A Nation - No, the WORLD - Sighs

The other week I was catching up on the clips in my YouTube subscription feed...

RENE CAMPBELL!!!

And it was new footage - 2016!!!

Now this was a very welcome and somewhat unexpected treat.

The last time we featured Rene on the blog was after a video that popped up on (of all places) The Guardian website, documenting Rene's rather unhappy experience competing in the US in 2015. The clip ended with news that she had experienced "physical difficulties" during that last show, and an emotional Rene reporting that she'd been told to "get rid of her muscles" for the good of her health.

With her social media and website all but put into storage, FMS feared the worst, but news came from a loyal reader that actually Rene was in very good health, The break from competition (and social media, no doubt) had done wonders. And she hadn't "got rid of her muscles", but, in the words of our reader, "looked amazing as ever".

Phew!

And now, here was new footage...

Our reader wasn't wrong. A-MAZING!



Did you watch to the very end?

The blurb on the clip on YouTube breaks the news equally suddenly.

Rene Campbell returns to fitvids.co.uk and looks insane! The final 'retirement' sessions with Rene as she prepares to compete for the last time...

When that will be I'm afraid I can't tell you. Chicago is this weekend, and, fittingly, it would see her bow out at the very place where she was due to compete when those "physical difficulties" had struck last year. I haven't seen a competitor list for the show though, so it could equally well be at the other remaining Female Bodybuilding events this year. In a couple of weeks' time there's the new "Lenda Murray Pro-Am" event, then there's Tampa in August, or perhaps, in what would also be a way for her to end her competitive career on a high, Rene's got an invite to the Rising Phoenix?



We'll wait till the fat lady - sorry, the muscular lady sings (and the posing suit gets hung up for the last time) before we pay our own (no doubt week-long) tribute to this exceptional British female bodybuilder. For now, you might want to head over to Rene's resurrected Facebook page to add your own voice to the tributes that have been flooding in from (men and women) around the world since news of her impending retirement broke. And Rene's even been having a good look back at her own career and her own experience of bodybuilding, and it's well worth a read.