Kortney Olson

Kortney Olson (born 9 November 1981)[1] is an American-Australian bodybuilder, personal trainer, and athlete.

Olson giving a talk at the FBI

Biography

Olson is a native of Humboldt County in Northern California, and grew up attending St. Bernard's High School in Eureka, California.[2][3] She said that she was inspired to start bodybuilding from a young age, partly due to her admiration for her older brother and partly due to her having purportedly been molested as a seven year old.[4] She said her path to bodybuilding opened after responding to a Craigslist ad for a muscular calf model.[3]

Olson made her competitive bodybuilding debut at the NPC Contra Costa Classic in November 2011.[5]

Olson migrated to Australia and became Australia's first-ever female arm wrestling champion in 2012.[6][7][8]

Olson has been the subject of many TV documentaries showcasing her strength and muscularity, including Stan Lee's Superhumans season 3 - "High Voltage", where scientists claimed in testing that she had the "strongest thighs on the planet".[9][10]

She is also the founder of Kamp Konfidence, a camp which empowers, encourages, and improves young girls and women's wellbeing.[10][3][4]

In February 2019, after wrestling with Janae Kroc, an openly transgender athlete, Olson spoke out in support of their inclusion in competitive sports.[11]

In March 2020, Olson was a featured guest in the fourth episode of former Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard's podcast,[12] where she talked about her long battle with alcoholism from when she was 17 years old and still in high school,[13] after she became the victim of rape; her past methamphetamine addiction, which she developed at 23;[14] and her OxyContin addiction,[15] as well as the way she overcame them with the help of Bikram yoga.[16] By December 2020, she had been ten years sober, and reached her eleventh year of sobriety in June 2021.[17][13] She also mentioned how she used to maintain a 5-day a week routine of CrossFit, Brazilian jiu-jitsu, and Bikram yoga "in the not so distant past".[4]

In January 2021, Olson published her memoir, titled Crushing It: How I Crushed Diet Culture, Addiction, & the Patriarchy.[3][18]

Grrrl Clothing

Olson is the founder and CEO of women's clothing company and female empowerment movement which has been in existence since 2015 with online stores in USA, Australia, UK and Canada, Grrrl Clothing, stylized "GRRRL."[19][10] The opening of the first Grrrl store was planned for March 2020, but the open house was delayed to November 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic,[20] and her storefront fully opened in June 2021, with an in-store face mask requirement.[21]

At the aforementioned Grrrl Clothing's opening, Olson broke the Guinness World Records for the fastest time to crush three watermelons between the thighs, at 7.63 seconds.[2] She beat both the previous women's record holder, Ukraine's Olga Liashchuk at 14.75 seconds as well as the men's record holder, Iran's Rohollah Doshmanziari at 10.88 seconds.[22][19]


Personal life

Olson is married to David May, a former chief executive officer of Gold Coast Titans.[23] She is bisexual.[14][15]

In 2017, Olson was diagnosed with Graves' disease.[11] She surmised it could have been a side effect of her breast implants, which she has since had removed,[4][24] as she would develop seromas in her right breast and had to get the fluid drained every three to six months.[11] In the same year, she opened up about embracing her cellulite.[25]

References

  1. Walsh, Kevin. "Kortney Olson Has The Strongest Thighs in The World". Visionary Athletes. Retrieved 18 June 2021.
  2. Schneider, Ruth (7 June 2021). "Northern California native sets world record for watermelon smashing". The Mercury News. Retrieved 18 June 2021.
  3. Schneider, Ruth (25 August 2020). "VIDEO: Watermelon-crushing Humboldt County native plans to publish a book". Times-Standard. Retrieved 18 June 2021.
  4. Valentish, Jenny (10 October 2019). "Kortney Olson is crushing it: 'It's about them experiencing true female strength'". The Guardian. Retrieved 18 June 2021.
  5. "2010 Contra Costa - NPC - Nachtrag". Bbszene.de. Retrieved 28 October 2014.
  6. "Kortney Olson - Armwrestling Champion". YouTube. Retrieved 28 October 2014.
  7. "VIDEOS: 2012 Australian Armwrestling Nationals, 02 December 2012│RESULTS". XSportNews.com. Retrieved 28 October 2014.
  8. "National Championships 2012". Australian Armwrestling Federation. 20 January 2013. Retrieved 29 October 2014.
  9. "High Voltage". HISTORY.com. Retrieved 28 October 2014.
  10. Baron, Katie (2 August 2018). "Meet GRRRL, The Billion Dollar Brand In-Waiting That's Adding Activism To Athleisure". Forbes. Retrieved 18 June 2021.
  11. Schneider, Ruth (9 February 2019). "Humboldt County native uses platform to talk about breast implants, transgender athletes". Times-Standard. Retrieved 18 June 2021.
  12. Gabbard, Tulsi (9 March 2020). "Tulsi Gabbard Podcast .004 - Kortney Olson: entrepreneur, world-renowned bodybuilder & athlete". YouTube. Retrieved 17 June 2021.
  13. Manna, Orko; Wright, Lucas (19 December 2020). "CDC: Drug overdose deaths on the rise during COVID-19 pandemic; Nevada placed on 'Red Alert' for increased risk". KLAS. Retrieved 18 June 2021.
  14. Badel, Peter (1 December 2012). "Titans boss wife Kortney Olson tells of drug hell and tackling her porn past". The Courier Mail. Retrieved 18 June 2021.
  15. Mulkerrins, Jane (13 July 2019). "Kortney Olson: GRRRL power, OxyContin addiction and body politics". The Times UK. ISSN 0140-0460. Retrieved 18 June 2021.
  16. Muir, Kristy (28 March 2017). "Gold Coast 'watermelon girl' Kortney Olson swaps stimulants and crossfit for yoga and a cleanse". Gold Coast Bulletin. Retrieved 18 June 2021.
  17. Olson, Kortney (14 June 2021). "This is 11 years of waking up clean and sober. 11 years of waking up and asking God to direct my thinking and actions. I should be dead, but thanks to my fellows, the steps, and prayer- here we are. CRUSHING IT. #odaat #sober". Twitter. Retrieved 18 June 2021.
  18. Olson, Kortney (8 February 2021). "Lesson 9: Expect the Unexpected". The Fix. Retrieved 18 June 2021.
  19. Dinant, Jason (6 June 2021). "Las Vegas woman shatters watermelon crushing record at store opening". KTNV. Retrieved 18 June 2021.
  20. Schnur, Sabrina (1 November 2020). "Downtown Las Vegas business boards up windows ahead of election". Las Vegas Review-Journal. Retrieved 18 June 2021.
  21. Manna, Orko; Williams, Carolyn (18 May 2021). "As businesses adjust to mask requirements, can they ask for proof of vaccination?". KLAS. Retrieved 18 June 2021.
  22. Niemietz, Brian (8 June 2021). "Watch a Las Vegas woman smash 3 watermelons, and a world record, with her thighs". New York Daily News. Retrieved 18 June 2021.
  23. Fox, Jack (4 December 2012). "Australian rugby league side hire former porn star to train youth players". Metro Sport. Retrieved 18 June 2021.
  24. Valentish, Jenny (2021). Everything Harder Than Everyone Else: Why Some of Us Push Ourselves to Extremes. New York City, New York: Apollo Publishers. ISBN 9781954641013.
  25. Kinonen, Sarah (29 March 2017). "How the Woman With the "World's Deadliest Thighs" Learned to Love Her Cellulite". Allure. Retrieved 18 June 2021.
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