It wasn't that long ago - 2010 to be exact - that
Cathy Lefrançois became the last Female Bodybuilding champion to be crowned at the New York Pro. Since then, however, there has been plenty of female muscle interest provided by the Physique division.
Juliana Malacarne won there three times in a row between 2012 and 2014, and after
Michelle Cummings had successfully moved "down" from Bodybuilding to claim the Physique crown there in 2015,
Shanique Grant took over from Juliana as the Queen of New York, winning there in 2016 and winning there again last year.
Given that kind of history as the show where Women's Physique's brightest stars are born, it was disappointing to see the show's promoter(s) had ditched the class this year, although thanks to the wonderful women of Figure, it was only slightly so.
Shuffling between the two divisions seems to be a thing now. This year in New York, for example,
Maria Rita Penteado - runner-up to Shanique in Physique here last year - and
Liz Montalbano both made their Figure debuts. Liz had competed in Physique as recently as May 6th at the Champions of Power and Grace, less than two full weeks before she competed in New York. Doing it the other way round we find FMS swoon and Figure Olympian
Jessica Reyes Padilla dipping her toe into Physique in North Carolina, then 13 days later returning to Figure and finishing runner-up in New York.
Has Physique become Figure without heels? Has Figure become Physique without flexing? Either way, the lines, or rather the physiques on show in the two divisions appear to be getting more and more similar, and despite predictions from the forum prophets of doom that Physique will get phased out in the near future, I personally prefer to point to the positives. Firstly, more muscle in Figure is - and I think we can
all agree on this - most definitely for the better. And secondly, if the IFBB decides it doesn't want to have Physique, that could well mean the division ending up with FBBing under the Wings of Strength regime. Not only would I suggest that it would be more likely to flourish than disappear should that happen, it would also be the next logical step on the road towards an all-female federation free from IFBB control.
Anyway, back to New York!
A special mention for
Deepika Chowdury, India's first - and only - IFBB pro. Regular readers may remember
we first celebrated her back in the summer of 2016, admiring the drive that had led her to leave India to compete with the best. After a flawless record of 5 wins in five NPC shows she was awarded IFBB pro status, and made her pro debut in New York in 2016. She finished 12th, and has since been back home leading her own seminars to promote fitness among Indian women both young and old.
Under the guidance of Olympian Figure phenom
Gennifer Strobo, she's also clearly been hard at it improving her physique. Just five years ago she was a molecular biologist with a fitness dream. Now, on this second visit to New York as a pro she placed 4th. But as excited as she was to have gained her first ever Olympia qualification points, Deepika is such an educator that she used her social media to explain to "all to my dear friends in India who lack the information" both
how the Olympia qualification system works, and
where they can find all the scorecards for IFBB pro events!
And we also think we should give a mention to the "big and very attractive" 10th place
Amber Eutsey, who was competing in the fourth show of her debut pro season.
"You can't tell me this lovely lady couldn't compete in Physique," wrote one forum poster recently, echoing our earlier point about the blurring of lines between the classes, but that's not the only reason why Amber has impressed us.
Great package, amazing structure, beautiful symmetry, and that's according to the Head Judge at her second pro show in Orlando! Recently, Amber caused much gnashing of teeth on the forum whose first rule is... for
her Instagram comment that "if I can break you, I can't date you." In the very same post, however, she informed us that "boys with muscles, good looks, intelligence and money don't impress me... I have my own." All I will say is that the gorgeous, sexy Amber reminds this (chubby, plain, dumb and penniless) boy of a young
Asha Hadley, and that's just about the biggest compliment I can give!
And so to the latest Queen of New York...
The ever classy Maria will need no introduction to most of you lovely readers given you voted in sufficient numbers for her to
re-enter the Hot and Hard 100 this year at #28.
What a woman SHOULD look like, reckoned one of those voters, and for once - or perhaps that should be once
again - judges and fans are on the same page.
Until this show, 2018 had (apart from
that Hot and Hard 100 re-entry, obviously) been quite frustrating for her apparently. 6th at the Arnolds in Ohio and Australia and 6th in Pittsburgh earlier in the month for many IFBB pros that would be a decent season, but not for Maria. "Repetitive", she called it. Changes were made to her prep, and after her "prestigious" (her word) win (New York may no longer have FBBing or Physique, but it's still one of the bigger shows to those who can compete) she felt those changes were thoroughly vindicated.
I'm on cloud 9, she said afterwards.
This is a show to come back to every year, and to win it is a dream come true.
Congratulations to Maria and all the Figure phenoms in New York.
Check out full results and galleries
here, and incidentally, last week we brought
news of actual Female Bodybuilders, particularly Maryse Manios, in action in Bari, Italy, but bemoaned the lack of contest pictures available. Well, now they've gone up on NPC News Online you can check out Maryse
here, and all the results and galleries
here.
