Karen's XTC

In the course of putting together The Agony & the Ecstasy, FMS came across an image that so perfectly illustrates our point that we felt compelled to give it its own post.



The woman is Karen Smith. We know she is Canadian, and thanks to the all-knowing Muscle Memory, we were able to establish that it was taken during her routine at the Canadian Nationals in 1995. Karen was crowned the lightweight champion.



We know that in the same year she competed at the NPC North American Championships and finished 5th as a middleweight. She also appeared in WPW around that time. What happened after 1995 to Karen Smith, nobody seems to know.



If it's a biography of Karen Smith you're after, sorry to disappoint you. But, thanks to Karen and the photographer responsible, what we do have is a snapshot of her on stage that epitomises our pet theory (of the week!). It's so perfect, in fact, that if we had to give the photo a title, it'd be something like "The Ecstasy of the Female Bodybuilder".

Take a good long look for yourself.



There's no rush... Muscular beauty like this needs time to be appreciated. Her left shoulder (right as you look) curves out so beautifully, the muscle full and pumped. The pose ripples through her left pec muscle (right as you look), and what a joy her old school nothing-but-muscle chest is to behold! Look at the tendon at the top of her thigh, so pronounced as she flexes hard onto her right leg, flaring her glistening quad...

You probably don't need me to tell you where to look!

What I'm looking at is a woman in absolutely the best condition she can be in, but whether I think she is actually perfect or not is besides the point. What is important is what Karen thought, and especially what Karen was feeling on that stage in 1995.

The image, it seems to me, shows that Karen has fully realised what Tanya Bunsell calls 'the latent image in her mind’s eye', the vision she has of her body at its most perfect.



And how does it feel to realise that image?

She's smiling, her nostrils are flaring. Her eyes are closed.

I think we are looking at Karen's moment of ultimate ecstasy...

And whatever she did before or after that moment in 1995, at least we know that this (clearly) talented female bodybuilder had her moment. And thanks to the photographer, Karen's moment has been caught forever. Forever in ecstasy.



Unfortunately, there's no footage that we know of of Karen at this show, but you can watch her routine from the North Americans. She's not in quite the same peak shape (only strengthening our argument that the Canadians was her peak), but at least you can get a feeling for her considerable stage presence for sure. She's on from 0.38 for about thirty glorious seconds in this round-up of the winners on YouTube.

And if by some bizarre chance Karen Smith is out there somewhere today and is an FMS reader (and don't laugh, you'd be surprised by some of the women who do read us, I'm sure) then please, Karen, we would absolutely love to have you get in touch and tell us how we've got it all completely wrong about what you were feeling in this picture...

All our Karen Smith archive

Dedicated, with thanks, to C