IK Rules, OK? VI

IRIS SEZ…

Today, a few more extracts from The Tao of Iris…

The way you “THINK” is the “DRIVING FORCE” that fashions your world, thereby governing the kind of life that you live… Study the past if you would define the future… Remember, “Life” is not made up of minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, or years, but of moments.

Being gifted doesn’t mean you’ve been given something – it means, you have something to give… Shine with all you have. When someone tries to blow you out, just take their oxygen and burn brighter… Just believe and you will achieve… You feel me????

DEM HAMS DOE!

Tomorrow we are going back upstairs, but for now we complete our celebration of Iris’ lower body – and the fact that these are the last of her leg muscles we’re looking at by no means indicates they are the least of them – with those great thick ropes of muscle that bulge out (rippling) from the base of dem (rippling) glutes on down.

In 2011, she told Physical Fitness Rx, I keep my reps up for my hams. I’ll do sets of 15 in the off season, and pre-contest I go to sets of 20 (lying leg curls, stiff-leg deadlifts and seated curls). Also, precontest I’ll do high-rep sets of hypers (back extensions) every day to really bring in my hams, my glutes and my lower back.

So, whether you are a man who wants to break the habit of a lifetime and stop neglecting your hamstrings, or a woman who wants to have the kind of “gammies” that make people walk into stuff as they stare at them, that’s all there is to it. Simples!

KYLED HARD FACT OF THE DAY

Iris says her favourite music is R&B, jazz and sensible rap. “Sensible”?!

KYLE BY NUMBERS

Ten times Ms Olympia: 2004, and then nine times in a row, from 2006 to 2014.

The “I Was Runner-up to Iris Kyle at the Ms O” Club has six members. Dayana Cadeau was Lightweight champion but lost the Overall posedown to Iris in 2004, and then finished second outright in 2006 and 2007. The wonderful Betty Viana was runner-up in 2008, followed by Heather Policky in 2009. Yaxeni Oriquen – familiar with the feeling from all her Ms International runners-up medals – came second in 2010 and 2011. And most recently it’s Debi Laszewski (2012), and Alina Popa (2013 and 2014) who have held Iris’ hand before the inevitable happens!

EVERYBODY LOVES IRIS

Anne Freitas never misses the chance to get a pic of herself with The Champ, even though she herself is a champ these days. Above right, a towering Iris congratulates Anne on her win backstage at this year’s Omaha Pro (with Tonia Moore).

IN BLACK & WHITE

KYLE IN MOTION

IRIS KYLE 2013 ARNOLD CLASSIC IFBB PRO Ms INTERNATIONAL FINALS

From the brilliant watatiwatatio, Iris’ routine at the (sadly, in all probability last ever, and therefore) historic Ms International last year. Going out on top is always the best way, says Iris, something that she managed to do both here and at the Ms Olympia.

Iris’ reign concludes tomorrow…

Back Is Beautiful: Brigita’s Beautiful Back

I was going to call this post “Brezovac’s Back”, but given that Brigita retired from competitive bodybuilding after the Ms Olympia last year, I thought that might be slightly misleading and make some of you think she’d changed her mind. Sadly, she’s not “back”, but this little tribute is going to showcase her beautiful back.

Slovenia’s greatest export (can you think of another?) started lifting weights at the age of 14 as part of her training for karate. In that time I lived only for karate and practising with weights which brought me very good results, I was national champion… for few years competing up to 116lbs and my body looked amazing.

Her inspiration was a picture of Cory Everson that she saw at her then boyfriend’s garage gym. I immediately knew I wanted to build the body she had, she has said. That meant first moving from karate to fitness, but then in 2004, she was told by judges at the IBFA World Championships she could not compete in fitness, and was forcibly moved to the bodybuilding category. She won the title.

And over the next few years she won a few other titles competing in a variety of federations. In 2005, IBFA European Champion. In 2006 she defended that title successfully, and also won the NAC Universe, the IBFA Worlds (again), and the oddly-named WPF World-Universe title. In 2007, she was NAC Universe champion again.

The biggest obstacle I had to overcome was to find a way to compete in IFBB federation. Our country didn’t care about the IFBB and finally I managed to pull things together with the big help of Balkan IFBB president, Nenad Vuckovic and then represent my country at World Women’s Championship 2009. Well, well done Mr Vuckovic (there I go again congratulating an IFBB man – see Lisa Cross IFBB Pro).

Brigita didn’t win the title (Simone Linay of Germany did), but she did get a pro card for the IFBB and arrived in Tampa in 2010 for her first pro show. She won. I just couldn’t believe this is really happening for a long time after the show was over. I was working for that success for many years, keeping my biggest goal, step onto the sacred Ms Olympia stage. At the beginning of my career it was only the big dream which seemed almost impossible to reach. But we have to have our dreams and I believe if we work hard for them, one day they become reality.

top: Tampa 2010 & 2011; bottom: Olympia 2011 & 2012

After finishing 10th in that first Ms Olympia, Brigita returned the following year with a 3rd place in Tampa and a win in Toronto under her belt. She came 3rd, the highest placing by a European since Marja Lehtonen had finished 3rd in the lightweight class in 2004. In 2012 she was 6th at the Ms International, 5th at the Olympia, and in 2013 she was 4th at the Ms I, and 5th again at the Ms O.

top: Ms International 2013; bottom: Ms Olympia 2013

I love the way of life being a bodybuilder. I like the food and diet regime because I can always have my body under control, I like working out and I like that I’m different from the average person. But Brigita, what do you enjoy most about being a top female bodybuilder? If I tell you the truth, the thing I most enjoy is the attention.

Since retiring from competition, Brigita has become an IFBB judge. And she has been passing on her knowledge and experience to others. Does anybody have a better job than me? she recently tweeted with a pic showing her putting three shirtless men through their posing practice paces. All in good shape, they look tiny next to her.

Finally, Brigita battering that big and beautiful back of hers…

More Brigita via Twitter, her website, and her excellent (and often updated – if you are a fan of candids, you will love it) blog. Another (longer but lower quality) clip of Brigita training her back from 2011 here, and an interesting compilation Brigita Brezovac Over the Years, which includes all sorts of things, including snippets of an interview.

Enjoy!

[More Brigita on FMS passim]

Ms International: A Silver Lining?

Yesterday, FMS brought you some of the comments made by fans and female bodybuilders who have signed the petition organised by Real Female Bodybuilding against the scrapping of the Ms International from the IFBB calendar. Many of them were heart-breaking pleas from female bodybuilders themselves, devastated that IFBB seems to be turning its back on them after they have given so many years of hard work to their sport. There are rumours that there are even plans afoot to end the Ms Olympia contest, effectively killing off professional female bodybuilding as we know it.

Dark days indeed. Or are they? I’ll whisper it, because even to my own ears it sounds like heresy, but in my (ill-informed) opinion, it’s entirely possible that this could be the best thing that has ever happened to female bodybuilding.

By the 1970s the pay differential had increased. Promoters were making more money. Male players were making more money. Everybody was making more money except the women. In 1969, ratios of 5:1 in terms of pay between men and women were common at smaller tournaments. By 1970 these figures ballooned to 8:1 and even 12:1.

Sounds familiar, doesn’t it? If you throw in the fact that the organisers of the tournaments were deliberately paying the women much much less in an attempt to deter them from turning up at all and you have a fair description of how professional female bodybuilding has been going in recent years. But in fact the above paragraph isn’t about bodybuilding at all, but tennis. Specifically it relates the motivation for the creation of the WTA (Women’s Tennis Association) in 1973.

In many sports, the world governing body actively promotes the female game. FIFA is now beginning to reap the benefits of its investment in women’s football over a period of decades, and similar results are being seen in cricket and rugby, to name but two. Whether these governing bodies are doing it in the name of gender equality or purely to increase revenues is neither here nor there. The important thing is that in some sports it hasn’t been necessary for the women to take over the governance of their own sport.

But that was not the case in tennis, and the success of the WTA in transforming the fortunes of its members has made it not only the inspiration, but also the blueprint for other sportswomen wishing to take control of their own and their sport’s future.

Easier said than done? I don’t disagree, and particularly so because bodybuilding does not have nearly the same mass appeal as tennis, neither as a spectator sport nor in terms of participation. But that does not mean that female bodybuilders should not aim to follow the same path.

And amid the howls of protest against the IFBB, there have been statements made by female bodybuilders that prove that some of them are thinking along these lines, and maybe have been for some time.

Pamela Hannam, for one, is an advocate of female bodybuilders doing it for themselves: Going to the NPC, the IFBB and to Arnold with our hats in our hands and our heads down begging to ‘please keep us’ isn’t going to cut any ice with them. THEY HATE US!!! 

Are we so incapable of taking care of our own sport that we as women can’t band together and make this the best damn thing that has ever happened to us? I see all these people writing in on this and the passion is clearly there! 

How damn hard would it be to rent a damn hall in Columbus the same damn weekend [as the Arnolds] and have our own show? Raise some REAL prize money and kick these assholes in the balls and say ‘SCREW YOU!’ It is time for the women who have been in this sport, the women who are currently competing, and the people who love how we look to band together and form a league of our own.

Fighting Talk: Pamela Hannam (left) and Iris Swatuk (right)

Iris Swatuk agrees the time for change may have come. Maybe it’s just time to start a new federation… And the prizes and rewards would be based on the work put in by the women and not the show’s biggest sponsors. Not ‘Hawaiian Tropic shows’. They can have their own venue in the IFBB.

There is already precedent for female muscle business becoming involved. Muscle Girlz Live provided sponsorship for female bodybuilding at the Toronto Pro recently. Last year, Wings of Strength did the same in Chicago last year and will do so again in 2013. I know that in the UK there are plans to use funds raised from an online female muscle magazine to provide prize money for women at shows here. The creation of an all-female bodybuilding federation seems to me to be simply the next logical step.

It’s true, as colt13 pointed out this week (see Did You Know…?), that there needs to be more professional shows for the women. More shows means more new talent coming through, not the same women winning again and again. I also agree with a point that other readers have made – fans can play a major part in providing funding for these shows. But if the renaissance of female bodybuilding that we would all like to see is going to happen, then I believe it must start with the creation of an all-new female-run federation.

Fans could then support the federation or the women themselves directly, or indeed the websites or other sponsors that were funding the shows. The shows would be exclusively female, allowing them the time to have different weight or age classes, amateur and pro contests at the same show, three-minute routines, and even added attractions like strength shows. In short, all the good stuff can follow.

So perhaps there will be a silver lining to the cloud hanging over the sport. Perhaps in the future female bodybuilding historians will look back at the cancellation of the Ms International and see it as the point when the women took control and started doing it for themselves. I sincerely hope so anyway.

What female bodybuilding needs now is it’s own Billie-Jean King to step up…

Ms International: Voices of Protest

I find it a complete tragedy that this can even be allowed to happen. Bodybuilding has been a huge part of my life and I would not be the person I am today had it not been for such an awesome sport. The dedication, the work, the blood, the sweat, the tears, all taught me about discipline, which can be taken forward in all aspects of your life. Bodybuilding to me, is and always should be exactly what it says on the box, BODYBUILDING!! To take this away from women is a disgrace and an insult to all those women all over the world, who have trained for years to achieve their absolutely awesome physiques.
Marion Nobile (Bulgaria)

I’ve been plugging the petition in support of female bodybuilding all week. At the time of writing, over 800 female bodybuilders and supporters of the sport have signed it. If you haven’t already done so and care about the way female bodybuilding and the female bodybuilder is being degraded, please do. And if I can’t inspire you to sign it, maybe others who have can…

Wendy Watson

I am a proud female body builder and cannot believe we are not considered athletes like the men in this sport. This is bigger than bodybuilding though. Its about equality in sports. We have been told we aren’t popular because we look to manly. They want sexier females like bikini. I didn’t realize the sport was for sale and we have become just like the WWE… fake and entertainment for men who like T&A in between their big men. We have fans, we are athletes and we deserve respect as athletes of the same calibre. If you’re rewarding men for only developing half their body in physique, you have this sport all twisted. You not only have disrespected the real female athletes but also have done a disservice to the sport of bodybuilding. It’s too bad society’s stereotypes of what we as women should look like seem to have influenced this sport. Being determined, disciplined and dedicated shouldn’t be considered unappealing. Our fans don’t think that and its a shame those in our own sport do. I for one will never attend another Arnold.

I love women’s bodybuilding. They have the right to do what they love. I watch more female then male bodybuilding and I’ve been a fan since 8 years old on ESPN. Trends will come and go but please keep the ladies. The men all look the same and have no personality. To save bodybuilding we need our iron women.
Damon Gardiner (USA)

I am good friends with a woman who last year competed in a couple of contests and she was coached by an IFBB professional female bodybuilder (and one of the very top female bodybuilders in the world). I’d hate to see their opportunities to compete be limited. More so when it comes to a contest run by and named after Arnold Schwarzenegger and centred around bodybuilding. The Arnold Sports Festival has room for 45 sports and events but for some unknown reason it can’t seem to fit in one of the two main sports (men’s and women’s bodybuilding) at the event. When it comes to the women’s side of the sport is the IFBB the International Federation of Bodybuilding or is it the International Federation of Physique, Figure, Fitness and Bikini?
Greg Nicolson (Australia)

Samantha Bourassa

I have been a competitive female bodybuilder for 5 years. It’s a part of who I am & my identity as an athlete & as a woman. I would be very sad to never be able to go on stage & do bodybuilding poses again!

It’s bodybuilding at its purest form and is no different than male bodybuilding. Restricting women from reaching their true bodybuilding potential is frankly sexist and regressive. The sport is built on pushing limits, breaking barriers, and building the perfect body. Social restrictions don’t belong in the sport. Telling a bodybuilder to stop building muscle and stop lifting heavy in the gym is like telling a track star to slow down to win the race.
Sean Clay (USA)

Branka Njegovec

I compete… and wanted [the] A[rnold] C[lassic] to be my first pro show next year.

Female bodybuilding has already been insulted enough by the vast difference in prize money and sponsorship, removing it entirely to put in another mens category is completely sexist and repressive. FBBs have plenty of fans and women who are aspiring to be competitive bodybuilders so the reasoning “keeping with demands of our fans” is utter BS, the fans want the Ms. International women’s bodybuilding competition to stay alive and stronger than ever!
Deidre Gerber (South Africa)

I’m a writer and photographer who specializes in FBB. To drop them from competition is a terrible example of gender discrimination.
Bill Dobbins (USA)

Johanna Dejager

I spent almost 20 years of my life dedicated to bodybuilding and finally got my pro status. I believe in and support women’s bodybuilding and so do many others. Being different is good…

The category of female bodybuilding is still the category with the highest number of fans. Perhaps the federations don’t read the forums and don’t make polls to understand… I can say with great confidence that the federations are committing a serious error of judgement to eliminate or drastically reduce this category. I hope that this petition will be taken into consideration by federations, otherwise I hope the bodybuilding athletes will come together to create a new federation.
Roberto Bianchi (Italy)

Judy Gaillard

I have been a competitive female bodybuilder for almost 20 years. FBB has laid the foundation for female athletes today. Its such a shame to just dismiss this part division of the sport.

I think this is one of the most important petitions I’ve signed. I know many female bodybuilders, and they are among the most dedicated and hard-working people that I’ve ever had the pleasure to encounter. I support them 100%.
Jerry Brainum (USA)

Female bodybuilding is and has Ben a cornerstone of bodybuilding and from the days of Rachael, Cory and Bev along with Tanya and Laura to Iris we have grown to love these female super stars and feel that it would be a grave injustice to omit female bodybuilding from the shows. This needs to be reconsidered and put forth for voting not just made as an arbitrary decision. We male bodybuilders amateur and pro enjoy our female counterparts and would hate to see anything chsnged
Frank Ferry (USA)

Helle Nielsen

Bodybuilding is a great sport! I’m a female pro bodybuilder and I would like to have the opportunity to show off the physique/statue I’ve built through 20 years. I know that I motivate and inspire others, please let me and my colleagues continue to do so. I know female bodybuilding has many fans. There are many categories, who can say which one is more important? We all have something to add. Yes, we do not look mainstream, but that’s not the idea of bodybuilding. Bodybuilding is extreme, but it is the extreme that be-wows and be-dazzles and leaves the audience with jaws dropping! Let’s keep the “wild” side of the sport! 🙂

The only reason I go to any bodybuilding show is because of the female bodybuilders. I’m a huge fan of female bodybuilders. They inspired me to work out that much harder. I try to improve on my body each year that I get to see them. Without the female bodybuilders, I wouldn’t be interested in bodybuilding at all.
De Wayne Shirley (USA)

Angela Dupuis August 2008 v August 2012

I found the strength within myself to carve a path free of anti-depressants, abusive men, and pent up anger. I have competed twice now as a bodybuilder and will go to Nationals this year. The trickle down effect will eventually exclude a woman from the possibility of knowing just how strong she can be. Not just in the gym, mentally. This is the most difficult sport in this industry mentally-wise. Living at 5-6% bodyfat, while working, raising kids, and contributing to society is a task that demands you dig deeper within yourself than you ever thought you could. I respect the women who grace the Arnold stage, and without them, my life would have been radically different. Women should have the choice to walk that path. Do not deny us at lower levels the opportunity to be more than we ever thought we could be.

The Ms International is the 2nd most prestigious FBB show behind the Ms Olympia. Many female athletes have sacrificed to become pro IFBB bodybuilders and if the Ms International is allowed to die, it will be not only the first nail in the coffin of women’s bodybuilding, but the careers of many tremendous women athletes as well.
Charles Franco (USA)

The women BBers work as hard as the men, are as dedicated as the men, and are as deserving as the men of both recognition and opportunities to compete/demonstrate their hard/beautiful work. They are also capable of and have the right to make the decision about whether to compete as a BB or in some other category without that decision being forced upon them by some officious bastard bureaucrat.
Jeff Maurer (USA)

Emery Miller

It’s all I have and have given the last 16 years of my life for.

Inspired yet?

Sign the petition, or if you have done so already, why not really have some fun and make a nuisance of yourself by contacting the IFBB directly?

International Federation of Bodybuilding & Fitness (IFBB)
2875 Bates Road, Montreal, Quebec, Canada H3S 1B7
tel: (from the UK) 001-514-731-3783
fax: (from the UK) 001-514-731-7082
e-mail: info@ifbb.com

Ms International: 1997-1998 Yolanda Hughes

Back in 1984, two-time Ms International winner Yolanda Hughes was practising gymnastics in a gym in Kentucky when a pro wrestler called Hillbilly Jim (no, really) asked her if she would be interested in competing in bodybuilding. I trained for four weeks and I placed second. I thought that was good for not knowing what I was doing. The contest was the 1984 NPC Iron Maiden.

A successful amateur career followed, though by her own admission, I just kind of fooled around with it until I started winning the national championships and then I took it serious. Then, after winning the IFBB World Championships in 1992, Yolanda turned pro.

Her Ms International titles came in 1997 and 1998. I was living abroad at the time, but I can remember the shows being reported in WPW and other muscle magazines, and marvelling at Yolanda – beautiful, tall, athletic – and particularly her legs, not so much the size of them, but those thighs that seemed to go on forever.

However, it wasn’t until the internet came around, and clips of female bodybuilding shows past started to appear on youtube, that I really appreciated why Yolanda had been dubbed ‘The Queen of Mobile Muscle’. To really see Yolanda at her best, you have to watch her move.

And thankfully, Yolanda was competing at a time when women were given enough time for their routines. A time when gymnastics, dance and posing all combined to make a unique style of performance. And, I think you’ll agree, there were few better than Yolanda at using that time. Watch and wonder, but also listen to the crowd’s reaction as you enjoy her routine at the 1997 Ms I.

She retired shortly after her Ms I wins, and appeared, very briefly, in the 2001 re-make of ‘Rollerball’ as ‘Red Team #28’, blink and you will miss her). That was a great experience. Had a blast! Thought that I wanted to pursue that career. But the Hollywood life wasn’t for her. I went out to L.A. and changed my mind. It was just being that I was so different. Being muscular, a woman of color. They were saying ‘you’re way too big.’ Just dealing with the superficialness, I decided I didn’t want to do that.

However, while in Los Angeles, she had taken a pole dancing class. So what did Yolanda do next? Well, she settled in Washington state with her husband, and she opened a studio called Fitness Exotica, offering classes such as Cardio Striptease, Booty Camp, Sexy Flexy, and, of course, Pole Dancing 101.

There is nothing like seeing women who come in who are inhibited, seeing them blossoming. Seeing the confidence they gain. That’s rewarding for me, she says. The girls learn how to do tricks on the poles, which is lifting your own body weight, which is a great way to get fit, because it is dead weight. It is like doing pull-ups. You learn how to dance. You put the combination of dancing and the pole together. Five minutes of dancing and doing pole tricks is a real cardio workout. It takes a lot of core strength and upper back and arms. It’s really a good workout. It’s fun, a sense of freedom. Liberating! For women to really just own their own power.

With the benefit of hindsight, it’s not hard to see why Hillbilly Jim believed that Yolanda had potential in the female muscle game. Here’s to Mr Jim, for without his intervention, the glory of Yolanda may have never been realised. And here’s to Yolanda, and all the other female bodybuilders, past present and future, who truly own their own power.

Sign the petition and support female bodybuilding.

Information on Yolanda and her fitness studio here and here

Ms International: Did You Know…? [Part 2]

…in its 28-year history, there have been 12 different Ms Internationals.

Over the same period, there have been nine Ms Olympias. Three women have held both titles at the same time, the first to do so being Kim Chizevsky in 1996. The feat was not repeated until Yaxeni Oriquen won both in 2005. You can probably guess that Iris Kyle completes the list, and is the only woman to have won both titles in the same year more than once.

In fact, Iris has been the reigning Ms International and Ms Olympia SIX times! She first did the double in 2004, repeating it every year since with the exception of 2005, when she didn’t compete, 2008 – more about that shortly – and last year, when she didn’t compete due to injury. On each occasion that she hasn’t won the Ms I during this period, Yaxeni has won it instead.

…even Iris gets the blues.

Or to be more precise, the ‘bumps’.

As noted above, Iris’ record at the Ms International since 2004 is pretty much flawless. She either isn’t there or she wins. But in 2008, Iris was very much there, and what happened to Iris at the Ms I that year is right up there with the Paula Bircumshaw saga (see Sunday’s post) as an example of just how bizarre the world of top female bodybuilding can be.

Iris was shocked to find herself not only out of the top 1, but out of the top 6, specifically in 7th place. Some time after the contest she said, I’m still quite puzzled. From the judges standpoint, I have received no feedback leaving me with thousands of unanswered questions to this day. I made a couple of calls but I couldn’t get through to who I would love to speak to.

Only later did one of the judges reveal where Iris had lost her title. In a radio interview, head judge Sandy Ranalli confirmed a rumour that ‘bumps’ were responsible for Iris’ placing. Her shoulders were a little bit, you know, distorted. There were distortions in her glute area, she said. At this level of competition, [there is] not a big difference between athletes, those things come into play. It was the distortion.

Now, take a look at these images from the show. Do you see any ‘distortions’?

I think what the judges were talking about were her muscles, but let’s say that they were right. If they had felt she was so grotesquely ‘distorted’, why didn’t they place her last? If they felt the ‘distortions’ were somehow the result of some kind of foul play, why didn’t they disqualify her? Why, to those judges on that day, was the ultimate sanction that occurred to them to place her 7th? Out of the money. Just.

Ah, the wonder of IFBB female bodybuilding judging truly never ceases to amaze! How many other sports do you know where the rules or criteria for success are not only constantly being rewritten, but are often rewritten during the contest they relate to. It’s almost as if the IFBB are trying to make a farce of female bodybuilding. After all, does this happen in any of the other events at their shows?

I don’t think you need me to answer that.

…heavyweights always win.

In the same way that having different weight classes came and went out of fashion at the Ms Olympia in roughly the same period, there were lightweight and heavyweight classes at the Ms International from 2000 to 2005.

At the Ms O in 2001, Juliette Bergmann, a lightweight, defeated Iris Kyle for the overall title, but at the Ms I, the heavyweights won every time. Brenda Raganot and Dayana Cadeau both lost out twice in the overall posedown; Brenda to Vickie Gates in 2000, and Yaxeni in 2005; Dayana to Vickie in 2001, and to Iris in 2004. In addition, lightweights Valentina Chepiga in 2002 and Cathy Le François the following year both lost out to heavyweight Yaxeni.

I can’t help feeling that the whole thing became a lot less interesting after the end of the different weight classes. Although it’s very uncommon for a lightweight to beat a heavyweight, at least there are two winners, two contests, two posedowns and then an extra posedown at the end to decide the overall title. More variety for the spectator, more opportunity for the women not blessed with the genetic gifts of the likes of Vickie Gates and Iris Kyle to have their moment. Now we are faced with the prospect of absolutely no bodybuilding classes at all, the days of the weight classes seem all the rosier.

…25 years is a long time.

If the Arnold Sports Festival and the Ms International were married, they’d have celebrated their silver anniversary in 2013. When the union began, George Bush was replacing Ronald Reagan as US President, Ayatollah Khomeini had just placed a $3m bounty on Salman Rushdie’s head, and Hungary had just started dismantling its border with Austria, heralding the end of the ‘Iron Curtain’.

Jackie Paisley was the first Ms International crowned in Columbus Ohio.

25 years later, George Bush’s son has been and gone from the White House, Khomeini is dead, though Rushdie lives, and Hungary, along with most of the other countries once behind the ‘Iron Curtain’, is a member of the European Union along with its former ‘capitalist enemies’.

Iris Kyle won what was quite possibly the last Ms International to be held at the Arnold Sports Festival, though we hope that she will not be the last Ms International of all.

Maybe it is time for a change, perhaps a big change in the way professional female bodybuilding is run. But more of that later in the week.

Sign the petition and make your voice heard.

And enjoy this and other Ms International action from recent years on jlelmariachi’s youtube channel

Ms International: 1988 Cathey Palyo

Continuing our week devoted to the endangered Ms International contest with the 1988 champion Cathey Palyo because, well, why not? I mean, just look at her!

Muscular and gorgeous, Cathey was a fixture in the mainstream muscle media during her short but glorious career, and without doubt one of my favourite bodybuilders from the early days of my female muscle lovin’ life.

I remember this issue of Flex very clearly, Cathey’s beautiful body screaming out at me from the cover. And inside, pages of her to drool over. Kind of makes you nostalgic for the days when muscle magazines did feature female bodybuilders, doesn’t it? Days when the female side of the sport wasn’t under the kind of fire it has to put up with now.

Or was it? It’s easy to look back on the late 80s and early 90s as ‘The Golden Years’, to wish that it could be now as it was then. But beware. The IFBB have been dictating what a female bodybuilder should be since before Cathey’s time. The scan above is from an article in an old issue of Musclemag, presumably from between 1985 and 1988 because that was when Cathey was active. It begins: ‘With the IFBB encouraging breast augmentation…’

Fortunately, Cathey was having none of it. It continues: ‘… many women bodybuilders are resorting to implants, but Cathey Palyo, for one, feels implants are not for her. Here she outlines her chest training program and encourages all women to get a big chest the old-fashioned way – earn it!’

And she was as good as her word on that front.

As I said, I’d never forgotten Cathey, but researching this post led me to find how much more there was to admire about her than the perfect body and the perfect face. Her stance on the breast augmentation issue is only one of a number of discoveries that have made me wonder whether my admiration for her, and other women of the era, might have been even greater than it already was if I had spent more time actually reading the articles that accompanied the pictures.

But, in my defence…

Cathey’s win at the Ms International in 1988 was the pinnacle of her brief but stellar career. She started competing in 1985 and just a year later won pretty much everything she entered. The NPC Tournament of Champions was followed by the NPC contest in her home state of California. Then she won the NPC USA and IFBB World Amateur titles, finishing 1986 as NPC National champion.

After just one appearance on stage in 1987 at the Ms Olympia, where she finished 14th, she competed three more times, all in 1988. Her win at the Ms International was by far the highlight, seeing off the likes of Sandy Riddell, Jackie Paisley and Della Wagnon. After a 4th place at the Pro World Championship and a 16th at the Ms Olympia, Cathey put an end to her competitive career.

According to an article about the (then) forthcoming Ms Olympia in the Los Angeles Times in 1988, Cathey did it all for the love of training, freely admitting ‘I know I’m a freak’. Perhaps she decided that earning such little prize money as a pro was scant reward for her efforts. Although she was reportedly the third highest earner in the sport in 1988, she had made just $7,500. Perhaps she saw the signs of what was happening in the sport and wasn’t prepared to put up with the way the IFBB liked to dictate their own vision of a female bodybuilder onto the sport. Perhaps I’m way off and it had nothing to do with any of this.

Nevertheless, I’m glad she did have her moment in the female muscle sun.

I’ll leave you with this, my personal favourite quote of hers, from an interview in an issue of Musclemag…

When people ask me if I lift weights, I tell them “No, I just play a LOT of tennis.”

Celebrate the Ms International some more with us tomorrow…

But don’t forget to sign the petition!

Ms International: Did You Know…? [Part 1]

…the first ever Ms International was held in 1986.

The field included legends such as Kay Baxter, Sue Ann McKean, Penny Price and Anita Gandol, as well as Juliette Bergmann and Bev Francis. The winner, however, was none of the above. The first woman to win the title of Ms International was Erika Geisen.

Who?

Though born in Germany, Erika competed for Australia. She had made her pro debut in 1983 and was crowned Miss Asia. She finished 11th at the Olympia the same year as her Miss I win. She competed once more at the Ms International, in 1988, and came sixth.

…in 1988 there were two Ms Internationals.

The IFBB had sanctioned the first Ms International, but in 1987 it took place under the auspices of the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU), and there was no IFBB contest of that name. The following year, however, both the IFBB and the AAU organised contests called ‘Ms International’.

left: Cathey Palyo, IFBB Ms International 1988

right: Cathy Butler Corish, AAU Ms International 1988

The IFBB show was a pro-am event (as it had been in 1986), while the AAU’s version was just for amateurs. The 1988 IFBB Ms International was Cathey Palyo (more about Cathey later in the week, which should be exciting news for anybody who remembers her!) while the AAU Ms International was won by Cathy Butler.

…Tonya Knight competed at the Ms I in 1988 and 1989 but you won’t find her listed in the results.

At the 1989 Olympia, Tonya had somebody else take her drug test for her, and was consequently stripped of her placing and prize money at the two previous Ms International shows. Naughty girl!

However, she made a triumphant return to the Ms I in 1991, when she claimed the title, seeing off Anja Schreiner, Shelley Beattie, Debbie Muggli, Marie Mahabir, Sue Gafner et al (talk about a QUALITY line-up, that’s just the top 6!).

…Paula Bircumshaw showed the Ms I judges her middle finger in 1992.

You probably do know about this, I’ve actually noted this event before
(see Real Iron Ladies).

The judges gave the title to the extremely marketable German beauty Anja Schreiner – not the first or last time there has been a controversial winner of a female bodybuilding show – but it was the shenanigans to prevent the crowd’s favourite Paula Bircumshaw retake the stage for the presentations that led to the audience riot and Paula’s unique message (as far as I know, I’m sure there’s been plenty of women who’ve wanted to give the judges the bird, but as far as I’m aware Paula’s the only one who’s actually done it).

Guessing (correctly as it turned out) that the crowd would be up in arms when the winner was announced, the judges changed the rules during the competition with the sole purpose of preventing Paula from retaking the stage. Instead of inviting the top 10 back for the presentations (as had been customary in previous contests), they only called the top 6 back. No one was fooled as to their motives, and amid the consequent outcry, Paula did in fact come back and let the judges know what she thought.

Sometimes I’m so proud to be British!

Don’t forget to sign the petition to keep the Ms International as part of the Arnold Sports Festival. More MsInformation (couldn’t resist) tomorrow!

Meanwhile, how about a little more of our heroine…

Ms International: Sign the Petition

If you haven’t already heard, on 6th June the organisers of the Arnold Sports Festival announced that next year the Ms International will not be staged there.

The Arnold Classic 212 will replace the Ms. International women’s bodybuilding competition at the Arnold Sports Festival. The Ms. International was part of the Arnold Sports Festival for 25 years, with Iris Kyle winning her record seventh title in 2013.

“The Arnold Sports Festival was proud to support women’s bodybuilding through the Ms. International for the past quarter century,” [promoter Jim] Lorimer said. “But in keeping with demands of our fans, the time has come to introduce the Arnold Classic 212 beginning in 2014.”

Whatever “212” is, I don’t think me and you are going to like it quite as much as we like Iris, Yaxeni, Debi and all the other great competitors, past and present.

Seriously though, as a fan of female bodybuilding, I am proper outraged, and thankfully, I’m not the only one. On Tuesday, the mighty Area Orion posted a link for a petition organised by Real Female Bodybuilding against the decision.

It reads:

Please support the sport of female bodybuilding – if the Ms International is allowed to die without a murmur of protest then it is likely that female bodybuilding and female physique competitions will also disappear from the world’s sporting agenda forever. This is unfair, sexist, and will have a detrimental effect on all female muscle sports from powerlifting to fitness and bikini competitions. The latter will simply become beauty competitions of the kind we thought had died out decades ago. Arnold Schwarzenegger – the figurehead of the IFBB – built his life and considerable fortune on bodybuilding and it is only fair that female bodybuilders be given the same opportunity.

Time to stand up and be counted folks.

In many other sports around the world, the women’s game is being promoted and encouraged, often using funds generated by the men. Only in bodybuilding is the federation that pretends to promote the sport actively discouraging female participation. How they can continue to call themselves the International Federation of BODYBUILDING is beyond me. It’s not only outrageous, but also craps all over the work of the pioneers of female bodybuilding, without whom there would be no physique, figure or bikini classes at all.

Sign the petition.

Save the Miss International

Thighs of the Day: The Elite

Twelve elite thighs (and other bits) from the top 6 at the recent Miss International.

left: Angela Debatin (6th), right: Cathy Le François (5th)

left: Brigita Brezovac (4th), right: Debi Laszewski (3rd)

left: Yaxeni Oriquen (2nd), right: Iris Kyle (1st)

Want more elite thighs and bodies? You could do worse than check out jlelmariachi’s youtube channel, where the descriptions are almost as good as the images and the biggest and best in professional bodybuilding get the ‘Mariachi’ treatment…
Over and over again.

Thighs of the Day concludes tomorrow.