Olympia 2014 Review: The Winners

It wasn’t just Iris Kyle who repeated her 2013 victory. I kind of wish I’d done a post with all five of the Olympia winners last year because if I had, I could have largely done a simple cut and paste job this time around! But although three of the winners across the five divisions were the same as last year, two women, neither of them American, were winning Olympia titles for the first time. Here they all are…

BIKINI: ASHLEY KALTWASSWER (USA)

left to right: Yeshaira Robles (4th), India Paulino (6th), Janey Layug (2nd), Ashley Kaltwasser, Stacey Alexander (3rd), Amanda Latona (5th).

A former school and college athlete in her native Ohio, Ashley was inspired to compete by her former high school track coach, who had been a figure competitor. She is trained by Summer Montabone, who was herself a former fitness competitor.

She’s two for two at the Olympia, making the 25-year-old Ashley the first woman to take the Bikini Olympia title twice. This was her fifth competition of the year, and her fourth win – she finished 2nd in New York (to Yeshaira Robles).

Ashley says: It totally makes my day when someone lets me know that I inspire them. It makes all of the hard work so worth while! I enjoy being an ambassador for the sport. 2x Bikini Olympia Champion… I like the sound of that!

FIGURE: NICOLE WILKINS (USA)

left to right: Gennifer Strobo (6th), Ann Titone (4th), Candice Keene (2nd), Nicole Wilkins, Candice Lewis (3rd), Latorya Watts (5th).

An inspiration to FMS‘ favourite “Normal Person”, Emily Chorley, it’s our pleasure to feature Nicole here, the champ in a division that, quite honestly, I don’t usually pay that much attention to. Given my surprise at the amount of muscle Nicole and many of her fellow competitors displayed on stage in Vegas, that may be about to change!

This was Nicole’s fourth Figure Olympia win, which is a record, but certainly not her first record by any means. Ever since her early years of competition, breaking records has been her business. She was the first woman ever to win titles in two divisions at the same pro qualifying event – Figure and Fitness champ at the 2007 Team Universe. She was the youngest ever winner of the Figure Olympia, aged 25 in 2009, and the first Figure competitor to win FIVE pro events in the same year (2011). She retained her Olympia titles in 2011 and 2013 (the first woman to retain the title twice, of course!), and now, aged 30, this former gymnast from Michigan is the first to win four.

Nicole says: To be successful you have to be willing to do whatever it takes. You have to put your heart and soul into it and be willing to make sacrifices. You have to be dedicated and push yourself past your comfort level. Only until then, until you want it more than just “kinda”, will you be amazed at what you can accomplish.

FITNESS: OKSANA GRISHINA (Russia)

left to right: Fiona Harris (6th), Bethany Cisternino (4th), Regiane Da Silva (2nd), Oksana Grishina, Tanji Johnson (3rd), Myriam Capes (5th).

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, what I know about the Fitness division I know because of Oksana Grishina. And now that serial Fitness Olympia winner Adela Garcia has retired, Oksana could be set to dominate for many years to come.

As with the Figure division, this year’s Olympia definitely gave me a new level of appreciation for the Fitness competitors. For some unknown reason it had never occurred to me before just how difficult it must be for them to perform their amazing routines while their bodies are so depleted. And no other competitor, it seems to me, can ever match Oksana’s routines. This one was no exception, with Bodybuilding.com writer Cassie Smith suggesting that it was good enough to take her to victory after she’d been judged only 4th or 5th in the first, “physique”, round.

I reckon you’ll like Oksana backstage before her routine on Flex Online.

Oksana says: I still feel compelled to try to improve as an athlete… to do better, to be better. Competition is in my blood and I am a perfectionist. I love to compete against the best athletes in the world and I hope, through my performances and my hard work, to leave a lasting impression on the professional fitness world and be an inspiration for future fitness competitors.

PHYSIQUE: JULIANA MALACARNE (Brazil)

left to right: Karina Nascimento (4th), Dana Linn Bailey (2nd), Juliana Malacarne, Tycie Coppett (3rd), Sabrina Taylor (5th).

Dana Linn Bailey and Juliana Malacarne standing side-by-side in stark comparison was the moment for which everyone had been waiting. It would be worth the price of admission, a genuine competitive race for a coveted title, is how Steve Wennerstrom described the aptly-named Women’s Physique Showdown, and even a hardened old female bodybuilding fan like me has to admit that the best competition at the 2014 Olympia was provided by these two amazing women.

And even the most ardent Dana Linn Bailey fan had to admit that La Malacarne had the beating of her this time. In a sport where so often the fans feel the judges got it wrong, no one has argued that Juliana wasn’t worth her $15,000 first place.

She spent her early 30s as a figure competitor with quote too much muscle unquote, rarely in the top 10, and often outside the top 15. How times have changed! As soon as the Physique division was created she started winning pro titles, and now, aged 40, she has become, I think I’m right in saying, the first ever Brazilian Olympia winner.

Watch the denouement of Dana Linn and Juliana’s battle here.

And, by the way, can anyone tell me why, when you have a top 6 in every other division, you only get a top 5 called out for the final posedown in Physique?

BODYBUILDING: IRIS KYLE (USA)

left to right: Anne Freitas (6th), Alana Shipp (4th), Alina Popa (2nd), Iris Kyle, Debi Laszewski (3rd), Yaxeni Oriquen (5th).

Should Kyle decide to compete for another dozen years, Steve Wennerstrom wrote, after Iris won her first Ms O in 2004, the mind boggles at what she may accomplish. 

Well, it turned out not to be a dozen years, but what Iris has accomplished did turn out to be mind-boggling. On top of her seven Ms International titles, this was her ninth Ms Olympia win in a row, and her tenth in total. And with the medal around her neck, before the ink had fully dried on the judges scorecards, Iris Kyle announced her retirement from competition on the stage she has dominated for over a decade.

And sadly, this final act of a great champion (perhaps the greatest ever champion in not just female bodybuilding, but the whole of bodybuilding) may well be, if the reaction to the news among many so-called “fans” of the sport is anything to go by, the most popular thing she has ever done.

She deserves better. MUCH better. So we’ll say no more about it right now, but later in the week FMS will be giving some (long overdue) BIG BIG love to Iris Kyle.

For now, we’ll just say congratulations to Iris and to all the Olympia winners!

"My Olympia": Contributions Wanted!

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.

Looking forward to hearing from you,
6ft1swell

Glamour of the Day

Apparently, it’s Nataliya versus Oksana in the fight to become the next Bond girl…

FMS favourite Nataliya Romashko, from Boyarka in Ukraine, has won national titles in bodybuilding, powerlifting, weightlifting, tug-of-war and Dragon Boat racing (really). Nataliya says, A woman in any field of activity should be beautiful. We think she meets that criteria, don’t you?

Oksana Grishina, is originally from Kaliningrad (the Russian enclave between Lithuania and Poland), where she developed her own ballet while at university, and later worked as a choreographer with children at the Tchaikovsky School of Music and Art. She made her film debut last year in Hero of the Day.

Who does your vote go to?

Hot and Hard: Larissa and…

Is it me or does everybody want to get a picture with Larissa Reis?

Larissa and… Heather Dees

Larissa and… Ingrid Romero (left) and Laurie Schnelle (right)

Larissa and… Jessica Scofield

Larissa and… Natalia Melo

Larissa and… Maria Luis Baeza

Larissa and… Katka Kyptova (left) and Nanda Croft (right)

Larissa and… Monica Martin

Larissa and… Oksana Grishina

Unfortunately, despite evidence to the contrary, Larissa herself can’t be in every picture. But the good news is you can now take Larissa everywhere you go with this new T-shirt. Never be without Larissa in your photos again! Details on her website.

And if any of you lovely readers can identify any of the women with Larissa that I haven’t been able to, please let me know who they are.

Enjoy! Hot and Hard Week concludes tomorrow.

Hot and Hard

I don’t know what the weather is like where you are, but here in the UK it is beginning to seem like this winter will never end. Snow and freezing temperatures have given way to rain that comes at you horizontally in howling winds and temperatures that are, well, just a little above zero. And now the snow’s back again.

It’s all rather depressing.

Meanwhile, as always, FMS has been collecting images from around the internet for the occasional Hot and Hard series of posts, gorgeous women, leaner than full-on bodybuilders, who have nevertheless got more than enough muscle to satisfy.

So, we’re freezing cold, we need cheering up, and we have a folder overflowing with images of hot and hard women. Can you tell where this is leading?

Welcome to Hot and Hard Week!

What makes this XXL winter XXL annoying for me is that as spring approaches I always wonder whether this will be the breakthrough year, the year when British womanhood shed the winter layers of jackets and jumpers to reveal they have spent the entire winter pumping iron and eating right. The year when a toned female arm on the streets of the UK will become an everyday sight, rather than a rarity.

Every year I’m equally optimistic, despite all past experience telling me it’ll never happen. Imagine a man who’s never won a penny on the lottery, but keeps buying his ticket. It’s not because he’s convinced he’ll win, but until he’s found out the dream hasn’t come true, he enjoys the possibility that it might.

But our man would soon lose interest if the lottery draw never happened, and that’s how I’m starting to feel about the spring layer-shedding. You can’t enjoy the anticipation forever. And this winter seems to have gone on forever.

What came first – the hot women or the hot climate? Are hot women drawn to places with hot climates, or are hot climates the result of concentrations of hot women? There certainly seem to be more of them in places like California and Florida, not to mention Brazil, but if I take that logic to its conclusion, the hottest women in the world would be in Saudi Arabia or thereabouts, and we’re never going to find out if that’s true, are we?

Nevertheless, could a critical mass of these Hot and Hard women serve to change the weather? Perhaps if all of the women we’re posting today stood in the middle of Britain (which is around a village in Lancashire called Dunsop Bridge, by the way) the temperature might rise. Call me mad if you like, but the temperature of the men of Dunsop Bridge would certainly rise. It might be worth a try.

Of course it’s climate change that’s responsible for the colder winters the UK is experiencing, and more generally it’s responsible for more extreme weather across he globe. Unless you’re a Chinese industrialist, you probably try to do your bit to make sure your carbon footprint isn’t doing more damage than necessary.

Hot and hard women are no exception. A number of bigger and more environmentally-conscious gyms are already harnessing the incredible energy these women have, recycling it through the exercise equipment they use back into the gym’s power supply.

It’s very simple really, explains John Smith of The Big Green Gym in Brighton. Every rep on a cable machine, for example, produces a small amount of power through the friction created when the weights rise and fall. Enough people doing enough reps on enough machines and you can basically save enough power to light the gym, so you’re not taking any electricity from the grid.

So, the members get a workout, the gym saves on energy bills, and less power is consumed and wasted. Everybody wins. And according to Smith, it’s the higher-rep workouts that do the most good. The big boys tend to lift big, heavy free weights, and we haven’t worked out how to harness that energy yet. The women tend to use the machines more, and while they may lift less weight, they do so for a greater number of reps, he says. So they’re the ones doing the most good for the environment.

Perhaps, then, hot and hard women really can help us to control the weather, if only by doing their bit to ensure we don’t do more damage to the environment than we already have. They might not be able to improve the weather, but they are assisting in the fight against it getting even more extreme than it is already.

And anyway, no matter where you are and no matter what the weather is like there, haven’t these images of gorgeous muscular women raised your temperature? Isn’t it a little bit higher than when you were at the top of the page?

The temperature will continue to rise tomorrow. Get your Hawaiian shirts ready.

Beauty of the Day

To him she seemed so beautiful, so seductive, so different from ordinary people, that he could not understand why no one was as disturbed as he by the clicking of her heels on the paving stones, why no one else’s heart was wild with the breeze stirred by the sighs of her veils, why everyone did not go mad with the movements of her braid, the flight of her hands, the gold of her laughter. He had not missed a single one of her gestures, not one of the indications of her character, but he did not dare approach her for fear of destroying the spell…
Gabriel García Márquez

Oksana Grishina