Jan Todd


Janice Todd is an American former powerlifter, historian, researcher and a strength and physical culture promoter. She is a professor and department chair in the Department of Kinesiology and Health Education at The University of Texas at Austin. Todd is a member of the sport management faculty, and teaches classes in sport history, sport philosophy, and sport and ethics. An active lecturer, Todd was named the Seward Staley Honor Lecturer for the North American Society for Sport History in 2008.

Early life and education

Todd grew up in Western Pennsylvania in a low-income family. She went to college at Mercer University.

Career

Powerlifting

Todd’s interest in the study of sport and physical culture was galvanized by her participation and success in the sport of powerlifting. During her powerlifting career, many publications, including Sports Illustrated magazine, considered her to be the strongest woman in the world. Arnold Schwarzenegger described her as a 'legend' and a "pioneer who led the way for strongwomen". Todd "bent bottle caps with her fingers, lifted her Ford Fiesta for fun and drove nails through wooden boards with her palms".
As a powerlifter, Todd set more than 60 national and world records, and was included in the Guinness Book of Records for over a decade. On 2 February 1978 she appeared on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, performing several lifts along with Johnny Carson. In 1982 she became the first woman inducted into the International Powerlifting Hall of Fame. She was inducted in the first class of the Women’s Powerlifting Hall of Fame, and the 2009 class of the US National Fitness Hall of Fame. She also received the 2008 Oscar Heidenstam Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award for her contributions in the field of physical fitness. In 2018, she was inducted into the International Sports Hall of Fame.

Organizing and coaching powerlifting

Todd and her husband Terry Todd organized the first national women's powerlifting meet in 1977, and together coached the women's Canadian powerlifting team from 1976 to 1979.

Dinnie Stones

Todd is perhaps best known outside the powerlifting community for being the first woman ever to successfully lift the Dinnie Stones in 1979. No woman lifted them again until Leigh Holland-Keen did so in 2018.

Personal records

Powerlifting:
Equipped :
  • Squat –
  • Bench press –
  • Deadlift –
  • Total –
Raw:
  • Squat –
  • Bench press –
  • Deadlift –
  • Total –
Strongman:
  • Dinnie Stones – stones

    Later years

Todd also serves as co-editor of Iron Game History: The Journal of Physical Culture, a scholarly journal for the history of physical culture. She and her husband founded Iron Game History together in 1990, while she was studying for her PhD in American Studies. In addition, she has written numerous articles on topics such as sport and exercise history, anabolic steroids, and strength training as well as two books: Physical Culture and the Body Beautiful: Purposive Exercise in the Lives of American Women, and Lift Your Way to Youthful Fitness.
With her husband, Terry Todd, Jan Todd founded the H.J. Lutcher Stark Center for Physical Culture and Sports, which is housed in the Darrell K Royal–Texas Memorial Stadium at The University of Texas in Austin. It contains more than 150,000 books, photos, films, magazines, letters, training courses, videotapes, posters, paintings and artifacts across its. The collection covers the history of competitive lifting, professional strongmen and strongwomen, sports nutrition, bodybuilding, naturopathy, conditioning for athletes, drug use in sports and alternative medicine.

Personal life

She met her husband Terry Todd while in college at Mercer University. He fell in love with her at a barbecue, when he saw her flip a massive log without giggling or showing any false modesty.
The two lived on a cattle ranch on the San Marcos River with a large collection of animals including 5 peacocks, a Percheron draft horse, 50 cattle, two Sicilian donkeys, an English Mastiff dog, an emu, and three Maine Coon cats.
Terry died on July 7, 2018, in Austin, Texas, at the age of 80.