Svensk Muskel: Historia

The FMS editor may still believe that I spent the best part of 2014 doing nothing more than "stalking" Sexy Sophie Arvebrink, but the truth is somewhat different. During my time in the land of ABBA and Volvos (and Sophie) I admit that, yes, I may have spent longer than was absolutely necessary locating and frequenting the very gym where the divine Ms Arvebrink trains, but I also took the opportunity to do some extensive research into Swedish female muscle both past and present.

I hope readers will enjoy the fruits of my labours as we spend our first week back in 2015 with Den Muskel Kvinnor i Sverige - The Muscle Women of Sweden.

6ft1Swell



HISTORIA

Who, I wondered, is the most successful Swedish female bodybuilder ever?




The first name and the first muscles that came to mind was Klaudia Larson and her once-seen-never-forgotten bicep peaks. Klaudia was active as a pro from about 2006, and she had a few top 3 finishes in big pro shows, but her beautiful physique never graced either the Ms International or Ms Olympia before her retirement in 2009.




So, thinking she must have fared better, I looked into the career of the self-styled "Viking" of Swedish female muscle, gorgeous Marika-ka-ka-ka Johansson. If success is measured in longevity, Marika certainly has Klaudia beat. In a decade-long amateur career, Marika's finest hour came at the Jan Tana Amateur (Jan Tana Amateur! - how times have changed!), where, one of four heavyweights, she won her class. She turned pro around 2005, but failed to place higher than 4th in any of her six pro outings.

If neither of the best-known, the most obvious candidates fitted the 'most successful ever' bill, and with the sole active Swedish female IFBB Pro Bodybuilder, Frida Palmell, now competing in Physique, clearly I needed to go further back.




I came across Birgitta (or Brigitta, or Gittan) Hallstrom (or Karlsson, or Karlsson-Hallstrom). As you can probably guess from the myriad names she is/has been known by, I didn't find a lot of information about her - and to be perfectly honest I'm not 100% sure that all of these names refer to the same woman! She appears to have been active from the late 1990s, and her muscle CV includes a Ms International appearance (1998). She is still, apparently, involved in Swedish bodybuilding. But in spite of my lack of definitive sources on Brigitta (/Birgitta/Gittan), I couldn't resist posting an image of this vision of old school muscular beauty - whatever her name may be!

I read around. Jesper Andreasson and Thomas Johansson's 1998 book, The Global Gym, told me that "In Sweden, interest in bodybuilding increased among women in the beginning of the 1980s". So I went back to that decade, and, unexpectedly (to me, anyway) it was there I found Sweden's champions of female muscle, Sweden's Ms Olympia contestants, and Sweden's most successful ever female bodybuilder.



One of only two Swedish women to win her class at the IFBB World Championships, Veronica Dahlin was the 1988 Middleweight champion. It was a obviously a vintage year - Laura Creavalle won the heavyweight class, Janet Tech the lightweight.

Even further back, two Olympia contestants whose names were new to me - Carina Johansson (who didn't place in 1984) and who, sadly, I haven't been able to find a single image of), and Lena Trulsson. Lena was the first ever Swedish woman to compete at the Ms O, in 1982, and, more happily, there are a couple of images of Lena out there, as well as a Strength & Health magazine cover from 1984.



And, best of all, I found the woman who has, I think, the best claim to be called the most successful Swedish female bodybuilder ever - Inger Zetterqvist.



A national level junior swimmer, Inger started bodybuilding in 1979. Two years later, she competed and finished fourth at the Swedish National Championships. She returned in 1983 and won the title. It was the start of a very good year for her.




She won the IFBB European heavyweight title, and then, at the first IFBB World Championships to feature the women, she repeated that feat. At the Ms Olympia, she finished 3rd (behind Carla Dunlap and Candy Csencsits) - by far the highest ever placing by a Swede, and still one of the ten best ever finishes by a European.



She never achieved such heights again, one more Olympia in 1984 (she finished 15th). Nevertheless, as far as the Swedish online bodybuilding resource Body.se is concerned, her Swedish Muscle Queen crown has never slipped. Although her career was unnecessarily short, and she has been extremely quiet since, she will remain in our memories. We hope that one day a new, similar talent will emerge in modern times. But will it be possible to beat Inger's record-breaking feats in 1983?



These days, of course, there's a lot less "bodybuilding" and a lot more other stuff. If the Swedish bodybuilding community is waiting for another female bodybuilder to match Inger, they may have a long wait. But having said that, it's undeniable that Sweden's got female muscle talent, and for the rest of the week we'll be meeting some of it. Njut!