Britain's strongest man and woman who fell in love have gotten married.
Paul Smith, 28, currently holds the title of UK's Strongest man while his partner, Shannon, 29, won the title of World's Strongest Woman in 2021. The pair met in 2017 when Paul visited the same gym Shannon trained at.
The pair then began dating in 2019 with Paul popping the question in August 2021, next to a waterfall in the Yorkshire Dales. They then finally got married on September 2, 2022, in Cyprus and have said the secret to their relationship is helping each other in the gym.
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Despite both Paul and Shannon being crowned the strongest Man and Woman on multiple occasions, the pair are still hoping to add more trophies to their collection. Paul, who weighs 130kg and can deadlift 380kg, is hoping to compete in Britain's Strongest Man competition in 2023.
Meanwhile, Shannon, who weighs 64 kilos and can deadlift 222kg, is going to bid for the 2024 World's Strongest Woman title. Shannon, a nutritionist from Oldham, said: “Paul’s got lots of competitions next year - I’m just training and not competing as we’re hoping to try for a baby soon.
“I was last year's World’s Strongest Woman in my weight class and hopefully I’ll come back to take the title in 2024. We help coach each other and help each other out – it feels like a normal part of our relationship.”
Paul, a coach and professional strongman, added: "It's great to have Shannon around in the gym, training and at competitions - it's great that she can support me and I can support her. We really understand where the other one is coming from and having that kind of help is invaluable.
"We can't wait to go to Thailand - it'll be great, we travel a lot so it will be really nice to travel with each other and relax." The couple connected over their passion for Strongman competition when they first began developing their relationship.
Between them, they hold a variety of national titles alongside being UK and World competition winner. Paul has been crowned England's Strongest Man four times, while Shannon has held the title of England's Strongest Woman twice.
“We knew of each other from the Strongman circle and chatted a bit online, and then met in the gym," she said.
“My gym closed so I ended up going to the gym where he trained and we started chatting a lot more then. We spoke and got along but I don’t think either of us was that interested in a relationship – but one thing led to another and as we’re both in the same sport and similar jobs.
"It just turned into a relationship and I don’t think either of us was really expecting it. We got married in Cyprus – it was a really small wedding, there were only seven people there in total.
“We got to spend so much time together, it was the perfect wedding – everything was about us. We spent a little bit of time with our guests but it was all about us which was perfect.
“We’ve always trained together or in the same gym – we don’t always train the same as it depends on the events we’re doing. We haven’t got much in terms of future relationship plans – hopefully I’ll be pregnant.”
A spokesperson for Ultimate Strongman said: "Ultimate Strongman are extremely fond of the UKs strongest couple Paul and Shannon Smith. Paul has been with us since he was a junior so he’s grown up with us and we couldn’t be happier for them.
"They will both compete at next years UK's Strongest Man with a special pre show 'The UKs Strongest Woman' at the Motorpoint arena in Nottingham. It’s always such a pleasure to work with them both and watch them do what they do best.
"We imagine they are quickly running out of trophy space!”
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