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77-year-old grandmother is a weightlifting champion

Willie Murphy (screenshot)

Willie Murphy is 77 years old, but that has not stopped her becoming a weightlifting champion who is in the shape of her life.

Murphy is self-taught, self-trained and has deadlifted 215 pounds at the World Natural Powerlifting Federation World Championships.

Indeed, she came home from the World Championships held in Atlanta having won her division in the deadlift, also bringing home first-place awards in the power curl and bench press.

To top off her achievements this year, she was named the '2014 Lifter of the Year'.

Murphy began by lifting five-pound weights a few years ago after seeing a sign about a weightlifting competition in Rochester, New York.

She recalls asking a nearby worker if she could participate and received a "Go for it, granny!" response.

Not only can she lift more than twice her weight, Murphy can also do one-handed pull-ups, one-handed push-ups, fingertip push-ups and push-ups with her fingers in a diamond formation.

"None of those steroids for me," she told USA Today in an interview.

Asked whether she pays for personal training, she replied sharply: "Who has $39 an hour?"

"They see I'm old and I'm not being pushed around in a wheelchair," she said.

"I can shovel my own snow. And I can push my car if it gets stuck in the snow.

"I can lift my grandchildren up without any problem, and best of all, I don’t need any help when I’m carrying my groceries.

"I'm almost 80 years old and I am still living life."

Here's another weightlifting defying age. Meet Sonny: