FMS Ms O Countdown: Jennifer & the Joneses

The IFBB Pro League in 2013 consisted of just three contests which Olympia hopefuls could enter in order to gain qualification for the big show. Two of the contests were won by women competing in their first professional show.

The first contest of the year, the Toronto Pro, was, rather controversially you may recall, awarded to Jennifer Scarpetta. It was not only her first pro show, but her first show of any kind for nearly three years. She had won her pro card at the first attempt as a bodybuilder at the NPC Nationals in 2010, so in terms of win percentages, she has an extremely impressive record. Since Toronto, Jennifer Scarpetta has become Jennifer Abshire after marrying her long-time girlfriend Megan Abshire. It’s been quite a year for her then. And though she’s extremely unlikely to keep that win percentage up and pull off the sort of result she did in Toronto, a good showing in her first Olympia would round it off nicely.

The other first-time pro winner was Tammy Jones, who, unlike Jennifer, took a few more goes at the Nationals before winning her pro card last year. Her memorable message to her doubters after her Nationals victory was reported in full by FMS in our contest review of 2012. Her win in Tampa, while less controversial than Jennifer’s, was no less surprising given the quality and combined contest experience of the women she beat, although I doubt Tammy was surprised. In an interview last year after her Nationals win she said, I’m very competitive and want to beat everybody. I’m not nice to people, I just want to win. My short-term goal is to put on a good 10 pounds of muscle and make it to the Olympia stage. I don’t just want to be on the Olympia stage, I want to be in the mix. I want to be in that top-five group. I want to win! So I’m working very hard to do that. Who’d bet against that kind of determination?

Sandwiched between those two shows was the Chicago Pro, won by Monique Jones for the second year running. After her victory last year, FMS said that there’s something about her frame that says future Ms Olympia, genetically it seems she has a lot of latent potential there that hasn’t been brought out yet. Well, I think it’s safe to say that Monique has brought out the genetic potential in a bucket in 2013. Unlike the other two 2013 winners, Monique has Ms O previous. This will be her third appearance, and FMS expects her to be challenging for the top 3 if she turns up in Las Vegas in anything like the shape she was in in Chicago.

JENNIFER ABSHIRE (USA)

Born: Aurora, Illinois
Age: 35
Height: 5’6″ (1.67)
Best Ms O: on debut
In 2013: Toronto Pro Winner

TAMMY JONES (USA)

Born: Fort Myers, Florida
Age: 34
Height: 5’6″ (1.67)
Best Ms O: on debut
In 2013: Tampa Pro Winner

MONIQUE JONES (USA)

Born: Fort Knox, Kentucky
Age: 34
Height: 5’9″ (1.75)
Best Ms O: 7th 2012
In 2013: Chicago Pro Winner

Saint Valentina: Muscle Love Story I

I have to admit that part of me thinks the fact that two muscle beauties like Jennifer Scarpetta and Megan Abshire are an item is more than a little unfair. I mean, there’s not nearly enough muscle women to go round, if they all start hooking up with each other, well, it’s another nail in the coffin of the male of the species.

On the other hand, they really do make a lovely couple, don’t they?

Jennifer, who’s in her mid-30s, earned her pro card in 2010, just a year after she had switched from Figure. An extremely intelligent and eloquent champion of the sport of female bodybuilding, if there were a Female Muscle Union, she’d be a great leader of it. Bodybuilding, unsurprisingly perhaps, seems to have been responsible for a huge turnaround in her life. In interviews, she has spoken of a period living out of her car, of a diet consisting of chocolate bars, of a collapsed lung she allowed to fester for two weeks… No wonder she’s so passionate about the benefits of her lifestyle.

Megan became state champion in her native Louisiana in 2008 at the tender age of only 23, under the tutelage of none other than Robin Parker. A teenage powerlifter, she’s relatively tall for a female bodybuilder at 5’8″ (1.74m). Given her relative youth, her sensational genetics and her background, this woman’s potential as a bodybuilder seems virtually limitless. But she doesn’t seem to be in any hurry to return to the stage, and, unfortunately I think, hasn’t competed again. If and when she does, look out!

They’ve been together for a few years, and are currently engaged.

Check out Jennifer’s guest posing routine at the 2012 NPC Panhandle Showdown, and hang around for her speech afterwards, in which she mentions Megan. I may be a bit of an old fool these days, and a bit sentimental this week of all weeks, but I found it genuinely heartfelt, and rather touching.

You might also want to watch a little of a documentary on Muscle Worship, starring Jen and Megan, and containing footage from their respective sessions, as well as their thoughts on the muscle worship ‘scene’.

FMS wishes female bodybuilding’s premier couple all the best for their future, individually and together.

All I Want for Christmas Is…

There’s the Christmas list you give your loved ones, and then there’s what you really want, your female muscle lovin’ Christmas list in your head.

So, just in case any of my lovely readers want to thank me properly for all the enjoyment I’ve given them this year… (just joking – unless you’re gonna do it!)

Dear Santa,
I’ve been good this year. Well, quite good, anyway. Good enough to deserve a little of what I want. You can ignore that other list from me. Rip it up, please. This is what I want (what I really really want)…

– a 2013 Hardfitness Calendar

(January: Penpraghai Tiangngok, February: Darlene Escano, March: Ana Sanchez,
April: Mabel Gonzalez, May: Tamara Montoya, June: Sasha Brown, July: Melissa Marx,
August: Jen Jewell, September: Ericka Underwood, October: Priscila Prunella,
November: Ashley Kaltwasser, December: Jamie Ford, Jan ’14: Erika Thompson)

– a couple of books:

I think it’s high time I read Chemical Pink by Katie Arnoldi,
and even higher time I read  Bodymakers by Leslie Heywood.

– a month’s subscription to Muscle Angels

– $100 gift voucher for HerBicepsCam

(I know they don’t do gift vouchers, but maybe they should:
Treat the man in your life to an experience he’ll never forget…)

– personal training sessions with Rachel Buschert

I really need to get into top shape this year, and a month or so in New York with Rachel should do the trick nicely. If you could organise the sessions and the flights and accommodation, I’d be eternally grateful.

– a session with Jennifer Scarpetta and Megan Abshire in London this January

If I’m going to break my duck, I should probably jump right in and go for double the fun, and I can’t think of a better double team than these two brunettes – well, I can’t imagine a better double team who are scheduled to be in London in January.

– an Arnold Classic Brasil VIP visitor package

I reckon this would be a fine way to see your first bodybuilding show. Tickets, flights, accommodation and sightseeing tours are available from Promotional Travel (Brasil)

Thank you Santa!

Beauty of the Day

This week’s daily post will be a feast of the gorgeous. More proof (as if you needed any) that muscles and beauty can co-exist. And, just for fun, FMS has picked out some apt quotations on the subject itself – that’s beauty, not muscle.

And what could be more appropriate to begin than:

Everything has its beauty, but not everyone sees it.
Confucious

Jennifer Scarpetta

Two’s Up of the Day

Monday blues-beater

Jennifer Scarpetta and Sarah Hayes: guaranteed to make your day!

Have a good week!