OK, bit dramatic. I probably won't start tallying up until the weekend, but, you know, if you DO want to vote, do it sooner rather than later or you may end up finding your favourite hot and hard woman way down or, worse still, not on the list at all. A woman finishing 80th may have only two or three votes more than the woman in 101st.
Need inspiration?
Here are just some of the women who made their Hot and Hard 100 debuts last year.
I hope they have got your juices flowing, but not too much, because first you need to get some names down then send them quick snap to 6ft1swell@gmail.com or use the comment box below (or the comment box on any FMS post), whichever suits you.
Back in June 2013, FMS lent its support to a petition set up by the (then mighty) Real Female Bodybuilding in an attempt to save the Ms International. We urged you all to sign. Now I don't know how many of you eventually did, but on June 20th, five days after I had posted the link (which was a few more days than that since it had gone up), over 800 people had added their names to it. As we now know, it changed nothing.
Jim Lorimer, Arnold Classic promoter, had done what he could. Apparently he'd been accosted for years by fans demanding that the Ms International be replaced by a smaller Men's Bodybuilding class. He stoically put up with the continual harassment. But every man has his breaking point, and by 2013 Jim had finally reached his.
The Arnold Sports Festival was proud to support women’s bodybuilding through the Ms. International for the past quarter century. But in keeping with demands of our fans, the time has come to introduce the Arnold Classic 212 beginning in 2014.
Jim Lorimer
Tripe like that can only come from the mouth of a man who knows he can do whatever he wants. Despite the name and the face on the banner, it was and still is Jim's show.
It wasn't like he was excluding women completely.
Say hello to Beth Mandyck, the 56-year-old Ms Buffalo, centre shot above.
Beth won the Female Bodybuilding class at last year's show. Not the most competitive line-up you will ever see, but at 56, good on her. She's only been at it 3 years, and has thus far competed "exclusively" as a Bodybuilder. Closed fists for double biceps etc.
You may have heard of Beth. Jim Lorimer certainly has. She filed a gender discrimination complaint with the City of Columbus on January 5th in response to being told she couldn't register in a "Female Bodybuilding" class at the Arnolds.
His petition focuses on the fact that the Arnold Amateur is an NPC, not IFBB, event. The IFBB may have crossed Female Bodybuilding off their love list some time ago (even though the Wings of Strength shows are still held under the IFBB umbrella), but there are NPC shows with Female Bodybuilding, quite a few actually, and most of the national level events still include Female Bodybuilding classes, however small.
Cue more Lorimer tripe.
The IFBB discontinued the women's bodybuilding event in their program, he said in response to the "unfair" Mandyck complaint recently. So we felt that it was best to back away from that event. Women were getting so muscular and so into the development of their muscles that it was not at all aspirational for other women.
Apparently, Jim knows what women want.
Women like Aleesha Young, Kristine Mele, Melissa Fanning, and Susanna Hand. Women like Mary Cain, Brittney O'Veal, Pauline Nelson, and Theresa Ivancik. All have competed at NPC national level since the end of the Ms International. None, according to Lorimer, inspired by the competitors of the Ms Internationals past. Not the most recent ones anyway, with women "so into the development of their muscles that it was not at all aspirational". Not them. No way.
After two weeks the Mandyck petition has just reached 100 names. Hardly the most popular "bring back Female Bodybuilding" petition ever. It, and the gender discrimination complaint are, it has been pointed out elsewhere, a good few years too late. And so, if reports are to be believed, is Iris Kyle's support for it.
Jim's still talking like the man who can do whatever he wants.
As we saw yesterday, in 2016 Brazilians ruled the Arnold Amateur show in three of the four divisions without making much impression in the pro contest. A year later, and there may have been fewer Brazilian women on the amateur podium, but Brazilians could celebrate both the amateur Physique champion - Priscila Cavilha (above) - and a surprise new Ms Physique International - Daniely Castilho (below).
Following Juliana Malacarne's inaugural 2015 win, Daniely became the second Brazilian winner in the three years of the Physique International on her Arnold debut. With Juliana not bothering and Dani Reardon absent injured, the contest was pretty open I suppose, but there were few who expected a woman whose only previous pro outing had been to finish 5th in Puerto Rico the previous year to emerge victorious.
Still, a routine that Arnold himself decides is worth filming up close for his "personal collection" (talk about the perks of being the man) must be a routine with a chance of winning, and so it proved. And I don't think it's a bad thing if the Arnolds - for any of its "International" contests - throws up different winners to the Olympia. In 2017, this happened in three of the four divisions, and the show was more interesting for it.
YER MS INTERNATIONALS
Of course, the one division where no one expected or got a new champion was Fitness. Oksana was crowned for the fourth consecutive year - and possibly, it seems, for the last time. She's not on the competitor list currently available for this week's show, so the retirement announcement(s) she made last year should apparently be taken at face value, which makes this week's Fitness International a very hard contest to predict.
In Bikini, the 2016 runner-up Angelica Texeira, became the 2017 champion, and she went on to win her first Olympia title later in the year. And in a very high quality Figure line-up, the then reigning Ms Olympia Latorya Watts, rising star Cydney Gillon and the ever classy Candice Lewis-Carter were all in contention.
On this occasion, the judges were unanimous in giving it to Candice - (finally) Ms Figure International at her fifth attempt - with Cydney runner-up and Latorya in 3rd.
"The Freaky 3", as we like to call them here at FMS, would go heel-to-heel twice more over the course of 2017, soon after Columbus in Australia with Candice winning again, Latorya 2nd and Cydney 3rd; and ultimately at the Olympia, where Cydney won her first big title, Latorya 2nd and Candice 3rd. You'd be foolish to bet against the same top 3 again this week, though in what order is a much less easy call to make.
FIGURE PHENOMS
And while we're on the subject of Figure (now there's a sentence guaranteed to make a few of you exit the blog!), this may well have been the line-up that convinced FMS editorial that we should be paying a whole lot more attention to the division in general. Packed with gorgeous women with deliciously muscular physiques, it's incredible how far Figure has come since 2008 (our first post of this series) when you compare.
That is, of course, future Ms Figure International (and Olympia) Nicole Wilkins on the left, finishing 11th at the 2008 Arnolds - remember that back then there was also a "one-piece" round. On the right, Swann De La Rosa, 11th in 2017, not a "one-piece" in sight but plenty of ripped muscle. If only they'd let them flex just a little bit...
That would make dredging through the 600+ photos you can find at Eastlabs' gallery (of the amateur Figure classes and overall alone) even more exciting, though coming across gems like Argentina's Analía Galeano (3rd in her class, not the most balanced physique I grant you but what about those muscles at the top of her legs?!), or Donya Jackson from the USA (looking every inch a pro in the making), or Hungary's luciously leggy Eszter Urbán-Zsilák, or the Overall amateur winner Mou Cong - the first Arnold Amateur winner from China - makes it plenty exciting enough already.
PHYSIQUE DREAMS
But if Figure's not your thing, and even if you still pine for the days of the Ms International (let it go, would be my advice, it's gone, and let's face it you are probably not pining for the Iris-dominated last few years of the Ms International anyway), then perhaps a look back at the Physique International of 2017 is in order.
In a 30-woman field, it was a breakthrough show for runner-up Sheronica Henton, a sign of the stellar year to come for Arnold veteran Heather Grace, and Arnold debuts to remember from the shredded Tome Ameko, gorgeous Jacquita Person-Taylor, thick Margarita Zamalova, ever-smiling B Barnett and many more.
And as with some of the Figure galleries, I've had plenty of fun looking back at the pro Physique ladies doing their thing, and come to the conclusion that Brooke Walker may well feel the Arnold judges owe her a win. She won't be lining up this week, however, and neither will Daniely Castilho be defending her title as far as I can tell. Also absent are the two women who pushed Juliana at the Olympia - Heather Grace and Jennifer Taylor. So it's wide open again. Shanique Grant or Natalia Coelho to confirm the rise of the too-shredded-for-Figure phenom? Or will Kira Neuman come in with that top 3 Olympia package and take it? We will have hundreds of new images to trawl through (and know who won) by this time next week...
BRITISH INTEREST?
Yes, and very positive immigration stories they were. The "technically" British Geraldine Morgan was unplaced at the Physique International - our only pro on show, while previously Hungarian now approaching National Treasure status Katalin Jasztrab excelled in both her Open (3rd) and Masters (2nd) amateur Figure classes.
But it was burlesque performer by night, Fitness superstar by, er, evening, Kate Errington who produced the best, most patriotic performance of the whole weekend.
Kate became the second British woman to win a title at the Arnold Amateur when she won the Fitness class. Yes, she only had to beat two other women, but beat them she did. And Kate went on to do very well throughout 2017, so much so that this week she will be making her pro debut at the Fitness International, our only pro representative.
So that's that. 10 years at the Arnolds. Bodybuilding gone - even though it wasn't looking as unhealthy as perhaps those who plotted its downfall would have you believe. Physique on the rise - line-ups fantastic in number and quality, though it has to be said the amateur show has not been responsible for producing much of the pro talent we now see. And Figure transformed - less "one-piece", and more more muscle. Fitness is now an Adela-free and Oksana-free zone, so is currently genuinely up for grabs, while Bikini is... well, Bikini. This weekend the only place we'll see Bodybuilders is at the Expo. But there'll be muscle, and FMS will be on the trawl again...
Don't be that guy who didn't vote saying, "I can't believe [insert name of favourite FBB] is only at number [insert number greater than 2] on your list!" after the event.
