As Teresa Troiani stepped up to lift Scotland’s legendary Dinnie Stones, she already felt like a winner.
Even if she could not raise the massive granite stones she’d traveled to Aberdeenshire, Scotland to lift, the 42-year-old Berwick resident felt enough pride in making it there after starting her lifting journey just six years ago.
But then, she did it.
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“I didn't know if it moved or not. Like I honestly had no clue whether it moved or not,” she said. “I was just pulling with everything I had. But I think that's the happiest moment of my life, honestly, just to have like the culmination of all my efforts.”
With that lift at this August’s Donald Dinnie Stones Gathering, Troiani became the 21st woman in history to lift the stones — which weigh a combined 733 pounds — according to records kept by Stevie Shanks, the founder of the gathering.
Shanks, who introduced Troiani to the Dinnie Stones, even witnessed her big moment.
“I felt like a proud dad,” he said. “She was very emotional when she did it, but rightly so, because you know all the self-doubt and all the training and all the stuff she put herself through to come out the other side and be successful.”
‘I’ve got to be as strong as I can’
Troiani started lifting when she was 36 and weighed 300 pounds.
Her journey started when her father died from cancer “right before the pandemic,” leaving Troiani’s mother alone.
“I thought, okay, I need to be healthier for my mom,” she said. “I have to take care of her now … I’ve got to be as strong as I can.”
She started seeing a strength coach who pushed her to sign up for a powerlifting competition.
She was hesitant about powerlifting, but then she came across an ad for a Strongman competition — those events involve objects other than standard weights like logs, stones and tires.
Troiani signed up and traveled to the competition in New Jersey with her coach.
“I didn't know anybody else, but the community was so welcoming, and you feel like a part of something bigger than yourself, and they're encouraging,” she said. “It didn't feel like a competition to me. It felt like everybody just wanted you to do your best.”
It was that community that got her hooked.
Through Strongman competitions, she’s met some of the strongest people in the world. She said she often texts with Ed Coan, who is widely regarded as the world’s greatest powerlifter.
“It introduced this whole world to me of community and support … it just expanded my world,” she said. “It’s still surreal that I know these people but I had no idea who they were six years ago.”
Stone lifting part of centuries-old traditions
As she kept competing in Strongman events, Troiani’s world expanded again when she found her passion for stone lifting.
While Strongman competitions often include Atlas stone events, stone lifting takes place all over the world. People travel to lift what Troiani called historic “coming of age” stones — like the Dinnie Stones in Scotland or the Husafell Stone in Iceland.
“There’s a whole world of stone lifting just by itself,” she said. “I have a lot of stones on my list left, especially since I’ve done these.”
In Troiani’s words, Shanks is the keeper of the Dinnie Stones. The two stones weigh in total about 733 pounds and each has an iron ring attached to it with a post. Shanks explains they received their name in 1860 when Scottish athlete Donald Dinnie lifted and carried the stones with his bare hands across Potarch Bridge in Aberdeenshire.
“So this became a challenge, and went down for years and years, nobody could do it, and eventually the stones disappeared, but they were rediscovered by David Webster in 1953,” Shanks said.
Still, no one else managed to lift them for more than 100 years — that is until a man from Belfast, Northern Ireland — Shanks' father, Jack — achieved the feat in 1972.
“Eventually my dad and I became the first father and son to do it,” Shanks said. “I don't remember doing it, but my dad said when I was eight, I promised him I would lift the Dinnie Stones one day.”
The first woman to lift the stones was Dr. Jan Todd of Austin, Texas in 1979, according to Shanks’ records.
Shanks has hosted the Donald Dinnie Day Gathering for 10 years. At the gathering, both men and women can try their hand at lifting the stones.
Troiani met Shanks at a competition in Norway, where he told her about the Dinnie Stones and “planted a seed” that inspired her to take them on.
She trained for a year, putting in plenty of time at Rocky Boxing Club in Berwick. She gradually added weight to specialized plates meant to mimic the handles on the Dinnie Stones and received encouragement from Shanks every step of the way.
“He was calling me every week, (saying) you know, you're doing so well, you can do this, you have it. I believe in you,” she said. “So without him, I don't think I would have been able to have the confidence in myself to even try.”
Shanks said he loved Troiani’s passion from the start.
“She stuck with it. She never missed a session, and I could see her numbers coming up. And she had all the self-doubt that we all have,” he said. “To see somebody else get the same passion that I have, and to finally succeed and come out the other side, it was a wonderful moment.”
‘I want women to lift and I want them to lift heavy’
Back at her local gym, Troiani went through a typical workout. She spends most of her time with a barbell, lifting it from below in a deep squat as if she’s cradling and lifting a heavy stone.
She said she typically spends four days per week in the gym.
She’s training for the Husafell Stone now, a 410-pound coffin-shaped stone in Iceland. Looking back on the Dinnie Stones, she recalls the moment she realized she’d lifted them as the first time she ever felt proud of herself for something “big.”
“It's hard for me to feel proud of myself,” she said. “I think the first time you ever are proud of yourself is monumental, right? And I don't know that I'll ever get there again.
While lifting has improved her health and helped her to lose weight, Troiani said she hopes to see other women start lifting because of the effects it has had on her confidence.
“As women, we’re taught to be appeasing. We’re taught to make everything go smoothly,” she said. “I don’t make things go smoothly at the cost of my discomfort anymore.”
She says anyone can start lifting at any age.
“There’s this feeling that once you turn 40, or even in your late 30s, that you’re done,” she said. “I think the oldest powerlifter is 90 years old. I think that those barriers are placed by people that want to restrain us.”
She welcomes questions from anyone who wants to start doing “difficult things.”
“I'd love to encourage anybody, women, men, whatever, to lift anything,” she said.
