Shannon, Queen of Scots Shannon Hartnett of the U.S. reigns over Scotland's arcane strength competitions

Her legs give her away. You have come to Mill Valley, Calif., in
search of the Queen. Could this be she? The woman approaching
your table is wearing abbreviated white shorts revealing legs
that could only have been sculpted on a squat rack, the sort of
legs seen on American Gladiators, where the Queen once did
battle. You stand and introduce yourself to Shannon Hartnett,
queen of the Scottish Heavy Events, a woman who could toss you
into traffic as easily as she tosses a caber.

Instead of heaving you, however, Hartnett goes to the counter
for a cup of coffee and a nonfat muffin, leaving her dog, a pit
bull mix named Athena, at the table. Admiring slackers stop to
pet the dog. Overseas, it is Athena's owner who is accorded the
status of a goddess. In Great Britain--Scotland in
particular--Hartnett struggles to cope with autograph requests
and is featured in the tabloids, which cannot resist a buff,
blonde, kilted Californian who crosses the Atlantic to school
the Scots in their own Highland Games. Hartnett, 35, is a former
heptathlete who discovered the Heavy Events 11 years ago and has
competed in a kilt ever since. She holds eight world records and
won her fifth Women's World Championship in February.

Are you in need of a primer? Is your knowledge of Scottish Heavy
Events limited to the sight of that kilted ogre launching a
caber at the beginning of ABC's Wide World of Sports? There are
eight events at such competitions, which take place the world
over but are concentrated in Great Britain and North America.
All events involve the throwing of heavy objects: a light (14
pounds) weight and a heavy (28 pounds) weight thrown for
distance; a light (12 pounds) and a heavy (16 pounds) hammer
thrown for distance; an unwieldy looking 16-pound rock called a
Braemar Stone, and the Open Stone (12-14 pounds) also for
distance; and a heavy (28 pounds) weight thrown for height.
Finally there is the caber, in which the athlete must pick an
18-foot pole off the ground, prop it in his or her hands, weave
drunkenly for a few steps, then throw it end over end. Tosses
are scored for accuracy, based on where the caber is pointing
when it lands.

In the background are bagpipers, Scottish dancers and
ale-swilling spectators. It is the festive, county-fair
atmosphere of such events that drew Hartnett into this tartan
universe. Hartnett, the daughter of two teachers, finds "the
dancing, the culture, the camaraderie much more interesting"
than a track meet.

After competing in the heptathlon at Sonoma State, Hartnett
decided in 1989 to concentrate on the hammer throw. However, as
Scottish bard Robert Burns wrote, "The best laid schemes o' mice
and men/Gang aft a-gley."

Hartnett's coach in the hammer, Jan Desoto, talked her into
entering the 1989 Sacramento Highland Games. "I was reluctant,"
she says. "The idea of going out with a bunch of big guys and
competing in a skirt seemed silly." She won the women's
division, outperforming many of the men to boot, and set several
event records.

Sitting around talking to some of the guys after the meet,
Hartnett asked where the next competition was. "You can't go,"
she was told. "They don't allow women." Rather than accept that,
Hartnett found out what the qualifying distances were for the
events and bettered them, embarrassing the event's directors
into allowing her to compete. Those were the dark ages of
women's Highland Games. Few competitions included a women's
division, and some of those tended to patronize their distaff
participants, offering what might have been called the Betty
Crocker Events: the frying pan toss and the rolling pin toss. "I
hold the world record in the rolling pin," says Hartnett, who
employed a discus thrower's spin to fling that baker's implement
110 feet. "It's not a record that I'm real proud of."

In the intervening decade Hartnett has played a major role in
opening Highland Events to women. While much remains to be
done--"Some places, while the men compete in front of the
bleachers, I'm over by the Port-a-Potties, breaking world
records," she says--much progress has been made. Hartnett
recently cofounded HELGA (Heavy Events Ladies Games
Association), which works to set up women's events in Scotland.
It is there, in the birthplace of these curious contests, where
she is best known. Young fans line up 30 deep for her autograph,
and she fields an occasional marriage proposal. (That Hartnett
is discreetly dating a fellow competitor would come as a
disappointment, one senses, to some of her more ardent fans.)

The Queen's popularity is based on her generosity--she gives
many of her medals to people in the crowd--and her Lilliputian
stature in a Brobdingnagian sport. At 5'8", 145 pounds, Hartnett
competes against much larger ladies. "She was very quick to pick
up the different techniques that are required," says five-time
world champion Jim McGoldrick. "She's a brilliant athlete, and
she is amazingly strong."

Hartnett owns Body Central, a health club in Santa Rosa, Calif.,
but hardly limits her training to weightlifting. She surfs,
practices karate, rides a mountain bike, is mad for yoga and
trekked in the Himalayas in 1998. "I love to travel," she says,
"so competing in Highland Games is an ideal job."

It beats throwing only the hammer.

COLOR PHOTO: ROBERT BECK Heavy lifting Hartnett (with the hammer) has muscled her way to five world titles.

COLOR PHOTO: BETH PHILLIPS FOR CALEDONIAN SOCIETY OF ARIZONA Wonder woman Tossing the caber (left) and throwing the weight for height have helped make Hartnett a heartthrob in Scotland.

COLOR PHOTO: BONNIE KAMIN [See caption above]

"I hold the world record in the rolling pin. It's not a record
that I'm real proud of."