Mental Might and Vegan Fuel Propel Sophia to All-England Gold

Sophia Ellis is back – and showing bags of mental strength as well as physical.

She already had multiple British titles and European honours, although breaking her hand was a massive set back. She trained with one-armed deadlifts, benched with a machine using one arm and found ways to train and coach.

The All-England Championships gave her a chance to compete at 75kg and she did not disappoint.

Sophia hit a 170 kg squat and 117.5 kg bench before finishing with a 227.5 kg deadlift. The 515 kg total was enough for the win.

Sophia has been vegan for all of her powerlifting successes, initially making changes for health reasons, then considering other factors.

“I didn’t need to eat or use animal products to survive, so why put animals through unnecessary suffering? It just didn’t sit right with me that we are causing so much damage to the environment and the animals just for our own convenience.”