From one of our 2013 Women of the Year (Georgina) to another as Sexy Sophie Arvebrink pumps up (Look at her! OMG!!!) in this week’s gif selection.
Doesn’t that just set off all sorts of bad bad thoughts???
What’s that? More you say? Well, OK then…
Had enough?
Thought so, but seeing as you’ve had the two, you may as well have the full set, but like the online poker ads say, just remember to enjoy Sexy Sophie responsibly…
Genius by Female Fitness & Bodybuilding, whose no nonsense tagline tells us These women are bigger and stronger than you. You are a pathetic excuse for a man!
Delighted to report that while it was all going down at the Olympia in Las Vegas, FMS‘ favourite 20-year-old from the north-east of England was winning the Women’s Physique Division at the UKBFF North-West Championships in Leeds. In doing so, she qualified for what will be her second crack at the British Championships, which take place in a couple of weeks in Nottingham. Congratulations Georgina!
On stage pics of the event are thin on the ground at the moment (or have a big watermark across them saying DO NOT COPY), and there’s no report or official results as yet, but from the little I have, there were at least two other women competing in Physique for Georgina to blow away with her size, and, particularly at this show more than any of her previous outings, her insane conditioning. And still only 20!
As the show approached, Georgina was clearly feeling her legs looked better than ever, posting selfie after selfie of ever more shredded pins on her Instagram. So many, in fact, that she actually felt the need to apologise (sort of) for the glut. Sorry for all the leg pics, she wrote in the week leading up to the show. But look at me calve!!!
Freaky! And it seems those legs, along with the rest of this remarkable young woman, are providing inspiration to other bodybuilders male and female within and outside the UK. Georgina’s had her problems with social media abuse in the past, but these days the messages of encouragement and admiration are all over her Instagram.
And since the contest, it’s been back to work, getting a “crazy pump” on as she begins her preparation for the British Championships. Last year, regular readers may remember, that show didn’t work out so well for her (see FMS passim). I get the feeling that this year she’ll fare much much better in the biggest UK show there is.
Haway the lass!
And we leave you with a tiny bit of video of the mighty Georgina winning in Leeds.
[Word of warning – to save your ears you might want to turn your sound down a touch before watching, them’s some serious bellows of support she’s getting!]
Today the art of female muscle returns to FMS after a considerable time away, and I think you will agree it is quite a return. Alex “Wreckage” Wright aka Wreckage International is best-known for his huge moving sculptures that have featured at such high-profile events as this year’s Burning Man, Glastonburys passim, and the Closing Ceremony of the 2012 London Paralympics. But he is also a graphic designer and, of most interest to the female muscle fan, no slouch with the oil paints.
This huge painting in Whitecross St. (near Old St. in London) that was originally made for The Rise of the Non-Conformists annual Whitecross Street Party last year is still there for all to see – or at least it was until about a month ago as far as we know.
Imagine a world where one of Wreckage International’s big muscular beauties hang huge, proud and half-naked on EVERY street corner! My kind of world…
I’d LOVE to be able to say that I spent much of the Olympia weekend glued to the Bodybuilding.com webcast, enjoying uninterrupted coverage of the finest female bodies on the planet for hours and hours on end.
And I’d LOVE to be able to say I watched it all with my wife beside me. She wet herself laughing at the physique MEN with their funny Bermuda shorts (is male physique just bodybuilding for leg day skippers or what?), but she had wet herself in a very different way by the time Juliana Malacarne performed her Saturday evening routine.
And I’d LOVE to be able to say that when all the physique routines were over, and we’d put some of our clothes back on, she turned to me and told me that while she could never imagine getting as big as the women we’d watched together on Friday (and she had enjoyed how turned on I’d been by them, by the way, LOVED it), Juliana, Dana Linn, Tycie et al had impressed her so much that she wanted to build a physique competitor’s body, “though I may have to start out by competing in figure”.
Well, my Olympia weekend didn’t quite pan out like that. Saturday was my favourite uncle’s 70th birthday, celebrated with a big family lunch near his home. I wouldn’t have missed it for the world, but the eight-hour round trip to get there and back in a day made it impossible for me to see more than twenty minutes of the show live.
This was on Saturday morning (so Friday evening in Vegas), when I got up a tad earlier than was absolutely necessary in order to surreptitiously catch some of the precious live stream while the wife was still slumbering. What I saw was the fitness competitors getting their awards (which was fine, though it wouldn’t have been my FIRST choice) – sound off, of course – and then, with the big girls imminent… the wife’s alarm goes off.
By the time we got back from my uncle’s – and don’t get me wrong, a smashing time was had by all – it was late, and I was exhausted from the driving. The wife crashed immediately, so the opportunity was there for a little indulgence, but it would have meant injecting caffeine into my own eyeballs to stay awake, so I made do with a quick check of the results – Iris again… Nicole Wilkins again… Alana Shipp 4th!!! – and, knowing full well the webcast replays would be available soon, I hit the hay.
I drifted off, wondering how other female muscle heads had spent their weekends.
And so, as is so often the case when FMS takes a little break, we’re back with a question for you, our lovely readers – and we really really want to know the answer…
HOW WAS YOUR OLYMPIA?
Obviously, if you were actually there we’d like to hear all about it – and let’s face it, if you were there you would probably want to tell because then you’d get all the brethren writing to let you know how jealous they are: you’d be THE MAN!
If you weren’t there, was it the webcast + box of man-size tissues scenario some of our readers were kind enough to share with us in the week before the Olympia? (see comments on Ms Olympia 2014: The Line-up). If so, how was it for you? Did the single box prove sufficient? Who was responsible for the biggest mess? Did you manage to get through it all without passing out and/or needing medical attention?
Or did you have a similar experience to mine – surreptitiously snatching what you could while getting on with all the other real life stuff that most weekends consist of?
Or, best of all (I do sometimes wonder how many – if any – of the women read this!), might as well ask, one never knows… were you competing? Would you care to share your Olympia experience, whether it was your first time or not?
Whatever your story, whatever “Your Olympia” was, please do get in touch.
What I’m hoping for is a snapshot of what the female muscle lovin’ world was doing while the beautiful female muscle elite were doing their elite female muscle thing.
If that’s something you’d be interested in contributing to, then go ahead and use the comment box below, or just email directly to 6ft1swell@gmail.com.
As ever, complete anonymity is guaranteed if you want it that way.
You’ve got till Friday – to be honest, any time will do – but I’d really like to be able to post some of your stories the week after this one, so that’s the deadline for now.
We thought the best way to bring our Ms Olympia countdown to a climax was to feature the climactic moment of the contest itself (or any contest for that matter – any contest with more than one competitor, anyway!) Yes, it’s time to pose down!
OLYMPIA STYLE!
The primest exhibition of female muscle meat at its most primal and joyous moment…
The contest as a contest is over, and you’ve all finished in the top six anyway… Now whip that crowd into one final frenzy as your glorious muscular body transcends its exhaustion and reveals all of its stunning beauty!!! (Or at least that’s how Swell might put it if he was ever in charge of the MCing at a female bodybuilding show!!!)
Where the hell do you LOOK if you are in the audience? It’s hard enough taking it all in even when you can replay the video clip over and over and over and over and over. Being there must bring on some kind of sthenolagniac overdose or something.
And while there must be more than a few brethren in the audience experiencing some kind of female muscle lovin’ nirvana, there always appears to be bucket loads of female muscle ecstasy pouring out of the competitors – of any year, or indeed, any ERA…
Yes, Rachel, YESSSSS!
It’s one big female muscle love-fest up there. All sorts of mutual muscle admiration kicks in, and, easily my favourite bit – true posedown GOLD – is when the admiration spills over into actual touching up, into actual on stage MUSCLE WORSHIP!
Who will be posing down at the 2014 Ms Olympia? Only one way to find out…
So, wherever you are, work out the time difference between yourself and Las Vegas (we’re 8 hours ahead here in the UK), and get yourself comfy and organised. The live webcast on Bodybuilding.com begins 2.30am on Saturday for the Ms Olympia finals in the UK – finess and bikini finals are also scheduled for the same evening.
And FMS will be having a little break next week (watching the re-runs of the webcast perhaps!) but we will be back and posting again on Saturday 27th. Have fun now!
Two of the women making their Ms Olympia debuts tomorrow were, this time last year, barely on the FMS radar. Obviously, this had more to do with the failings of the radar than anything else, but in 2014 they have made such a big noise in the world of IFBB pro female bodybuilding that even our rusty old radar (not to mention our rusty old radar operator) couldn’t fail to notice Margie Martin and Alana Shipp.
Both Margie and Alana gained their pro cards last year. In June Margie beat Annie Sheehan and Victoria Dominguez to win the heavyweight title at the NPC USAs, and then saw off the challenge of a certain Shannon Courtney to claim the overall title. After winning a three-woman middleweight class at the NPC Nationals in November, Alana was awarded her pro card despite losing out in the overall posedown to one of the women Margie had beaten in Las Vegas, Victoria Dominguez.
Their qualities were noted at the time (not by FMS, smack wrist smack wrist) but they were noted. Only eventual runner-up Anne Sheehan mounted a serious challenge and the final tallies showed Martin scored a unanimous win, noted Steve Wennerstrom in his report from the 2013 USAs, admitting that he was more than a little excited at the prospect of following Margie’s progress as a pro bodybuilder. She has blossomed [from a 2011 physique competitor] into a very good heavyweight with enviable muscle shapes and bodylines on her 5’5″ [1.65m] frame, he added.
And Wennerstrom’s appraisal of Alana Shipp at the Nationals was even more effusive. Some might say it’s easy to stand out in a group of three competitors in a bodybuilding line-up, but in the case of Alana Shipp it may not have made much difference what the size of the middleweight class was considering her overall physical qualities, he wrote, before going on to list those qualities in no little detail.
Dynamite detail in her back double biceps poses, equally impressive separation in her frontal quads, 8-pack abs, and gluteal/hamstring tie-ins to further prove her head-to-toe completeness… When Steve Wennerstrom starts getting carried away with the descriptions, you know he thinks that he’s witnessed someone special.
And we didn’t have to wait long to see that The Sage had predicted correctly (yet again). By the end of the frantic first eight days of FBB pro competition this year that included the Toronto Pro and the new Omaha Pro show, both Margie and Alana had enough qualifying points to be able to book their tickets to Vegas months in advance.
In Toronto they made their pro debuts. Alana’s razor-sharp conditioning gained her second place behind Simone Oliveira and ahead of – as predicted by Steve Wennerstrom – much much bigger women, including Margie, who was impressive enough in fourth. The order was all but reversed in Omaha the following week – Margie was runner-up this time (to Anne Freitas), while the judges placed Alana fifth.
No 20-year Christine Envall-like wait for Margie and Alana, then. Just two pro outings each and they were bound for the biggest show of all. Their rise through the amateur ranks had been swift enough, their transition from debutant pros to elite Olympians has been even more rapid. Both are ex-marines, both mothers (Alana has two children, Margie four). Backstage snaps suggest they share something of a bond, perhaps due to shared experience before and after their competitive careers began.
I can’t help thinking that if either gets a decent placing tomorrow, the other will too!
Did you know? Margie has ALWAYS wanted to be a bodybuilder (since I was a little girl, she says), and apparently accosted serial Mr Olympia Lee Haney at church when she was 12 to ask for his advice. Her role model now is FMS heartthrob Juanita Blaino because, according to Margie, she has the most beautiful physique.
ALANA SHIPP
Born in Barbados to Guyanese parents, moved to New York aged 11; currently living in Israel (her husband is a diplomat at the US Embassy there); 31 years old (I think)
Did you know? Alana has only been training since 2011, when she went to the gym hoping to get into better shape for a Marine Corps ball! I went from being that girl who felt out of place in the gym (especially in the weights section) to becoming completely at ease there, she says. I enjoy the process of sculpting my body… the better I looked, the better I wanted to look, which drives me to work even harder.
On Monday, FMS brought you the Ms Olympia and the Ms Olympians as seen through my teenage eyes – The Magazine Years as I like to call them. Today, it’s more like The Digital Years – selections from the various archives of images I have from the Ms Olympia from the time of the dial-up connection until last year’s competition.
But as long ago as the dial-up was (and it really FEELS long ago), one thing has remained constant – Iris Kyle winning the damn thing. The runner-up may have changed over time, the champ most definitely has not. Since Yaxeni’s sole Ms Olympia victory in 2005, Iris has won an almost unimaginable eight titles in a row.
Who would bet against another Iris win? Every year you read people predict this will be the year when The Eternal Bride is finally left at the altar (you will let me know if I stretch this metaphor too far, won’t you?!) and every year Iris goes home with the biggest medal. If 2014 sees a repeat of Iris 1st and Alina 2nd, it will be the THIRD time Iris has had the same runner-up in two consecutive years. Dayana 2006-7 and Yaxeni 2010-11 will have Alina 2013-14 to share ‘I lost to Iris twice in a row’ stories with.
Ladies & Gentlemen, I give you The BRIDESMAIDS…
DAYANA CADEAU 2006 and 2007
BETTY VIANA 2008, HEATHER POLICKY 2009
YAXENI ORIQUEN 2010 and 2011
DEBI LASZEWSKI 2012, ALINA POPA 2013
Funnily enough though, Iris Kyle‘s very first overall victory (2004) was pre-dated by her finishing 2nd twice in a row (once in the heavyweight class, once overall) to Lenda Murray. Cory Everson‘s first win in 1984 was over a previous (though not the previous) Ms Olympia, Rachel McLish. Sooner or later the guard will change.
But just because you come 2nd to Iris, it doesn’t necessarily mean you can’t upstage her at some point during the Olympia weekend, and the moment Dayana Cadeau did so before the show in 2007 provides us with our next Ms Olympia ‘moment’.
Now I can only speculate as to why Dayana started exposing herself. It may have been an attempt to psyche Iris out, or to impress the judges before the show – to get her body into their heads as a potential winner. Perhaps, and again I am only speculating here, Dayana just couldn’t wait for the show, that she felt so incredibly turned on by herself that she just HAD to give Iris, the judges, the audience, indeed EVERYONE in attendance a right good gander at what was under those clothes. Every hard inch…
But of course I am just speculating. And if I were to say what I thought Iris might have been saying to her, or what the lady who appears in the final photo of the series was saying/doing (‘Put it away’? ‘Let me touch’? ‘Take it all off you GODDESS!’???) then once again, it would be pure speculation and nothing more than that…
I think that’s quite enough speculation for now. A return to certainty is possibly the only thing that can follow Dayana’s impromptu strip, and if there was a nailed-on certainty at the Ms Olympia other than the fact that Iris Kyle was going to win, it was that if Betty Pariso was in the line-up (2001, 2003-9), whatever her hair colour or outfit (or thing coming out the top of her head) in any given year, at some stage – or rather at the climax – of her routine, THIS was guaranteed to happen…
And we move on to something that has struck me while browsing the old Olympia archive, namely how few appearances some of the female muscle brethren’s favourites actually made. Take, for example, my old friend Sarah Dunlap (see Image Removed Copyright Violation), who has just the ONE. Dena Westerfield? How many times do you think the wonder of Dena graced the Olympia stage? I’ll tell you: ONCE. And Colette Nelson also has just the single Olympia (2006) on her CV as well. Our featured 2009 bridesmaid Heather Policky? Well, Heather has (so far) just THREE.
Kind of puts the longevity of Iris, Yaxeni, Debi Laszewski, and, say, Cathy Le François (6 Ms Olympias over a 13-year period) into real perspective, doesn’t it?
But although our next featured muscle goddess has one more appearance than Sarah, Dena and Colette put together, and one more than the much more successful (in terms of placings) Heather, I am shocked that Tazzie Colomb has only gone to the Olympia four times (1997, 1999, 2006 & 2007). Now I know that the Taz doesn’t place a huge amount of importance on what judges think of her muscles, but I would have thought she’d have made at least as many Ms Olympia appearances as Cathy has.
Perhaps I got that impression because of how memorable Tazzie’s performances always seem to be, or, even if you only go by the pictures, how memorable her look at each contest is. And it’s Tazzie, 2007-style, who is our next Olympia ‘moment’: braided hair, raw animal muscle sex appeal, roaring her way through her performance…
But despite her myriad (at the Olympia and elsewhere) different looks, Tazzie never (as far as I know) sported a COSTUME. These seemed to be particularly en vogue (or encouraged or perhaps just tolerated) for the 2004 and 2006 Ms Olympias, making a number of routines from those shows even more especially memorable.
From Helen Bouchard‘s rather butch ‘soldier’ via Vilma’s 2004 cape and Dayana’s ‘flasher cop’ to Colette Nelson‘s thrilling (when she ripped it off!!!) tight blue dress, the costume, is, in my humble etc., long overdue for a Ms Olympia comeback…
But none was more memorable (or fitting) than that naughtiest of Olympians, Denise Masino‘s – what is it exactly, bondage? fetish? torture? – mask-type thing from 2004.
And we finish off our memories today, just as the compulsory poses end, with Abs & Thigh – aka The Hall of Fame pose – and absolutely Slave’s favourite position for his Olympian women (or indeed ANY women) to show off their beautiful bodies with.
And we will be ripping a few more choice moments from the FMS Olympia Archive on Friday, the day (as if you needed reminding) of the Big Girls’ Big Show itself.
The year: 1994. At a local IFBB sanctioned bodybuilding show in the Australian state of Victoria, a 21-year-old with a prodigiously developed physique takes the stage.
Three years have passed since her first appearance at the show, when she had finished third as an 18-year-old. Since then she has won local and state titles at IFBB and NABBA contests, and finished in the top six at the Australasian Championships.
This time she wins the title of “Ms Bendigo”. Her name: Christine Envall.
July 5th 2014. Four women are still standing: Lisa Giesbrecht, Juanita Blaino, Rita Bello, and Christine. This is her third show in just over a month. She was 6th in Toronto at the end of May, and finished 3rd in Omaha the following week.
If her name is called next, she will only gain a single point from this show to add to her two from Omaha. She knows three points probably won’t be enough to qualify. She will have to compete again, in Tampa in August, and attempt to add to her points tally.
Or wait another year.
But, if another name is called next, she is guaranteed 3rd. Another two points would make a total of four. And four points would be enough. Enough to get her to Vegas.
Christine hears Juanita Blaino‘s name called in fourth…
A little over-dramatic, perhaps, but sadly I wasn’t there so I hope you’ll forgive the poetic licence. The double… got the 3rd place I needed… I think should be enough for the O!!! said Christine, sounding a little unsure on her Facebook page after the show.
It was enough. No matter what happened in the final qualifying show of the year in Tampa, no one could push Christine out of the top 5 places. She was, as they say, “Olympia bound”. For sure. Brain not comprehending yet!!! she added.
Her incredulity was understandable. Getting to the Olympia is a long road for most female bodybuilders, but Christine’s road, which began in her hometown of Bendigo back in 1991, has been longer than most. It has included three NABBA World titles, and two distinct periods of competing as an IFBB pro with an ten-year break between them, punctuated by a one-night-only return to NABBA competition in 2005.
But despite being out of the limelight for the best part of a decade, she had certainly never been forgotten by the female muscle lovin’ brethren. When FMS invited readers to select their all-time Fantasy Contest line-ups a couple of years ago, Christine comfortably made the top six. When she returned to the stage last year in Toronto, the pre-contest buzz on the forums was, predictably, all about Christine’s return.
She was, after all, the original super freaky muscle woman. She was a “growth experiment fantasy made flesh”. She was a huge, rippling female muscle wonder of the world. My own personal Christine highlights would include footage and images of her at the New York Muscle Club; the occasional (and given the sheer amount of muscle on her 5’3″ frame and the gusto with which she displayed it, inevitable) posing suit malfunctions; the Awefilms clip where she “discovers” she can flex her pecs; and, best of all, the unbelievably arousing images of her bronzed, naked and ever so slightly coy.
By common consensus, then, it was good to have her back. Of course, there were comparisons with her younger self, comparisons that were not always complimentary (shorter hair, implants) but those who know about these things – those who know more than the likes of you and me, anyway – pointed to the refinements she had made to her physique and agreed Envall v.2013 was presenting the judges a much more pleasing overall look than she had left the scene with a decade earlier.
She did three shows in 2013, her best placing 7th in Chicago. She may not have been as excitingly super freaky as before – while she’d been away, all the girls had got bigger – but up close and personal with Annie Riveccio‘s camera for Muscle Angels, or even more so with her more intimate Instagram pics – Christine was still packing plenty of freaky size and freaky vascularity for the female muscle head to get excited about.
And, better yet, Christine hadn’t come out of “retirement” just to embark on one final lap of the pro circuit. She was going to be back in 2014. 40 years old, promising myself my best years are NOT behind me. Don’t sit around re-living your glory days… Get out there and start creating new ones, she told her Instagram followers.
She began with a 6th place in Toronto. No disaster that, but no Olympia qualifying points, either. Then, the following week in Omaha, she finished 3rd…
Finally, at her fifth attempt since her return to competition, she had equalled her best previous pro placing (at the South West Pro Cup in 2002), and she had Olympia points on the board. AND she had got to meet Iris Kyle backstage! What an awesome show! she commented later. It’s not every day you get to meet Ms Olympia!
Which brings us to the events in Toronto which guaranteed that this Friday, at the age of 41, the legendary and much-loved Christine Envall will make her Olympia debut.
Less than 2 weeks till the Ms O! she wrote last week. Can’t believe the workouts I’ve been having… Must be the extra motivation of the biggest show of my LIFE. It’s an understatement to say I’m looking forward to stepping on the Olympia stage…
It’s an understatement to say she has earned it.
Good luck to you, Christine!
And to whet your collective whistles at the prospect of the original super freak on stage in Vegas in a few days, Christine’s routine from this year’s Toronto Pro show.
Can’t say I remember too clearly what it was like having to follow the Ms Olympia a month (or two) after it had actually happened through the pages of Muscle & Fitness, Flex, Ironman and so on, but whenever I come across an image of Cory Everson with a big medal around her neck, flanked by one or both of the Weiders and/or one or both of the women who made up the top three that year, her arms held aloft, it invariably seems familiar, and takes me back to those early magazine years.
Then, as far as my teenage female muscle obsessive self was concerned anyway, the result was a given. The Ms Olympia was not so much a contest as the annual coronation of the most physically perfect woman in the world. And clearly that was Cory.
In those days you were never exactly starved of images of her to drool over (especially in Weider publications), but for me it was the pics of Cory on stage that were always the most drool-worthy, so the Olympia editions were prized possessions. The tan, the oil, the striations, the muscles, and, I particularly remember, the bikini bottoms so tight that I was forced to spend hours, possibly days, of my life just looking (slightly puzzled at that tender age) at whatever was making that shape between her legs!
But, of course, there were other women, and in those very early days Anja Langer was, I reckoned, probably the second most physically perfect woman in the world… The judges didn’t see it my way (not for the last time) in 1987 (left, below) when she finished 4th, but in 1988 (right) Anja was runner-up to (of course!) Cory Everson.
These days, I’m convinced that the reason I’ve found myself reacting so positively to the Physique division (much more positively than I’d expected to when it was first announced) is largely because the aesthetic is so reminiscent of Anja’s and the other female bodybuilders’ at the time I first discovered my love of female muscle. Over 25 years later, it seems I’m still programmed to respond to this “classical” aesthetic.
And staying in those early years (but not in the sense that it was an image I saw in a magazine), a screencap of Gladys Portugues during her routine at the 1986 Ms Olympia. It was intended for posting earlier in the year when FMS explored The Agony & the Ecstasy experienced by female bodybuilders when prepping and competing.
Now I’ve seen women (and men) looking this deliriously happy before, but they tended to be in sweaty clubs set up in old railway arches in the late 1990s and all of them had ingested a substance whose effects gave it its name. I doubt Gladys had had any of that, nor that she looked so ecstatic because Jean-Claude had promised to buy her a dog. This is what pure, unadulterated, Olympian female muscle ecstasy looks like!
We return to my formative female muscle lovin’ years with three of the most “exotic” (to a teenage boy in a London suburb anyway!) and, therefore, most exciting women I had the pleasure of seeing inside the covers of the magazines containing Olympia reports. Future Ms Olympia Juliette Bergmann (above left) seemed, I recall, almost impossibly beautiful, and was probably responsible for my eagerness to visit Holland – much more so than the more conventional attractions for a young man. Marie-Laure Mahabir (above right) seemed to be from a different planet altogether.
The months when pictures from the Olympia appeared in the magazines tended to be the only ones featuring European-based FBBs like Marie-Laure, and I guess because I had seen so few images of them it made them all the more exciting – they were more memorable because they were so rare. Their placing at the show was utterly irrelevant to me, though perhaps it did cross my mind how such a magnificently sensual creature like Claudia Profanter could possibly finish 14th (as she did in ’91).
But while it may have been an advantage to be European to get Swell’s attention (or maybe that should be to bring Swell to attention), it was by no means necessary. As my teenage years drew to a close, Denise Rutkowski‘s feline power and unforgettable gold bikini proved an irresistible combination. And, for the first time in my life, I was, actually, trying to resist the lure of female muscle in order to appear all normal and stuff as I left school and moved away to university.
[Incidentally, if you are the sort who likes to know how the FBBs of your youth are looking now I am honour-bound to warn you that YOU SHOULD NOT TRY TO FIND OUT WHAT DENISE RUTKOWSKI LOOKS LIKE NOW. I had the misfortune to see, and it is haunting me. Really. Trust me. DON’T.]
And though I regularly fell off the wagon, discovering the likes of Denise, Yolanda Hughes and Natalia Murnikoviene (above, left and right respectively) when I did, I think of that first effort at repressing my desire to view images of female bodybuilders as the end of “The Magazine Years”. By the time I re-embraced my sthenolagnia in the late ’90s, I didn’t need to rely on the mainstream muscle magazines for my fix – there was Women’s Physique World and, a bit later, Muscle Elegance. It’s rather ironic (and quite fitting) then that I couldn’t actually find a magazine scan of Yolanda at the Olympia from a muscle magazine, and instead had to use a WPW pic.
Oh, look! It’s Cory winning again…
And I leave you for today with Denise Rutkowski as I would like to remember her, performing her (I think it’s fair to say) LEGENDARY routine from 1993. She finished second, and by all accounts that I know of, should have won.
On this evidence, it’s easy to see why people would have thought so.
(If you’ve already got the box of tissues in in preparation for the excitement of this Friday’s 2014 meat-fest, now might be a good time to crack them open…)
How many British female bodybuilders have graced the Olympia stage?
I posed myself the same question before I began to research the post. Having made my own list, which included only the most obvious candidates – Andrulla Blanchette (of course!), Gayle Moher, Carolyn Cheshire, Paula Bircumshaw, and Joanna Thomas I was sure about. And I reckoned Joanne Lee must have competed. Reasoning that the lack of names on my list was probably due to my own ignorance rather than the fact that only these six women had represented my country in the 35 years of the Ms Olympia, I was absolutely convinced that I would find more.
I did. But only TWO.
The answer to the question, then, is eight. And here are ALL of them.
The very first female bodybuilder I ever laid eyes on, and the sole British woman to appear at the very first Ms Olympia in 1980. Her best finish was 7th in her fourth appearance in 1983. No other British woman has more Olympia appearances than Carolyn, and it wouldn’t be until eight years after her sixth and final appearance that the second British woman to compete at the Olympia stepped onto the stage. Such facts kind of put the magnitude of Carolyn’s achievements into perspective, don’t they?
And, like the proverbial London bus, you wait eight years for a British female bodybuilder to appear at the Ms Olympia, then THREE come along at once!
1993
KIMBERLEY-ANNE JONES
If you were in Britain in the late ’80s and early ’90s, you were aware of Kimberley-Ann Jones, even if you didn’t know her name. If, like me, you did know her name then you probably also enjoyed walking past the VW and Virgin ads on billboards, at bus stops, tube stations and so on. Then there was her video, On the Wild Side, with her chained up and in sort of bondage gear on the cover (some years before Muscle Elegance began). For a while, my route to work took me past her Catford gym, Skyline, my femuscle radar always set to maximum as I went by (I never saw her). She retired the year after this one and only Ms Olympia appearance and, as far as I know, still has the gym and is still looking as good (if not better) than she was 20 years ago.
LORETTA LOMAX
Loretta Lomax is almost certainly the least well-known of Britain’s Olympians. From, I believe, the North-West of England, her late ’80s to early ’90s career was relatively short. She did compete at the Jan Tana in 1992 and 1993 as well as at the Olympia, although her best international showing was at the 1991 IFBB Italian Grand Prix – those were the days, IFBB pro female bodybuilding in Europe! – where she finished 5th, ahead of Debbie McKnight, Sandra Blackie and Janet Tech.
Like Andrulla Blanchette, Loretta was a martial artist before she was a bodybuilder. Apparently, she was a second grade black belt in karate, and in this guest posing routine from 1991, her athleticism, balance and flexibility are clearly evident. Watch and you’ll no doubt end up, as I did, wishing that there was more (much more) of Loretta around for us to enjoy and remember her by. A very VERY sexy lady.
Is it a disadvantage to be the last to present your routine? asks the male commentator on my copy of the 1993 Ms Olympia evening show. Not if you have a package like Paula Bircumshaw, replies co-commentator Carla Dunlap. Trouble is, Paula was presenting her undeniably awesome package at a time when judges seemed obsessed with rewarding the so-called “more feminine look”. A couple of years earlier Paula had finished 4th at the Jan Tana, but after the debacle at the 1992 Ms International (see FMS passim), she never placed in the top 10 at an IFBB pro show again.
If she had been competing at any time in the last ten or fifteen years it’s not inconceivable that Paula would have been challenging Yaxeni, Iris et al for the top titles. She was, unfortunately, a victim of the prevailing IFBB climate, but her place as a fan favourite remains as firm as ever 20 years after she hung up her posing suit. Class, it seems, is permanently remembered. And better still, you’ll be pleased to know that these days, Paula’s winning competitons – even if it is on horseback – check it out!
Sadly, none of these British female bodybuilders at the Ms Olympia in 1993 ever competed at the contest again, but the period 1995 to 2001 was something of a golden age for UK female muscle, at least as far as the Ms O was concerned. With British women competing at every Olympia during that period, this golden age culminated with Andrulla Blanchette‘s win in 2000 and, in 2001, the second (and so far only other) occasion when three FBBs from the UK competed together at the show.
GOLDEN YEARS
JOANNE LEE1995 & 1996
At 14, she was a county level athlete, encouraged to train with weights to strengthen her legs. Three years later she was competing as a bodybuilder. People ask me ‘what did you look like before you started training’ and the truth is I really don’t know, I’ve always trained. One of the blessings of my life is that I started so young, she says. Young enough to have turned pro in her 20s, competed for a few years at the highest level, and retired at the age of 30. Age will not wither her and all that!
Now Joanne is a sought-after personal trainer working out of the “Mecca” that is Gold’s Gym in Venice, California. She is known for her nutritional expertise. My work changes lives, she says. For the last 20 years I have walked the walk and lived the program that I am proud to promote today. And Joanne is the best advert for that program, looking better than women half her age, though still not nearly as jaw-dropping as she did at her most muscular peak, we think you’ll agree…
ANDRULLA BLANCHETTE1996-2001, MS OLYMPIA 2000
Hackney’s greatest export and Britain’s one and only Ms Olympia started training in the mid-80s as a means to improve her strength as a judoka. It was, apparently, obvious from the get-go that she had exceptional strength, and this enabled her body to develop so prodigiously that within a year she was the British Junior champion, and within three she was competing at European and World level. She turned pro in the early 1993 after winning her class (lightweight) at the World Games, and competed at the Ms International four times and at 6 Ms Olympias – equalling Carolyn Cheshire‘s number of appearances, but far surpassing Carolyn in terms of placings.
As much as Paula Bircumshaw was unfortunate to have been competing when she was, Andrulla had the good fortune to have been reaching her absolute peak just when weight clases were introduced. Consider this: at the 1999 Olympia she finished 7th, with 5 of the top 6 all giants (Chizevsky, Gates etc.). A year later, when Valentina Chepiga was crowned Heavyweight champ, Andrulla beat Brenda Raganot, Renee Casella, Cathy Le François and Jennifer McVicar to win the Lightweight title. It was the only occasion there was no overall posedown for the title. Would she have beaten Valentina? Maybe, maybe not. The point is, she didn’t have to.
So, our only Ms Olympia was, in many respects, more than a touch lucky, but I don’t want you to be in any doubt that I absolutely lurved (and still absolutely lurve) Andrulla. Look for a flaw in her magnificently muscled physique, and you’ll be looking forever. Try to find a posing routine of hers that isn’t artistic, powerful, unrelentingly sexy, and totally and utterly captivating – you’ll never find one. She had it all, and quite simply was, and, for me at least, remains, the best of British. Our Queen!
There’s plenty of Andrulla on You Tube, but sadly only one or two of her routines, and only one which is taken from the Olympia, and this one has no sound. But fear not, you can pay full tribute to the Queen thanks to Ozzy’s Female Muscle blog! Andrulla’s 1997 Ms O routine – with sound – AND Ozzy’s own inimitable description of its effects on his younger self. I’m sure you will be able to relate to it, especially if you are, like me and Ozzy, of the female muscle on VHS generation. Ah, the memories!!!
GAYLE MOHER1997, 1998, 1999, 2001 & 2006
And at the same time as Andrulla was peaking towards Ms Olympia immortality, the most successful British professional female bodybuilder ever had emerged from the East of England to take top placings in US shows such as the Jan Tana: Gayle Moher.
Where Andrulla had been all frentic, funky and raw animal power, Gayle’s posing had a much slower, more poised, almost balletic grace to it. And, generally speaking, it was a style the judges of the era liked. But her long and successful career was possible only because she effectively adopted the US as her home (and as far as I know she still does live in Arizona). By moving across the Atlantic she was able to compete so much more regularly than any British woman had before (or has since). But I’m not judging her success solely on the quantity of pro shows she entered. Between 2000 and 2005 she competed in 15 pro shows and never once finished outside the top 5, a record unrivalled by only a handful of other FBBs of the period from any country.
JOANNA THOMAS2001, 2004
And so we come to the last of our British Olympians (the last to make her debut, anyway, if not the last to compete at the Big Show). If you’ve seen it, you will probably never forget Joanna Thomas‘ 2004 Barbie Girl routine (why would you want to?). And if you haven’t, you should probably watch it right now (click here!!!).
An asthmatic child, Joanna became interested in bodybuilding as a teenager, and at 22 was the EFBB British champion. A few years later and she had a pro card, and was finishing 10th in the lightweight class at the Ms Olympia. Like Gayle Moher, she decamped to the USA and stayed, using those Barbie Girl assets to become one of the most photographed female bodybuilders in the world over the next few years. That routine you have just (re)watched helped to earn her a fourth place Olympia finish in what must be the highest quality lightweight field ever. It proved to be the high point of a pro career that promised much, but never quite got there. Like Paula Bircumshaw, she was in the right place but at the wrong time, a 5’3″ FBB reaching her peak just as the weight classes disappeared from competition. 2004 was her second and most successful appearance at the Olympia, but also, sadly, it was her last.
So, the 2014 Ms Olympia will mark the eighth year since Gayle Moher‘s last appearance there in 2006, the longest period without British participation since the contest began in 1980. And it’s not getting any easier for UK female bodybuilders to make it there. Gone are the IFBB shows held outside the USA that qualified winners for the Big Show, meaning that British women with Olympian dreams have to travel to the States to compete in the handful of pro shows there. In 2014, apart from Lisa Cross (who made her pro debut in Tampa), only Wendy McCready made the trip, achieving a creditable 8th place finish in Toronto and an even better 6th place in Omaha, neither of these placings gaining her a single Olympia qualification point.
I hope I’m wrong, but it seems to me that despite Wendy’s Olympian efforts, it’s highly unlikely that this very exclusive eight-woman club of British female bodybuilders will be getting a new member any time soon unless they are prepared to follow the Moher-Thomas blueprint of, to all intents and purposes, ‘becoming’ American. It’s a sad thought, but one which makes all of these eight British Olympians seem even more special and worthy of remembering. National treasures, every one of them.
Female Muscle Slave 