongest Man in June, wrote: ‘You’re the real champion, they better mail you a first place trophy.’ 

Welsh strongwoman Rebecca Roberts, who won the world competition in 2021, 2023 and 2024, wrote: ‘Andrea you will always be the champion in our eyes.’

She wrote an extended post on her own Instagram, alongside a graphic saying: ‘Protect women’s sports.’

‘I hold no hate toward transgender people. Everyone deserves dignity, respect, and the freedom to live their truth,’ she wrote.

‘But I cannot stay silent about something that threatens the fairness and future of women’s strength sports.’

She added: ‘What happened this weekend wasn’t transparent. None of us knew. Not even the organisers knew. And when fairness is taken by surprise, trust in the sport begins to crack.’

Yet more rumours began spreading online that the organisers behind the Official Strongman Games changed the women’s result following the backlash.

Former strongman competitor Laurence Shahlaei, who coached Thompson, added to the speculations with an Instagram post where he announced the Brit as the winner.

‘A huge congratulations to my client but more importantly, my very good friend @andreathompson_strongwoman for winning the World’s Strongest Woman 2025.

‘You worked your ass off for this and I’m so proud of you. You absolutely dominated the deadlift, log and circus dumbbell and while there are still a couple of weaknesses to work on, you were still the strongest woman on the day.

‘This win hasn’t come without controversy, but I want to make it very clear that while I support and applaud people for being who they want to be, sport is sport and the women’s classes exist for a reason.’

Thompson, who has been competing since 2013, won the World’s Strongest Woman title in 2018 in Raleigh, North Carolina and the Masters World’s Strongest Woman title in 2023 in Charleston, West Virginia.

As well as powerlifting, she is a part-time NVQ assessor and lives with her husband Steve, a railway docker.

They have two daughters, Olivia and Violet.

Booker, who calls herself the ‘world’s strongest lesbian’ in her TikTok bio, has only featured in three competitions, and began taking part in professional strongwoman events this year.

She ranked second in North America’s Strongest Woman in July and first in a Rainier Classic competition in Washington in June.

Thompson ended up coming second in the competition because of her performance in the ‘Stone Series’ challenge, where the women had to lift four implements over a 42-inch beam weighing up to 300 pounds. 

Booker loaded three stones in just over 29 seconds, while Thompson only loaded one. 

Reacting to placing second place, Thompson wrote on Instagram:

‘Most would be pleased with 2nd place, I am not.

‘I came for the win, but my t-Rex arms let me down on those mega stones.

‘In hindsight, I knew the loading and stones would be my weakness, but we always hope for a miracle.

‘Congratulations to all the ladies who put in a good fight. Some dark horses who I know we will see again moving up the ranks.

‘Thank you for all the supportive messages and kind words I’ve received.’

One of Booker’s sponsors accused the athlete of having ‘misrepresented critical information to OSG [Official Strongman Games] officials and judges.’

Iron Ape, which sells sports strength equipment, revealed that she was ‘no longer affiliated’ with the brand ‘in any capacity after the controversy surrounding her “win.”‘

In a statement, Iron Ape owner Colton Cross wrote: ‘We have reason to believe that Jammie Booker misrepresented critical information to OSG officials and judges, resulting in an unfair advantage over the other competitors in the Women’s Open class.

‘Effective immediately, Jammie Booker has been removed from the Iron Ape athlete roster… this is not a matter of Jammie’s gender identity. Iron Ape does not, and never will, discriminate against individuals based on gender, race, sexual orientation, or any other personal characteristic.

‘We expect every Iron Ape athlete to uphold the highest standards of sportsmanship. When those standards are violated, decisive action must be taken.’

Mitchel Hopper,  who became the first Canadian to win the title of World’s Strongest Man in 2023, took to YouTube to vent his frustrations with the competition.

He said: ‘There is a time when we have to take a stand for women’s sports and we’ve got to keep women’s sports [for] women…

‘It does raise a really big concern because there’s an obvious physical advantage. It’s impossible not to see when you look at the two stood beside each other – there are significant differences, and in strength sports more than any other sport, we’re going to see major discrepancies.’ 

On Monday, Booker posted an emotional message to social media in the wake of the competition. She thanked Official Strongman Games ‘for having me’ and paid tribute to her fellow competitors. 

‘I wanted to express a very heartfelt thank you to everyone that has supported me over the past many months to make this possible,’ she said.

Booker especially thanked fans who donated to her Go Fund Me page, which raised money for her participation in November’s event including registration fees, flights and the hotel cost.

‘[To] my fellow competitors today – you are all insanely badass women and it was an honour just to even share the stage with you and be there to cheer you on and be cheered on by you.’