Relaxing in the Florida sun "between workouts" recently, Valentina Mishina showed us why she was your Hot and Hard 100 highest new entry this year.
NEW ENTRIES
Almost exactly a third of all the women on your Hot and Hard 100 list were first timers (33, to be precise, which is about the same as it has been in other years), with the vast majority (24) turning up in the lower half, so only nine women made their debuts inside the Top 50. Valentina (above) was the highest, the only Top 10 New Entry this year, and only the second Top 10 New Entry ever. Lauren Quinn was the only other New Entry in the Top 20 at #13, and Jacquelyn Hickerson (#22), Dany Castilho (#24), and Sheronica Henton (#29) also made the Top 30.
Among those nine Top 50 new entries, there is not one competitive Female Bodybuilder. Seven are Physique competitors, and two - Aspen Rae (#42), and Odalys Ferreira (#45) - compete in Figure. The highest new "proper" FBBs were Kristina Nicole Mendoza (#57) and Pauline Nelson (#60), and (with the exception of Kristen Nun (#90) who hasn't yet competed but if she does is definitely going to do so in the Female Bodybuilding division), they were also the only two.
BIG BEASTS, PHYSIQUE DREAMS & FIGURE PHENOMS
The list has become ever more dominated by the Physique division. 2016 saw a Hot and Hard 100 high of 52 Physique competitors (last year it was 47). This year the number was 54, comfortably over half of the women on the list - although this number includes a handful of women - such as Natalia Coelho (#4), and Gülüzar Tüfenk (#21) - who have made the move from Figure to Physique over the last twelve months.
At #2, Ms Physique Olympia Juliana Malacarne was the highest Physique Dream (as in life, so on the list!), followed by Natalia, Valentina, Eleonora Dobrinina (#7) and Katie Lee (#9) - meaning Physique competitors made up half of the Top 10, which in previous years had been largely dominated by competitive Female Bodybuilders.
You don't have to be a shredded Physique goddess to make the Top 10... but it helps. Ella Dobrinina and Katie Lee show why they won over so many FMS readers.
So, while your #1 (Elena Oana Hreapca) is, as it has been in four of the five Hot and Hard 100 years, an FBB, only four other Bodybuilders with a capital B appear in the Top 20 - Theresa Ivancik (#6), Aleesha Young (#8), Isabelle Turell (#12), and Margie Martin - no longer competing but still very much a Big Beast! - (#20).
And this lack of FBBs near the top of the list is also evident overall. Only 15 names from the Female Bodybuilding division (or equivalent) made this year's Hot and Hard 100. For the first time Alina Popa and Yaxeni Oriquen are not in, and nor are Virginia Sanchez and 2017's highest new entry Sarah Williams.
The Figure division made up the shortfall, supplying almost a quarter of the list (23). Compare that to the previous Figure high of 13 last year, and it's clear that FMS readers (if not the entire female muscle lovin' community) are now embracing the division like never before. At #9, Lauren Martin Stow was the highest placed of them, however as she has now committed to moving to Physique, Sandra Grajales Romero (#11) will soon be able to claim the title of Hottest Figure Woman in the World today.
HOT AND HARD GEOGRAPHY
As mentioned before, Britain's Sarah Williams failed to make the list, and there is no Rene Campbell for the first time, nor Corinne Ingman either. The lowest number of women from the UK we have ever had in the five years of our poll, just 3 - Donna Murphy (#15), Lisa Cross (#25), and Hayley Brylewski (#69) - made it in.
Women from 25 different countries make up the 100, with the US, as always, by far the most represented with 49 and Theresa Ivancik again your favourite hot and hard American girl. Brazil with (at least) 9 is again the second most represented country - Juliana your Hottest Hard Brazilian for the first time since our inaugural 2014 poll. Canada (with 6 women in the list), Spain (5), Russia (4), and the UK and Sweden (both 3) are the only other countries who supplied more than 2 names (and bodies), while for the first time in Hot and Hard 100 history the flags of New Zealand (the beautiful BJ Brunton, #81=) and Honduras (hulking Hulda Lopez, #63) proudly fly.
DIFFERENT VOTES FROM DIFFERENT FOLKS
Alessandra Alvez (any excuse to post a picture of her!) would have been 109th in the voting if we went that far - in previous years the number of votes she received would have seen her finish way higher, well inside the Top 100. But not this year...
So, noticeable differences in this year's Hot and Hard 100, and perhaps one reason for that is the voting pool was different. There were slightly fewer voters than last year (the first time this has happened) and many more first time voters than usual.
Another difference was that the total number of different women voted for was significantly smaller than in any of the four previous years, almost as if we were choosing from a previously agreed shortlist of around 250. This was, in fact, the most surprising aspect of all for me, given that the number of hot and hard women in the world grows ever higher and accessing images of them is easier than ever before.
An apparently shrinking pool of women being voted for meant that to get into the Top 100 they needed more votes than in any of our previous years. For example, Ashlee Potts, who was (a new entry) #100, would have been #82 in 2017 had she got the same number of votes then, while Jessica Booker Williams was #64 in 2017, got twice as many votes this year, but only moved up 3 places on the list to #61.
THE EIGHTEEN
As this was our 5th Hot and Hard 100 poll, we thought we should give those women who have appeared in every list a shoutout. 18 of them had five gold stars above their names, from #97 Suzy Kellner to your (2017 and) 2018 #1 Elena Oana Hreapca.
For no reason other than we do love some good old stat work (can you tell?!), we went back through the archives and tallied up all the votes these women had received to make a Hot and Hard 18 list from 2014 to 2018. The result was no surprise, with two-time winner Oana finishing at the top, closely followed by two-time runner-up Aleesha.
The FMS Hot and Hard 18, 2014-2018
1. ELENA OANA HREAPCA
2. Aleesha Young
3. Cindy Landolt
4. Lisa Cross
5. Kashma Maharaj
6. Oksana Grishina
7. Suzy Kellner
8. Dani Reardon
9. Juliana Malacarne
10. Selma Labat
11. Katka Kyptova
12. Gracyanne Barbosa
13. Eleonora Dobrinina
14. Maria Garcia
15. Karina Nascimento
16. Minna Pajulahti
17. Melissa Wee
18. Susanna Tirpak
Quite a collection, don't you think?
It has, as always, been a time-consuming but wonderful job to compile the list. I would again like to thank everyone who voted. Without you, it would not be possible.
No comments:
Post a Comment