And we finish our week at the world's premier Female Bodybuilding contest (bit belatedly today, sorry about that) with the competitor who most exceeded the pre-contest expectations. Canada's blond bombshell Nicki Chartrand was barely mentioned in the lead-up to the event (not least by me), but ultimately walked off with the (previously monopolised by Sheila Bleck) Best Poser prize, and 4th place.
We have already waxed lyrical about her performance on the day - and particularly on the night with that scintillating winning posing routine (see Tales from the Feed ) - so instead we decided we'd try to piece together the Nicki Chartrand story so far.
Unfortunately, we didn't find much to piece together.
We do, however, know how she looked back in c.2015, when she seems to be competing at regional Canadian level, as a Bodybuilder too. The research team have really struggled to find any definitive list of her contest placings from the early part of her career - which really bothers me (can you tell?) and is the main reason why today's post has gone up so tardily. Anyway, it'll have to do. Here is our first comparison.
COMPARISON #1
Nicki v.2015 and Nicki v.2018
By 2016, we do know, she was the CBBF Nationals Women's Bodybuilding champion - a title previously held by (among others) Negrita Jade, Laura Binetti, Desiree Ellis, Sophie Duquette, Autumn Raby, Nicole Ball, and Fabiola Boulanger.
Not a bad list at all.
However, and despite being a Heavyweight, it is not in Women's Bodybuilding that Nicki Chartrand makes her pro debut, but in Physique - at the 2017 Toronto Pro.
COMPARISON #2
Toronto Pro 2017 and Rising Phoenix 2018
There's so obviously too much muscle on her for IFBB Physique judges that it's almost funny imagining their faces, and within weeks Nicki debuted as a pro Bodybuilder. At the Lenda Murray/Norfolk Pro she beat the fan fave Theresa Ivancik (also on debut) and beat her well. Then she finished off 2017 with 12th place at the Rising Phoenix.
And then this year, she began her season early, at the Hawaii Pro, again in a less than numerous line-up, but up against a woman on debut who many fans were excited about seeing - Alina protégéJennie Roosa. And the result? Nicki 1st, fan fave 2nd. Nicki could now celebrate her 2nd professional title and start prep for her second RP.
Which pretty much brings us up-to-date, but before we go, one more comparison.
The thought occurred to me while I was waiting for the Research Dept. to tell me they hadn't found much about Nicki's early career. There's something about her double biceps pose, the way she positions her long, muscle curvy legs when she hits it. Her general statuesqueness (well, it's a word now!), and I guess her colouring too, reminded me of a legend from the not-too-distant Female Bodybuilding past...
COMPARISON #3
Brigita MsO2011 and Nicki RP2018
Perhaps not a fair comparison in terms of where Nicki is right now, but instead a peek into the not-too-distant future at where Nicki has the potential to be before too long.
A new occasional series, Underrated is not intended to be about judging decisions - if it was, we could probably run a post about every single woman who's ever competed! Instead, we aim to (re)focus on women who we think do not enjoy the prominence they deserve in the collective female muscle consciousness - someone a new recruit to the female muscle lovin' world would not necessarily come across.
UNDERRATED?
Less than 30 pics on GwM, and no more than a five-page thread on the forum whose first rule is... and the majority of those pages are taken up with more recent, post-retirement pics (more about that later). It's highly unlikely - as it is with all of the women we feature on Underrated - that you would underrate her if you know her, but with that kind of coverage, then it's also unlikely you have come across Tatianna unless you're old enough to remember her from her turn of the millennium pomp.
She was of that era when the line-ups at the USAs and the Nationals read like a list of all-time favourites compiled by some 40-something muscle head (like me). Sarah Dunlap, Heather Policky, Bonnie Priest, Gina Davis, Colette Nelson, Michelle Tuggle, Lora Ottenad, Sherry Smith... I could go on. She competed with distinction against all of them, she totally looked the part, but ultimately Tatianna - despite a couple of top 6 finishes - never placed high enough to win her pro card and compete at the very highest level. After a (thankfully) brief (and unsuccessful) dalliance with the Figure division, she would only ever get out her posing suits again for paying clients. She went "under the radar" as I believe they say on the dark side.
CAREER
If she was competing now and at her 2001-2002 peak, I'd say she would have won just about all of the IFBB shows so far in 2018, with only the Toronto Pro a possible exception. However, in her time she was just one of a thunderous cohort of soon-to-be greats and others, like her, who would have been greats in another decade.
From Baltimore, we first find her competing locally at the Eastern USA Championships in 1996 as a "novice". Four years later she is at the Atlantic States Championships earning her only class and Overall win.The year after that, at her first national level show - the NPC USAs - she makes the Heavyweight top 6, and then at the North Americans places 4th behind Lisa Aukland, Colette Nelson and Carmen Brady.
Though she undoubtedly looked great in 2001, her peak, I would say, came in 2002 at the NPC Nationals. In a Heavyweight division packed with some of the best female muscle ever (not only compared to today but also any other day) Tatianna placed 4th, a 5'9" ripped ebony Amazon showing off her genetic gifts and exceptional development in all their glistening pumped glory. In the judges' opinions, she was bettered on the day only by Sherry Smith, Alley Miesch-Nie and Overall winner Sarah Dunlap. She never reached such competitive heights again - placing 13th at the Nationals in 2003, and the less said about the return as a Figure competitor in 2005 the better.
If you haven't noticed already though, it's time to point out that as well as being a 5'9" ebony Amazon, Tatianna was (and still is, more about this later), an absolutely gorgeous woman. This muscle + beauty combo was then, as now, much in demand on the schmotography circuit, and while it's not easy to find contest pics of Tatianna, she did more than her fair share of glamour work. WPW/Ray Martin (as always) got in earlier than most, much of their work with her done while she was very much in her voluptuous (and quite frankly f***ing ginormous) off-season shape.
There was work with Physique Art (remember them?!) and others that showcased Tatianna in pretty much a "mainstream" glamour kind of way - a model who just happened to have massive muscles! Awefilms, on the other hand, tended to use her as an "action girl", beating up unfortunate/fortunate (depending on your point of view) male weaklings in mini-movies "Sista Paine" and "Gladiatrix FemMuscle Action".
She was also memorably (in my house) shot by Ivana Ford (again, remember her?!) and perhaps most memorably of all by Bill Dobbins, wearing nothing but some sand.
APPRECIATION
The day after the muscle worship episode of Louis Theroux's Weird Weekends aired, I overheard four women in my office discussing the show, and particularly the Female Bodybuilders it featured. "Yuk!" was pretty much the capsule review - Louis spends most of his time talking to Maria Calo and her (short-lived) husband, you may recall. I expected nothing less, I'd been bitterly disappointed not so much by the portrayal of the world I was so fascinated by, but more the choice of subjects. They could have had Yaz Boyum, but instead we got Maria, and the fans Louis spoke to... embarrassing. But then one of the women says, "except Tatianna" and to my delight they all agreed. She was "lovely" they said, "such a sweet person", "so girly", "yes, very feminine".
And it wasn't just on British TV that Tatianna got noticed. She was a regular on those US chat shows that used to feature FBBs from time to time in a kind of "all woman" pro-female muscle way (those were the days, eh?!). Hardly surprising then that Dobbins selected Tatianna (not, note, Maria Calo) to represent his work on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno when doing publicity for his (racy) book Modern Amazons.
She was - on top of being an outstanding amateur Bodybuilder at a time when future legends were all over the NPC - an articulate, funny, stunningly beautiful, strong woman. And whatever "it" is that makes some muscle women capable of reaching out towards the mainstream and not being mocked, she had that in spades as well.
NOW
As you can see, she has still got most of those qualities today. She's still hot, one forum poster says. She's just not big anymore. Oh really?! That bicep is an illusion, is it?
Watch that (mostly cringeworthy) Louis Theroux episode in full here, or just the "Meets Fans of Female Bodybuilders" segment here. I haven't turned up any of the Jay Leno footage, so if you know where it can be found then please do get in touch.
Despite hot, hard and disproportionately developed competition from the likes of Suelen Bissolati and more recently Alessandra Alvez, Gracyanne Barbosa remains Brazil's bumbum #1. Heading towards 7 million Instagram followers - Suelen and Alessandra both have less than half a million, and even Eva Andressa Vieira with 4.6 million isn't in the same league - and, although not a competitive Bodybuilder, Gracyanne was in your Hot and Hard 100 for the fifth consecutive year in 2018.
Mostly, it's Gracyanne's spectacular lower body, her world-renowned bumbum and thunder thighs, that get all the attention - and rightly so. However, I'm sure I'm not the only one who's noticed that recently as well as adding definition to her prodigious size down below, Gracyanne has also been getting bigger and more defined up top.
This is all good. As a female muscle lover, more muscle is always good. But spare a thought for Gracyanne. Suddenly nothing in her wardrobe (that isn't super stretchy) seems to fit anymore. For a while I could still do my jeans up as long as I didn't have any underwear on, she explains. But now I can't even do that. Worse still, her ever-growing body has actually destroyed a fair portion of her wardrobe. Not that anyone's complained, but it's pretty awkward when your top just rips open in public, she says. And I'm having my lingerie custom-made now because everything off-the-peg bursts at the seams as soon as I put it on. Not that her husband's complaining...
Is her love of pole fitness responsible for this growth spurt?
Or is it - notwithstanding somewhat ridiculous accusations that she is the "Queen of Fake Weights" (ie. that in her training videos the amount she seems to be shifting is just a few actual weights plus a load of 0kg "fake" ones) - simply that she trains really hard?
Whatever she's doing, it's working.
Ai karamba!
[NB: Gracyanne Barbosa had nothing to do with the making of today's post, and all quotes attributed to her are completely made up - FMS Legal]
A continuation of/companion piece to our Summer Lovin' post with (almost) the same name in July. FMS proudly presents another installment of hot and hard women out and about and showing off their muscles - at times outrageously so - in the sun.
HIKE
Unidentified lady with calves
RIDE
One thing that hasn't changed about Shannon is her love of equines
GO TO WATER
Jennifer Keller
Whether it's the pool or a (real or artifical) lake, there are cooling alternatives to the beach for the terminally land-locked when the mercury rises. Having said that though, it's hard to imagine any of these bodies truly having a cooling effect on the local environment, particularly Maria Garcia emerging Bond-girl-of-my-dreams-like from the pool in a Bikini that reveals only slightly less than no Bikini at all would.
Anna Laskowska (left) and unidentified ripped beauty
Jacquelyn Hickerson
The definition of caliente?
HIT THE STREETS
Vivi Winkler
No excuse necessary, but high temperatures mean fewer clothes - the perfect chance to expose all those parts of your body you've been working so hard to perfect.
Kristina Moser
Laura Gallardo Herrero (left) and Zsoka Halasz boost tourism
Diana Schnaidt (left) and Ashley Hromyak entertain the locals
FLEX FOR FOOD
"Roxy" is the only name we have for her, unfortunately. We're pretty sure, however, that a lady as good-looking as she is, who has such thick, suckable biceps as she does, won't have later walked out of The Protein House having paid for her meal.
SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL TEAM
Flamengo, in case you were thinking of joining Alessandra Alvez's tribe.
KEEP US SAFE
"Misty"
Summer is not all play. Someone has to pull us out of the burning building, someone has to arrest those perps. I feel I would sleep more soundly if I knew all fire fighters and police officers were a) female, and b) carried as much muscle as these gems.
Inja Damjanovic
GET THOSE JOBS DONE
Gutters don't clear themselves, you know.
Today's late August Bank Holiday here in the UK (not Scotland) always serves to remind us that autumn chills are indeed not far away. Until then though, we hope that all our friendly neighbourhood muscle women continue to show it all off.
