This northern Ontario grandmother lifts her way to ‘strongman’ competition success [Video]

Chantal Routhier is not a typical grandmother.

For three years she’s been participating in “strongman” competitions where athletes test their strength, speed and endurance by lifting and pulling heavy objects like logs and sandbags.

Routhier, 47, is now qualified to compete in the Strongman Games in Wisconsin next year after a strong placing at the Canadian Strongman Championships in Saint John, N.B.

She says she picked up the sport after watching a competition in her hometown of Kapuskasing, Ont.

“Sam Belliveau, she was doing the competition and I was looking at her and I’m like, ‘Wow, you know, that’s pretty impressive.’ And I was pretty inspired by her,” Routhier said.

Routhier asked Belliveau, a professional …