Place Your Bets! (And Take Your Seats)

Pro Female Bodybuilding's biggest night of all is almost here. Extreme weather may have caused a venue change to the Wild Horse Pass Hotel & Casino, but as scheduled, tomorrow at around 5pm UK time the prejudging will begin, followed by the finals from around 1 in the morning. Get all your jobs done, get some kip while you can, and get comfy. Digital Muscle will once again be broadcasting the entire Arizona event.

We previewed the show before the official line-up was announced - see Save the Date (Part 1) and (Part 2) - and of the 22 qualified women we featured over those two posts, only Tara Silzer and Amanda Smith do not appear on the official scorecard.

Maybe next year?


The "Big Four" - the last time: Rising Phoenix 2016

One the great strengths of the Rising Phoenix since its inception has been the lack of a clear favourite. It's been a genuine contest every time, and this year is no exception. Ruth Silverman, in her preview for Digital Muscle, reckons there are "four serious title contenders", and overall, those forum posters who have expressed an opinion agree.


Margie - winning @RP2016

No prizes for guessing who comes first on the list!

The winner of the first two RPs is back again after a year of "retirement" in 2017. She qualified without any fuss at all in Toronto, simply overwhelming the rest of the line-up, however this will be a much much tougher test. This year she has neither the momentum that carried her from her Tampa win in 2015 straight to the inaugural RP title, nor the advantage of having only one contest to prepare for as was the case in 2016. Still, she definitely has an aura about her these days, and if you follow her Instagram, you'll know she's in absolutely jaw-dropping shape. Comebacks are never easy, but Margie is definitely the most fancied horse at the starting gate. [what? - ed.]


Helle - winning @RP2017

Reigning champ Helle Trevino is the most popular choice for runner-up, though some predictions on the forum (whose first rule is) place her 1st, others as low as 4th. In her favour is the only one contest to prepare for thing, against her is the fact that the last time she beat Margie was Chicago in 2015 - and by the end of that season it was Margie who was beating her. She was, without question, a worthy champion last year, but needed a Head Judge tie-breaker decision to beat Sheila Bleck. The general consensus is that she probably won't win for a second year running, but will once again be - as she has been at every RP - the best she can be and in the first callout.


Queens of Tampa - Sheila 2017, Alina 2018

3rd and 4th will, according to the forum heads, be between the other two "contenders": last year's runner-up Sheila Bleck, and the one-time Iris challenger and Tampa Pro champion Alina Popa. Interestingly, no one has predicted Sheila to win, and of these "Big Four", Alina has the biggest spread of predicted placings - from 1st to 6th(!). Neither of them, it seems to me, have been especially lucky in the past - Alina's repeated futile attempts to snatch Iris' Ms Olympia crown, Sheila's two 2nd place RP finishes in 2016 and 2017. Alina tends to do worse than forum types imagine she will do, but Sheila better, so if there is to be a "surprise" winner, I'd bet on Bleck.



Jill & Jay (Chicago, 2018); Isabelle (Omaha, 2018) & Virginia @RP2017

Other than those four, Jill Blondin, Jay Fuchs, Isabelle Turell, and Virginia Sanchez all get "votes". Ruth Silverman - and let's face it, she knows more than the collective "we" put together - thinks Virginia and Britain's Wendy McCready most likely to repeat their top 6 placings from 2017. Personally, I'm looking forward to seeing Pauline Nelson, who didn't place last year, and who I think is as good a dark horse bet as any. [ah! we've returned to the equine motif I see - ed.]


The darkest of horses?! - Pauline (Tampa, 2018)

I'm SO excited. In a perfect world FMS would be hosting a "Watch the Rising Phoenix" event in some swanky Central London private venue, a place where we could all meet up and show our appreciation all together... but second prize isn't too bad - by accident rather than design, the wife is out of town. For the second year in a row on RP weekend I've got the house all to myself, so however predictable or not the result proves to be, I intend to enjoy myself to the full. It's definitely going to be a BIG BIG night!


Helle v Sheila: Rising Phoenix 2017

As we (and, I dare say, you) are going to be rather busy this weekend, there won't be any posts. FMS will be back on Monday - news from Arizona, and tales of the live feed.

Enjoy!

Olympia 2017: That Katie Lee etc.

Female Bodybuilders still go to the Olympia shock!

Nicky Chartrand (above) was just one of many so-called "proper" FBBs who convened (with the rest of the muscle world) on Vegas for the event, including the newly-crowned Queen herself. If the pictures of Helle with friends (considered and rejected by the editorial team) are anything to go by, she had a lot of friends there.



I should say I did argue that you only really get the sense of how big Helle is when pictured with friend, but I was outvoted and I'm not bitter. Besides, we have Katie Lee's many many interviews with various Olympian women to illustrate just how much a really big girl can be bigger than, say, a pretty big girl like Heather Dees.



See what I mean?

For a significant number of fans, these (usually pretty dull truth be told) interviews conducted by Katie were the highlight of their vicarious Olympia experience, and I must say if you turn the sound down and just watch Katie (or Heather, but I recommend Katie), specifically her arm, the 2 minutes 36 seconds just flies by.

And here's another "proper" FBB. Too big for this world, but not for the Olympia.



I'm thinking I should know who the other woman in this picture is, and I'm also wondering whether she is having her picture taken with Irene or Irene's having her picture taken with her, if you see what I mean. Irene certainly looks excited.

And also in that category...



The too-tatted-for-some Cammie Spindel I know. But who's her (at least equally impressive - and much-less-tatted) friend? Perhaps this one is a bit easier to work out seeing as Cammie has a pass and her friend has a bag. If Cammie's friend is indeed a punter, then she is one very impressive punter. You could almost say Katie-like...

Our second installment of the divine Ms Lee and her massive, hypnotic arms sees Kaite (dwarfing and) catching up with another Figure Olympian, Wendy Fortino, who it must be said is a lot more entertaining than most female muscle interviewees.



And so to our award for the woman most about the Olympia...

I think it's fair to say it would be easier to count the women Esther "Tete" Rodriguez Sosa (see FMS passim) didn't get a picture with than those that she did. Our "Tete" selection includes "proper" FBB Janeen Lankowski, fellow Mexican Sandra Grajales Romero, pro Bikini's sole Hot and Hard 100 rep Yarishna, Las Vegas businesswoman Larissa Reis, and the one and only last Ms Olympia.




But it's not just at the Expo where the muscle is at, but everywhere. Or so it seems.



You could probably get a serious swoon on just using the lifts and walking around the hotel(s), stalking the corridors... Who the sizzlers above are I do not know (again, feel like I should, certainly wish I did) but there's no mistaking a glammed up Karina.



And for our third (and last) Katie interview, we move up a division to Physique, and the "super ripped" Jodi Boam. On this occasion, Jodi really is worth listening to ("I get to flex in Physique, that I love"), and you may not just want to watch Katie.



And finally, the award for the place most FMS staffers would have liked to have been during the Olympia goes to the swimming pool where Singapore's finest Melissa Wee was (really really) showing off (almost all) her very Christian yet sinfully sexy bod.



Forgive me Father for what I am about to do...

FMS@RP2017: 9*

You knew it was close. The contest was wide open at the outset, what with Margie having abdicated, Alina being absent, and potential dark horse Brittney O'Veal deciding to sit it out this year. The judges could go all retro and give it to Yaxeni, or all penitent and throw it Aleesha's way perhaps. Both possible, just about possible.



In the end though, it was the two pre-show favourites who were still standing after 3rd place had been announced - runner-up last year and Tampa Pro champ this Sheila Bleck, and 2015's runner-up and 2016's most-hard-done-by Helle Trevino.

And the winner is...

Behind the lectern stage right Lenda Murray looked visibly shocked. I've seen this before but never for first place, announced MC Shannon Dey. We have a tie.



You knew it was close. They'd been right at the centre of the first callout and both, in their own way, looked as good as they ever have. Sheila, all perfect conditioning, perfect proportions and perfect poses; Helle, bulkier, beefier, less-than-regulation hand gestures inviting the audience (and judges) to eye up her abs and glutes.



I was leaning towards Helle after the pre-judging. Those kinds of hand gestures and rampant muscle (s)exhibitionism go along way with me. After the evening show though, Sheila's routine, always a highlight in any show she competes in, had me wondering whether she might drive the jeep home. Either would have been a worthy champion. Both had three pro titles to their name as they waited for the announcement. Neither lives full-time in the country where they were born.



9* is what they both had on the scorecard. The * indicating the tie. When 2nd place gets $25,000 and the winner gets $60,000 and the jeep, that's a fairly big tie break, and the tie break was... the final round. The routine! I'd read it the opposite way to the judges - Sheila won in the afternoon, Helle won the whole thing in the evening.



Seeing such a big woman jump so far into the air so many times was quite a thrill. Sheila, poor Sheila looked a little shell-shocked, and I'm sure my heart wasn't the only one going out to her as she was given her sash and shit. Couldn't they, I wondered, have given it to them both? I remembered the first ever London marathon, when, with the finish line in sight, the two leaders joined hands and broke the tape as one...



And then Helle stepped forward to get her sash and sword and whatnot and I forgot all about that. I remembered Helle's 2005 injury, a herniated disc that left her unable to walk. The medical opinion was she'd never train again, let alone compete, but she wasn't having any of that. Six years later she was winning her first show back, and 8 years after her 2003 Olympia debut she was back there again. It would have been a remarkable story had it ended there, but Helle was coming back for good.




So it feels like the right woman won. Again, the Rising Phoenix has given us a champ we can (and should) all be proud of. But spare a thought for Sheila. It really was close.

Tube of the Week

THE LAST OF THE IRON SISTERS

The title, especially so soon after the events in Omaha last weekend, may look a little scary, but the second episode of Vice Sports' SWOLE series is an absolute treat.

We follow pro-bodybuilder Helle Trevino, says the blurb, as she prepares for the Rising Phoenix competition, and talk to 8-time Ms. Olympia Lenda Murray and the founders of Wings of Strength about how they're pushing to keep the sport alive.

The camera work is several professional cuts above the standard level of female muscle footage, but the groin-tingling backstage and on stage footage aside, it's the sight of Helle cooking her chicken, power-walking along Venice Beach, getting her nails done, and so on that appeals most to this fan of female muscle doing "normal" stuff.

Also starring the delivery boy you wish you were...



SWOLE - two episodes into its series - will hopefully feature more female muscle in the future, so keep an eye on the VICE Sports YouTube channel. VICE are the people responsible for the channel Viceland. I wonder if Helle will make it onto UK TV?

Enjoy!

Mrs Swell's Easter Surprise: Wish You Were Here (Part 2): WoS Muscle Mansion Weekend

A lot of beef. Looks like a female muscle all-star team.



Right now, I'm sitting on a hotel balcony overlooking the Cypriot coast. It's a balmy 25°C and it's not 10 o'clock yet. Down below, at the hotel swimming pool, my wife is lying out on a sun lounger. Her body looks great even from here, and I know when I finish this up (as well as "a few work emails") and I go down to join her, the closer I get, the better her body will look. It's all rather perfect. There's nowhere I'd rather be...



Although if you offered me a place at female bodybuilding's most exclusive get-together in exchange for my current situation, a sort of reporter on the ground kind of assignment perhaps, well, I would certainly have to think about it before I packed my bags, hightailed it to the airport, and hopped on the plane to Arizona.



I seriously doubt many other female muscle fans would be so circumspect.




The "Muscle Mansion Weekend" is a combination of business and pleasure for eight of the world's current best plus Wings of Strength spokesperson Lenda Murray, organised by Kristal and Jake Wood. And they know how to treat them right. Gifts, dinner, an evening out at the ice-hockey. Dressing up for photoshoots, a workout, and a little bit of contract signing as well it seems. A weekend of FBB wins all round.




There was reigning Ms Rising Phoenix Margie Martin, Helle Trevino, and Alina Popa. There was Aleesha Young, returning to the stage this year in Omaha, and Shawna Strong, Arizona local, scheduled to flex in anger again soon at the Toronto Pro, plus 2016 Puerto Rico champ Kim Buck. And there were two new pros, Margie protégé Brittney O'Veal, and Hot and Hard 100 runner-up, Theresa Ivancik.



Feast enough. But as well as Lenda, who still looks glorious at 55, I can't be the only one who's noticed just how much beef there is on Kristal Wood. No mean feat to make Alina's arms look insignificant. Being married to arms like Kristal's would be enough for most guys. Hulk Hogan lookalike Jake gets that and much much more besides.



To be fair though, he is 50% of 50% of the team who are slowly but surely cultivating the resurrection of professional Female Bodybuilding, so it's hard to dislike him.



Wish you were here? Perhaps the question should be "Wish you were him?"



Enjoy!

More at #musclemansion

And - bonus - recorded at the NPC Nationals last year but only recently uploaded to the Wings of Strength YouTube channel, if you've ever wondered what Theresa Ivancik sounds like, well wonder no more... (even sexier than I imagined).



SWOOOOON!!!