"My Olympia": Contributions Wanted!

I'd LOVE to be able to say that I spent much of the Olympia weekend glued to the Bodybuilding.com webcast, enjoying uninterrupted coverage of the finest female bodies on the planet for hours and hours on end.

And I'd LOVE to be able to say I watched it all with my wife beside me. She wet herself laughing at the physique MEN with their funny Bermuda shorts (is male physique just bodybuilding for leg day skippers or what?), but she had wet herself in a very different way by the time Juliana Malacarne performed her Saturday evening routine.



And I'd LOVE to be able to say that when all the physique routines were over, and we'd put some of our clothes back on, she turned to me and told me that while she could never imagine getting as big as the women we'd watched together on Friday (and she had enjoyed how turned on I'd been by them, by the way, LOVED it), Juliana, Dana Linn, Tycie et al had impressed her so much that she wanted to build a physique competitor's body, "though I may have to start out by competing in figure".



Well, my Olympia weekend didn't quite pan out like that. Saturday was my favourite uncle's 70th birthday, celebrated with a big family lunch near his home. I wouldn't have missed it for the world, but the eight-hour round trip to get there and back in a day made it impossible for me to see more than twenty minutes of the show live.



This was on Saturday morning (so Friday evening in Vegas), when I got up a tad earlier than was absolutely necessary in order to surreptitiously catch some of the precious live stream while the wife was still slumbering. What I saw was the fitness competitors getting their awards (which was fine, though it wouldn't have been my FIRST choice) - sound off, of course - and then, with the big girls imminent... the wife's alarm goes off.

By the time we got back from my uncle's - and don't get me wrong, a smashing time was had by all - it was late, and I was exhausted from the driving. The wife crashed immediately, so the opportunity was there for a little indulgence, but it would have meant injecting caffeine into my own eyeballs to stay awake, so I made do with a quick check of the results - Iris again... Nicole Wilkins again... Alana Shipp 4th!!! - and, knowing full well the webcast replays would be available soon, I hit the hay.



I drifted off, wondering how other female muscle heads had spent their weekends.

And so, as is so often the case when FMS takes a little break, we're back with a question for you, our lovely readers - and we really really want to know the answer...

HOW WAS YOUR OLYMPIA?



Obviously, if you were actually there we'd like to hear all about it - and let's face it, if you were there you would probably want to tell because then you'd get all the brethren writing to let you know how jealous they are: you'd be THE MAN!



If you weren't there, was it the webcast + box of man-size tissues scenario some of our readers were kind enough to share with us in the week before the Olympia? (see comments on Ms Olympia 2014: The Line-up). If so, how was it for you? Did the single box prove sufficient? Who was responsible for the biggest mess? Did you manage to get through it all without passing out and/or needing medical attention?



Or did you have a similar experience to mine - surreptitiously snatching what you could while getting on with all the other real life stuff that most weekends consist of?

Or, best of all (I do sometimes wonder how many - if any - of the women read this!), might as well ask, one never knows... were you competing? Would you care to share your Olympia experience, whether it was your first time or not?

Whatever your story, whatever "Your Olympia" was, please do get in touch.

What I'm hoping for is a snapshot of what the female muscle lovin' world was doing while the beautiful female muscle elite were doing their elite female muscle thing.

If that's something you'd be interested in contributing to, then go ahead and use the comment box below, or just email directly to 6ft1swell@gmail.com.

As ever, complete anonymity is guaranteed if you want it that way.

You've got till Friday - to be honest, any time will do - but I'd really like to be able to post some of your stories the week after this one, so that's the deadline for now.

Looking forward to hearing from you,
6ft1swell

Ms Olympia 2014: The Class of '13

Two of the women making their Ms Olympia debuts tomorrow were, this time last year, barely on the FMS radar. Obviously, this had more to do with the failings of the radar than anything else, but in 2014 they have made such a big noise in the world of IFBB pro female bodybuilding that even our rusty old radar (not to mention our rusty old radar operator) couldn't fail to notice Margie Martin and Alana Shipp.



Both Margie and Alana gained their pro cards last year. In June Margie beat Annie Sheehan and Victoria Dominguez to win the heavyweight title at the NPC USAs, and then saw off the challenge of a certain Shannon Courtney to claim the overall title. After winning a three-woman middleweight class at the NPC Nationals in November, Alana was awarded her pro card despite losing out in the overall posedown to one of the women Margie had beaten in Las Vegas, Victoria Dominguez.




Their qualities were noted at the time (not by FMS, smack wrist smack wrist) but they were noted. Only eventual runner-up Anne Sheehan mounted a serious challenge and the final tallies showed Martin scored a unanimous win, noted Steve Wennerstrom in his report from the 2013 USAs, admitting that he was more than a little excited at the prospect of following Margie's progress as a pro bodybuilder. She has blossomed [from a 2011 physique competitor] into a very good heavyweight with enviable muscle shapes and bodylines on her 5'5" [1.65m] frame, he added.




And Wennerstrom's appraisal of Alana Shipp at the Nationals was even more effusive. Some might say it's easy to stand out in a group of three competitors in a bodybuilding line-up, but in the case of Alana Shipp it may not have made much difference what the size of the middleweight class was considering her overall physical qualities, he wrote, before going on to list those qualities in no little detail.

Dynamite detail in her back double biceps poses, equally impressive separation in her frontal quads, 8-pack abs, and gluteal/hamstring tie-ins to further prove her head-to-toe completeness... When Steve Wennerstrom starts getting carried away with the descriptions, you know he thinks that he's witnessed someone special.




And we didn't have to wait long to see that The Sage had predicted correctly (yet again). By the end of the frantic first eight days of FBB pro competition this year that included the Toronto Pro and the new Omaha Pro show, both Margie and Alana had enough qualifying points to be able to book their tickets to Vegas months in advance.




In Toronto they made their pro debuts. Alana's razor-sharp conditioning gained her second place behind Simone Oliveira and ahead of - as predicted by Steve Wennerstrom - much much bigger women, including Margie, who was impressive enough in fourth. The order was all but reversed in Omaha the following week - Margie was runner-up this time (to Anne Freitas), while the judges placed Alana fifth.



No 20-year Christine Envall-like wait for Margie and Alana, then. Just two pro outings each and they were bound for the biggest show of all. Their rise through the amateur ranks had been swift enough, their transition from debutant pros to elite Olympians has been even more rapid. Both are ex-marines, both mothers (Alana has two children, Margie four). Backstage snaps suggest they share something of a bond, perhaps due to shared experience before and after their competitive careers began.

I can't help thinking that if either gets a decent placing tomorrow, the other will too!


MARGIE MARTIN



California; 35 years old

On Facebook, Instagram (recommended - she's hilarious) and previously on FMS



Did you know? Margie has ALWAYS wanted to be a bodybuilder (since I was a little girl, she says), and apparently accosted serial Mr Olympia Lee Haney at church when she was 12 to ask for his advice. Her role model now is FMS heartthrob Juanita Blaino because, according to Margie, she has the most beautiful physique.




ALANA SHIPP



Born in Barbados to Guyanese parents, moved to New York aged 11; currently living in Israel (her husband is a diplomat at the US Embassy there); 31 years old (I think)

On Facebook, Instagram, her own website and previously on FMS



Did you know? Alana has only been training since 2011, when she went to the gym hoping to get into better shape for a Marine Corps ball! I went from being that girl who felt out of place in the gym (especially in the weights section) to becoming completely at ease there, she says. I enjoy the process of sculpting my body... the better I looked, the better I wanted to look, which drives me to work even harder.




It's almost time...

Gif AND Tube of the Week: Alana Shipp

I hope you will all let me know AS SOON AS you have had enough of me presenting you with the glorious muscle goddess Alana Shipp, because unless you do - BE WARNED - you'll have to put up until I have had enough of Alana and her magnificent mouth-watering muscles - and that doesn't look like it is going to happen any time soon.

Our first offerings today are courtesy of another whose Alana fascination seems to know no bounds. We featured sexyfemalemusclefan's previous gif tribute to Alana a couple of weeks ago, and see no reason not to feature his latest Alana-themed post as well. Taken from clips originally seen on Female Muscle Clips and HD Physiques, we get up close and personal with some freakily exciting muscularity in this series, which you can see along with another couple of similar gifs, on the original post.

And if you can take any more, check out RxMuscle's interview with Alana as she trains back and biceps below. Definitely a must for fans of wide, juicy backs and pumped up peaks, pushed to the limit. Fans of lush, deep and sexy female bodybuilder voices will also want to click play. And no matter how much you enjoy the gym action, you'll want to keep watching as Alana does some posing practice from 7.30 until the very end.



Follow Alana via Facebook and Instagram as she prepares for Tampa and beyond.

Enjoy!

Gif of the Week

Sexy muscle goddess Alana Shipp does her thing at the Toronto Pro in this set of gifs from the Tumblr known as The Extrondinary League of Sexy Muscle Women. Its author, "sexyfemalemusclefan", describes it as Sexy Female Bodybuilders, Fit Hard Bodies, Hot Sexy Bikinis, and everything else related to sexy female muscle.

I think you will find that if you head over there it fits that description to a tee.

Watch the whole routine on the mighty watatiwatatio's channel, and then perhaps sir would like to check out this Israeli news item featuring the beautiful Ms Shipp.

And incidentally, FMS' favourite Tumblr for gifs, formerly known as "Shirtrippers2.0" is now posting under the name 4TheL0ve0fFemuscle. Enjoy as you see fit.