Bodybuilding was not ready for the strongest woman in the world, Bev Francis | ABC Australia

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Forty years ago, the world was not ready for a woman who looked like Bev Francis, she challenged society's notions of what it means to be female and an athlete.

Bev Francis’ sporting career began at The University of Melbourne in the mid-1970s.

At university she met Austrian born athletics coach Franz Stampfl, the pioneer of interval training and the man who helped runner Roger Banister break the four-minute mile.

Bev would go to reach the highest levels of thee sports, star in the film Pumping Iron 2: The Women and earn the title 'world's strongest woman'.

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