FBBUK: The Fit Writer

OK, let’s start with a question.

Can you name Britain’s one reigning World Champion female bodybuilder?

Didn’t think so.

Until a couple of weeks ago, I wouldn’t have known the answer to the question either. Wouldn’t have known that Britain even had a female World Champion. But we do.

It’s time we met her. Say hello to Nicola Joyce, World Champion.

The fact that Nicola is a World Champion yet remains unknown even to fans of female muscle is easily explained. You see, she’s a natural bodybuilder, competing in natural shows and let’s face it, these natural shows and natural women get only a fraction of the attention that non-natural contests attract – unless, of course, Jodie Marsh is competing, in which case they are on TV and all over the print media!

Actually, Nicola is not just a World Champion, she’s a two-time World Champion, having recently retained the title she first won last year in Boston in November.

She is also a distance runner, an international triathlete, and an open water swimmer with a string of achievements – for example, she’s swum up Lake Windermere, swum round the island of Jersey, and swum across the English Channel – twice.

But it’s what’s going on between Nicola’s ears that has really got my attention.

Despite her physical prowess, I found out about Nicola via her blog.

“The Fit Writer”, as she calls it, has reports of her runs, her triathlons, her open water swims, and her bodybuilding contests. It has fitness-related product reviews, and advice for bodybuilding competitors (both male and female). But of most interest to me, and I’m guessing to you too, dear reader, is the insight it provides into her own daily bodybuilding life. If you want to know how crazy a female bodybuilder can go when she’s prepping for a contest, her blog will tell you. Ever dreamed of dating a female bodybuilder? Nicola will tell you what you’d be letting yourself in for. Know a female bodybuilder and want to say the right things? Check with Nicola.

But it’s not just the content of the blog that I like. Nicola writes with some style.

Here she is at the UKDFBA this year. The winner will get a WNBF pro card…

I’ve either won it or… I haven’t, frankly. One matters, one doesn’t matter. That’s how I see it. One is a win, the other is not a win.

The head judge was saying that it was incredibly close… that, in fact, it was a tie-break. We were tied for first place, and the result of the tie-break is…

“In second place…”

Me.

Sigh.

OK. Smile, smile, don’t cry, look up, smile, walk forward, shake the winner’s hand, stand there and smile.

The winner was then called forward, and offered WNBF Pro status.

My emotions have been up, down and all over the place since. At the time I felt absolutely gutted and disappointed, but not so bad. I felt happy, in that I knew I was my best ever (so far!), very happy personally in how I looked and how I’d posed, etc. Happy that I’d improved a placing in a year (I was 3rd at UKDFBA last year) and happy (although it’s a bitter happiness!!) that it was so close. You can’t ask for much more (other than winning, obviously) than being in a tie break situation.

But I have also gone through a slew of negative emotions: sadness, disappointment, feeling absolutely gutted, and (if I’m honest), angry. I’m not sure at what. Myself, I think. Angry that I didn’t get on stage absolutely dominant, that I left it up to the judges to make the decision, that I didn’t step up there and make their job easier for them. I won’t be making the same mistake again. Believe me, there’s nothing like losing something so important to you on a tie-break decision to focus the mind.

A compelling read, don’t you think?

Unsurprisingly, given her ability to tell a story and her all round way with words, Nicola earns her corn as a freelance Sport and Fitness Writer and Fitness Copywriter. One who just happens to be a runner, a triathlete, an open water swimmer, and, er…
Oh yeah, I almost forgot! A two-time natural bodybuilding World Champion.

Please enjoy Nicola’s blog responsibly!

August Picture Post: Athlete

Athletics. Great sport for the female muscle lover. You get to watch without fear. Who doesn’t get into the athletics? Everyone. So you don’t seem weird because you are enjoying the women’s pole vault (as my brother says, “Fit chicks in their underwear, flying through the air”) although when you are recording the Women’s 200m heats as they are on while you’re at work it might raise an eyebrow… Anyway, amid the riches of the recent European Athletics Championships, French hurdler Cindy Billaud caught the collective FMS eye as a good candidate to, when she hangs up her spikes, crossover into bodybuilding, or musculation as they say in the gyms of Lyon.

CINDY BILLAUD
2014 European silver medallist, 100m hurdles

And for those of you who like this sort of thing, here’s the beautiful Cindy speaking French and looking all magnifique after she had won her European silver medal. Shame the interviewer didn’t ask her whether she’d ever thought of taking up bodybuilding.

Enjoy!

Swell Digs: Anastasia Papoutsaki

Greek physique sensation Anastasia Papoutsaki has been causing quite a stir on the forum boards and at FMS HQ for the best part of a year. First posted here in the middle of June (see 100 Biceps: Day 1) to no little acclaim from readers (“she has a pretty perfect bicep pec structure” was one of many comments), the time is ripe for a closer look at all the perfect parts of this stunningly beautiful former international athlete.

Her event was, at first, the 100m, but as far as we can ascertain, she had more success in the 400m and 400m hurdles, and represented Greece in international competition during 2010 and 2011. You can watch her race in (and win) a 400m heat at an international indoor meeting here. Wish more female athletes would consider making the transition to bodybuilding when they are finished with their sport, one forum poster has commented, pointing to the fact that she has made some great gains in her physique in just a few years. An FMS reader agrees: Lifting heavy, scantily clad in front of thousands… Track and field is maybe the ideal prep for female bodybuilding. 

It’s definitely worked for this former athlete. She has, indeed, built a jaw-dropping physique in just a couple of years, and has already won Ms Crete and Ms Greece titles, and recently at the IFBB Amateur Olympia Europe she finished 3rd at her first international show, representing her country with distinction once again.

Absolutely stunning is what they say on the forums, with much comment about what Anastasia doesn’t have as what she does. A natural beauty, she is 1,000x hotter than all the girls with the falsies, states one poster on the forum whose first rule is… Beautiful from head to toe: no ink, no implants. Very rare, says another.

She’s is “outstanding”, and variously described as “the most beautiful” and/or “the sexiest” woman “in the galaxy” by others. Our FMS reader was impressed by her biceps and pecs, other female muscle heads point to her “insane calves”, or her “huge shoulders”. We say that wherever you’re looking, it’s clear all those years of training for sprinting have most definitely been advantageous for the gorgeous Anastasia.

If this Greek goddess is doing it for you as much as she is doing it for us and everyone else in the female muscle lovin’ brotherhood then you might want to become one of her ever-growing number of followers on her Facebook and Instagram pages. And for those of you who (like me) love an exceptionally beautiful muscular woman in contest shape being interviewed in a language you can’t understand, we leave you today with Anastasia looking glorious after her 2014 win at her national championships.

Enjoy!

Her Legs

Ingrid Avelsgaard, gym legs selfie

Q: I play water polo, so my legs are big and muscular. Guys always make comments and innuendos about them, especially about my strong thighs. I was just curious as to why. (from Glamour Magazine Online, 2/11)

It’s a few years old now, and I could have found a similar but more recent example, but I’ve been wanting to mention this particular article for some time, and today’s subject suits it to a tee. It’s stayed on the FMS list of things to write about mainly because Glamour magazine decided to farm out the writing of the response to a man because, as they say, there are some questions about men that only a guy can answer.

left: Lea Wiehl; right: Andrea Bisi through her leggings

You have stumbled upon a truth: guys have a fascination, nay, an erotic obsession with muscular, female thighs, begins the reply, frank and to the point from the get-go. And yes, you being a water poloist, will be in the hot seat for that sort of attention. The answer as to why we men love big, strong muscular legs on our women, the writer continues, is both “primitive” and “sexual”. Well, who would have thunk that…?

Definition by FMS fave Michelle Davis

On the one hand, the article says, Guys equate muscular legs with being super acrobatic and inventive and bed. Well, I don’t know about you, dear reader, but I’m nodding my head at that one. And not only from a “yes, I have that fantasy” point of view. I’m also in agreement because the women I have been lucky enough to have got intimate with who did have strong, muscular legs absolutely were much more acrobatic/gymnastic in bed, and yes, that did make for more “inventive” sex.

Shredded Brazilians Janaina Ferreira (left) and Ana Paula Silva

On the other hand, There is the desire to be submissive, the article continues. To feel powerless, dominated by the muscular thighs of a woman. Women are not supposed to be stronger, thicker, and burlier than their man; the idea of being confronted with that is alluring and kinky. I’m not saying this is right or wrong, good or bad, I’m saying guys see your thighs and it brings up psychosexual feelings of being controlled, “man-handled”. Most guys won’t readily say it, but their subconscious is whispering to them “I want to be choked by those thunder thighs.” Now, whether that kind of thing is your bag or not, once again, it’s hard to disagree with the writer. The urge to submit is undeniably a reason why many find strong, muscular legs desirable.

Suan Garcia con furia (force, rage, climax)

But excellent though the article is, I feel it does miss what to me are other important reasons why muscular legs (and by extension muscular women) are so attractive. The first is aesthetic. For me, the shape, the curves that muscular legs have – the flared thighs, the bulging calves, the bow-like hamstrings – are, like the curves elsewhere on a female bodybuilders frame, possibly the main reason why I am so attracted to them. And I think that needs to be said, because one of the body image problems some women struggle with is that their legs (thighs, calves, whatever) are “too big” or “too muscular”. Whether this is natural size or the result of running, playing water polo or weight training, it is undeniably an issue some women have. And as far as I’m concerned, the more they read and/or hear that it’s their muscles that make them and their legs more attractive, more beautiful than the stick-like media ideal, the better.

“If she looks this good over four months out…” Melissa Wee

Meanwhile, there are women who love their own muscular legs. They celebrate them, and in doing so they inspire other women to embrace their own muscularity. Ali K., a runner and blogger from Georgia, is one such woman. Once upon a time, Ali was obsessed with dieting, obsessed with being thin. She had really low self-esteem. I hated myself everyday. She suffered hair loss, brittle nails and terrible, dry, thin skin due to malnutrition. She was prone to mood swings, a short temper, and problems with memory and focus. It had a negative effect on her social life: I was too focused on how I looked and whether I would have to eat in front of people to even bother making an effort. Ultimately, her zero calorie lifestyle left her clinically depressed.

Beautiful Jennifer Abshire (left) and rising Korean star Kim Ji-hyun

Her runner’s blog pretty much amounts to a daily love letter to herself, her new body, and more often than not, her muscular legs. My thighs are strong, muscular, and powerful. They push me through long runs, up hills, across finish lines… They make me feel confident. They make me feel like a woman. They make me feel proud of my body, she wrote recently. And it’s a message her followers want to hear. You always amaze me with your incredible posts! I embrace the name “Thunder Thighs” when someone says it, is just one example of the many responses her posts have got.

Geisi Cyborg and her freak

Confidence is sexy. Confident women are sexy. And women who are full of self-confidence because they are happy with their muscular strong bodies are the sexiest women of all. And this, I think, is another point our male writer forgot when he was exposing why so many men were commenting on that water polo player’s thighs.

Furthermore, as our runner-blogger Ali mentioned above, her muscular legs empower her. And this theme is taken up by one of her respondents. I am proud to have strong, muscular thighs! she says. My thighs GET SHIT DONE. If I didn’t have these thighs, there are so many awesome experiences I would never have been able to have.

Oksana Grishina, Calvzzz! Veinzzzz!

So there’s yet another reason for the attraction. Women with strong, muscular legs are the ones who are running marathons, running up and down hockey fields or football pitches or around tennis courts. They’re powering through triathlons, completing Crossfit workouts, and they’re squatting the kind of weights that most men, let alone most other women, would cower at. Whatever it is their muscles are enabling them to do, they are getting done. And the ability to set and achieve goals is, if not a sexy quality to have, generally seen in society as an admirable and desirable one, is it not?

Sculpted by Katka Kyptova

What I’m getting at here is that there is so much more to the attraction I (and possibly you) have towards muscle than the “primitive” urges the Glamour writer identified. I’m not denying that urge exists, but there are aesthetic considerations as well, along with the positive effects a strong body and strong legs can have on a woman’s self-esteem as her ability to complete ever-greater physical challenges grows with her strength.

Up close with Frida Palmell (left); upstanding for Alina Popa, Queen of Muscle

In other words, it gets easier and easier to love her legs the more she loves them herself. And as Ali K. and her running blog remind us, there are more and more women who are learning to love what those big strong muscular legs of theirs can do.

Helle Nielsen‘s legendary legs

Personally, though I truly admire and appreciate every single woman who has, for whatever reason, developed her leg muscles, my “primitive” urge is strongest for female bodybuilders simply because the aesthetics of their muscles, and therefore their leg muscles, is what arouses me most. Big, strong, and above all, defined.

Big, strong, defined perfection: Marthe Sundby

Enjoy!

Pic of the Week

One more Sochi-related post with this impressively trapalicious bit of physical detail that belongs to Rebekah Wilson, Team GB member for the Women’s Bobsleigh.

Enjoy!

And once again, thanks to Aiden

Eve Muirhead Curls for Bronze

The UK has never been so into curling. It all started in 2002 when the British women’s team brought home the gold medal from Salt Lake City, and during the recent Winter Olympics in Sochi the nation was once again going ga-ga for the only sport I know of where each of the players needs their own broom. This time around the men won a silver, but FMS was, for some reason, far more interested in the women’s team, who are to be congratulated for coming home with bronze medals.

Along with many of my countrymen and women, I’ve learned the “skipper” of a curling team is its most important member, because it is she who delivers the final two stones in each end, the stones that tend to decide whether you or your opponents will pick up points. [At this point, if you have absolutely no idea what I’m talking about, watch a little bit of this.] And Team GB’s bronze medal-winning women’s skipper in Sochi was this (rather beautiful) lady from Stirling in Scotland, Eve Muirhead.

And thanks to Scotland’s Daily Record (and the research skills of FMS‘ Crossfit correspondent), we can report that Eve prepared for Sochi with an altogether different kind of curling, as well as a whole host of other movements.

Scots curling champ Eve Muirhead pushes herself to limit in gym, reads the headline. The article goes on to tell us that the 23-year-old looked in peak shape during a gruelling workout in Stirling, as she prepares to represent Team GB in Sochi next month, before almost exactly repeating itself in the next line: the 23-year-old looked in great shape during a gruelling workout at the Institute of Sport in Stirling.

I shouldn’t be too hard on the (unnamed) journalist though. They were no doubt somewhat distracted by the images of Eve that accompany the piece, because whether she’s in “top” or “peak” shape, she definitely looks like she’s in shape.

Congratulations to Eve and the rest of her team. Now that’s curl power…

Dedicated to Aiden, with thanks

Inspired by… Aiden

It’s always nice to know that someone is reading my musings, and even nicer when they actually bother to share their thoughts and/or reach out a mutually female muscle appreciating hand. So, this week on FMS, for some of the lovely readers who have been in touch (whether by email or the comment box), a whole post inspired by them as a way of saying thank you for supporting the blog.

I hope they, and you, will enjoy them.

Back in June, Aiden became FMS‘ first (and so far only) Guest Editor and introduced us to his favourite Crossfit women. His love of muscular women started first emerged when ‘finding female athletes beguiling when I was about 10 years old,’ he told us, so we’ll kick off today with a few ‘athletes’…

Britian’s Shelley Rudman, Skeleton World Champion

Snow (which clearly does wonders for the legs) and surf

Can Aiden have his bike back, please?

After the athletes came the female bodybuilders, as Aiden, like so many of us, ‘plucked up the courage to buy the magazines’. (Read more about the newsagent’s here)

So, as another thank you to Aiden for his outstanding contribution to FMS this year, some selections with him in mind…

‘Compact and thick’

We certainly haven’t forgotten that way back in January, Aiden described the magnificent Jamie Pinder as ‘fucking glorious’…

Jamie winning the Physique class at the Chicago Pro this year

And competing at the Olympia (12th, really?!)

Glorious indeed.

But we couldn’t do a post for Aiden without his number 1.

‘She is a very appealing woman, attractive, amusing, great body and the crowning glory, she knows how good she looks and she likes showing it off.’

Miranda thinks ‘that guy who wrote all that cool stuff about me on that blog… I wish there was some way that I could thank him…’

Just another normal night in Miranda’s hotel room

Something like Aiden’s idea of heaven?

Thanks again Aiden, hope you enjoyed today’s post, a Merry Christmas to you, and may all the women you meet in 2014 be ‘compact and thick’!

Miranda shows her power (with Emily Friedman)

Enjoy! Another reader inspired post coming tomorrow…

What’s (Been) Going On: Samantha Briggs, The Fittest Woman on Earth

Back in June, at the end of CrossFit Week, our guest editor and resident CrossFit authority Aiden wrote in his Games preview that his prediction to win is Britain’s own Sam Briggs. Well, I bet you wish you’d listened to him now and put some money on her, because at the end of that month, that is precisely what happened.

After finishing 19th at the Games in Sweden in 2010, when she prepared for the first day of competition by eating and drinking ‘a bambi burger and a Carlsberg’, Samantha had made the CrossFit world sit up and take notice in 2011 when she was a standout performer despite missing out on the podium and finishing 4th. Due to a knee injury she missed the entire 2012 season. Her comeback has been spectacular. She qualified for the Games by winning the European Regional with performances that must have been truly scary to her fellow competitors and earmarked her as one of the favourites for the whole thing. And then at the Games themselves, she didn’t disappoint.

Pleasingly, Sam’s incredible achievement did not go unnoticed by the British media, and she appeared on BBC Breakfast, which is about as high profile as it gets at that time in the morning. ‘I’m just looking at you absolutely amazed!’ female presenter Louise Minchin, who has completed triathlons herself, gushed. Whether Louise was amazed by the typically understated way Sam had just explained what the competition involved, or whether she was amazed by the sight of Sam’s shoulders and arms you can decide for yourself by watching a recording of the clip here.

Despite having got the kind of winner’s cheque that would be unimaginable in female bodybuilding, she is not about to give up her day job as a firefighter in West Yorkshire. And after the BBC interview she celebrated her success by spending three hours getting a new tattoo. You’ve got to love her!

And Sam is by no means finished now she has reached the top. Her mantra of ‘Lift, run, swing, pull, push, jump, row, throw, swim, hit, cycle, recover & repeat!’ still applies.  ‘It’d be stupid for me to think I could go back to the Games and win being the same athlete then that I am now. I think I need to constantly evolve and there’s certain areas we need to work on and hopefully I’ll go back a stronger athlete next year,’ she has said.

You can follow Sam on Twitter, via the CrossFit Games website, or its youtube channel.
For a much longer interview with Sam post-Games, visit BoxRox.
Or, for the brave only perhaps, the Train Manchester website.

Enjoy!

Wendy Jeal

Personally, although I was an avid athletics-watcher in my youth, I remember very little about her races. My research tells me that her best performance at a major championship came in the Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh in 1986, where she won a bronze medal. She represented Great Britain at the Seoul Olympics in 1988, qualified as a fastest loser from her first round heat, but finished sixth in her quarter-final. She was no Jessica Ennis, not even the best British hurdler of her day.

But as this was a time when very few female track athletes had the kind of muscle and definition that is commonplace today – and those that did were East German beasts of a seemingly indeterminate sex – Wendy Jeal was a revelation. She had only a fleeting and not particularly noteworthy career as a 100m hurdler, but among female muscle fans, and especially British female muscle fans of a certain age, Wendy Jeal is (or perhaps, to be more accurate, I should say Wendy Jeal’s legs are) legend.

I may not remember her races as such, but I remember as clearly as if it were yesterday how defined and muscular her legs were, and how those muscles would pop as she settled into her blocks.

And I remember Stuart Storey (just imagine the most famous athletics commentator from your country, the guy who’s been the voice of athletics on your TV for years and you’ll get what I mean) blurting out before one race, ‘Just look at the definition on her!’, before adding that her nickname in the team was ‘Miss Muscles’.

And judging by the kind of things fans say when images of Wendy at her peak are uploaded on the forum boards, I am not alone in having such wonderful memories of her…

Wendy Jeal has perhaps the BEST legs I have ever seen. 

The musculature, definition, and size are simply incredible.

Best legs on the planet.

They are the best legs ever and the greatest thing is they are natural.

The prize for the most interesting comment about Wendy on a forum that I have seen anyway has got to be this one, from a fan who goes by the name of ‘THFC’ (which suggests he’s from the Haringey area of London – trust me on this, it’s a football (soccer) thing) – and the club that Wendy used to run for was, indeed, Haringey.

When I was a teenage boy, he says, I used to train with her for the same track team. I could stare at her for hours. I would make any excuse to talk to her. That explains a lot about me.

Also, Wendy was one of only two non-bodybuilders who received votes when FMS invited readers to share their Fantasy Contest line-ups back in May last year.

But there are a limited number of images of Wendy (and Wendy’s legs) out there, and a lot has happened since she last competed (as a heptathlete, in 1991 at the age of 31).

However, I was aware there was a video she made with the mighty Steve Wennerstrom at some point after the Seoul Olympics, and though I’d seen snippets of it and visited places where the whole video had been available but I’d arrived too late, I had never seen it in its entirety.

So I was grinning from ear to ear, among other things, when I found it uploaded to Daily Motion recently, on a channel belonging to ‘UZI4you’. Good work fella!

Obviously it’s not the greatest quality, but bear in mind that it’s so old it’s a bone fide female muscle artefact, relax, and enjoy the glory of Wendy’s legs.

And when you’ve done that, head over to UZI4you’s channel and give the (I assume) man some love for making the previous thirty-nine minutes (or perhaps multiples thereof) of your life so wonderful.

https://dailymotion.com/video/x126l9a

Enjoy!

FBBUK: Donna Hartley-Wass

FMS’ latest irregular and far from comprehensive week-long survey of all things UK femuscle-related begins, I’m afraid, with some not so good news.

Swell was extremely sad to hear of the untimely death of the former British athlete turned female bodybuilder Donna Hartley-Wass at the beginning of June.

As a child I remember cheering Donna on with my family watching the Commonwealth Games in the late 70s, and the Moscow Olympic Games in 1980. I was too young to have had any ‘feelings’ for her at that age, but she was the ‘Golden Girl’ of British athletics at the time, the Jessica Ennis of her era, a natural for the cameras as well as a world-class athlete.

As The Independent puts it in their obituary of Donna, With her long blonde hair and flashing smile, Hartley was an attractive as well as an accomplished performer. At a time when women’s sprinting was dominated by runners from the Eastern bloc – many of whom were subsequently implicated in doping regimes – she was a Brit genuinely capable of mixing it.

She was awarded an MBE in 1979, and retired from athletics a year later. but I also remember her being a fixture on Superstars (a British TV show where sports stars would compete against each other in various events – swimming, cycling etc.). It was a huge show in its time, and Donna was still more than famous enough to be among those chosen for the show.

But what really makes Donna worth remembering here is what she decided to do next. In the mid-1980s, Donna Hartley became a bodybuilder, hardly a common career-move (more’s the pity!) for renowned UK female athletes.

Many within athletics were stunned to see pictures of Hartley’s changed physique at the time, according to UK athletics historian Stan Greenberg.

And it wasn’t just those within her sport who were stunned. My abiding memory of Donna is an appearance she made on The Last Resort, the chat show that launched Jonathan Ross’ TV career, in the late 1980s.

There I was, mid-teens, as I always was on a Friday night, watching TV. I quite liked this new-style chat show and the irreverent host, and there was nothing better on, so as usual, I’d tuned into Channel 4 that night. Among the guests Jonathan promised us that night in his intro was the familiar name of Donna Hartley, but little did I suspect why exactly she was on the show, little did I suspect one of my formative female muscle experiences was about to unfold.

Out she came in a long black bathrobe that all but covered her entire body. She was a little older (obviously) than I remembered her, but also blonder, more glamorous, more tanned. She had a definite glow about her.

I’d only ever seen one other female bodybuilder actually move at that time, my first, Carolyn Cheshire, also on British TV, so by the time Donna appeared on my TV screen that night, I had already been converted. So the excitement I felt when Donna took off that bathrobe to reveal her muscular physique in all its glory was an excitement I had felt before, an excitement I have become accustomed to.

She proceeded to go through her routine right in front of the (for once) speechless host, even (if memory serves) climbing onto his desk at one point. Every move she made was accompanied by her gleaming smile. She looked so confident, so sexy.

While Jonathan sat there open-mouthed, while the audience gasped, Donna hit pose after pose. I was in teenage female muscle heaven.

After the routine, she sat down, grinning. She teased the obviously stunned Ross, kind of mockingly flirting with him as he recoiled. She enjoyed the shock she had caused. At no point did she seem anything less than totally and utterly comfortable with her own body. It was intoxicating.

All too quickly it was over and the show went to a commercial break. But in those days I recorded everything. And once the rest of my family had gone to bed that night, I watched Donna over and over again, and continued to do so for weeks and months (perhaps years) afterwards, officially retiring that VHS from family circulation and stashing it away with my growing collection of muscle magazines.

And amazingly, footage of her guest posing has survived, and thanks to ‘Vivian Gregson’ on youtube, FMS can share Donna with you as he remembers her from that night in a suburban South London home all those years ago…

Donna competed for only two years, finishing 3rd in the NABBA Britain and Universe contests in 1987, and winning the Britain title and finishing runner-up at the Universe the following year.

With her superior sporting genes and athletics background, she had the potential to be one of the greatest female bodybuilders this country has ever produced, but the sport, it turned out, wasn’t for her. You could only get into terrific shape twice a year because of the dieting and were on stage for 10 minutes, so I didn’t think it worth the effort, she said later. But I learned a lot about nutrition.

It was during this time that she met and married her second husband, Bobby Knutt, a comedian and actor from UK TV who was himself quite famous at the time. When they celebrated their 25th anniversary in 2011, Bobby revealed he had been smitten instantly. She had the most beautifully shaped behind I’d ever seen, he recalled. Clearly a man of some taste.

Donna retired from the public eye, settled down with Bobby in the North of England, and went into hotel spa and leisure club management.

She was, by all accounts, a wonderful woman, and FMS’ thoughts go out to her husband, family and her friends.