Magnificent Maria Luisa Baeza Diaz (& Other Figure Phenoms) @New York Pro 2018

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.

Around the World: India

Around the World is an occasional series celebrating the female bodybuilders of a particular country, and examining any issues peculiar to muscle women there.




Ashwini Waskar, Mumbai, 2015

Back in June 2015 when reporting on the success of Mumbai's Ashwini Waskar, FMS noted "the odd thing is that this competitor isn't wearing a posing suit but a plain black sports bra and shorts", but if we compare that to what Kerala's Majiziya Bhanu wore for her Bodybuilding debut a couple of weeks ago, Ashwini's outfit seems a lot less odd.



Majiziya, according to journalist Siddhant Pandey, is "a professional powerlifter". As she was returning home from a recent competition, by chance she heard about a local Bodybuilding contest, and, encouraged by her fiancée, decided to give it a go. Her powerlifting coach hastily sent her some pics of the compulsory poses "on WhatsApp", and, amazingly, she won, despite "exposing no skin [other] than her face and hands".

She's "a proud hijab-wearing Bodybuilder", you see.



Now Pandey's article may be unintentionally hilarious in places. I was quite confident of winning the championship, he reports Bhanu as saying, as I found the other women contestants to be chubby. In other places he makes claims that are simply ludicrous. "She changed the game," he writes, "she will change the way you look at the sport."

No she won't.

But then I did start thinking about the "skin-tight sportswear" she wore on stage "along with her headscarf". I thought about all those places in the world where this would be the only acceptable attire for a woman to wear whatever sporting endeavour she was doing, and I wondered if this really could "change the game" in those countries.


An Iranian FBB - in private

From places like Iran, where Female Bodybuilding is actually illegal, to places like the UAE, very much at the liberal end of strict Islamic obedience, where the sport isn't exactly discouraged, but there are no female competitors, "skin-tight sportswear along with her headscarf" gives women a way to make contests acceptable to the authorities.

Perhaps the only way.


Khloud Essam, Egyptian FBB & Personal Trainer

Ashwini Waskar wore what she had to wear to compete. Majiziya Bhuna didn't have to wear her hijab, it was a choice. But inadvertently she may have shown women throughout the Islamic world how they might realise their competitive dreams.

Suddenly, hijab-wearing Female Bodybuilders don't sound so ridiculous after all.

The Year in Review: March

As we counted up the Hot and Hard 100 votes, life went on...

IN INDIA



We debunked the myth that Indian cricket god Sachin Tendulkar was a fan of the 2016 Ms India winner and multiple Asian championships medallist Thingbaijam Sarita Devi, but that nevertheless, "she has become a real beast," as one forum poster put it.



And reported on the first known (to us) example of state-sponsored female bodybuilding... In a corner of India so remote that the Chinese government doesn't even acknowledge parts of its most north-eastern state - Arunchal Pradesh - are, in fact, Indian territory, the "only female bodybuilder" there, Paklu Taipodia, has been making regional news recently. She travelled with her husband to meet Arunchal's Chief Minister at the end of January. Now I like this Chief Minister, Pema Khandu is his name, and that's him shaking Paklu's hand above. He is, apparently, a "keen sports enthusiast", and according to Indian media was "astounded by her sheer determination and courage". I like him a lot. "You are the embodiment of those who want to beat the odds to achieve excellence," he told her before promising "every help from the state government in future competitions at national and international level".

State assistance for female bodybuilding? Only in India!

IN THE (UK) CELEBRITY WORLD



We met, among others, actress etc. Gemma Atkinson, who British readers will know from her weekly appearances on Strictly Come Dancing. Bit of a mixed blessing it is. On the plus side, there's the skimpy costumes, on the downside, she's lost so much of the muscle she had packed on in the months preceding the show's first week. Since Stricly started both my training, and my diet especially, have been neglected. I’m eating way more than usual, training way less than usual and sleeping and resting less than usual, she explained recently. Never mind, it'll all be over before Christmas...

AND AT THE ARNOLDS



We had a British winner in the Amateur Fitness class - Kate Errington.



A Brazilian Physique double, with Priscila Cavilha winning the Amateur Overall and Daniely Castilho rather unexpectedly taking the Ms Physique International title.



And a wardrobe malfunction for the ages. Sorry Autumn, but it was GREAT!

Here's Autumn's "suit-held-firm" second go at her routine...



And then it was countdown time...

The HOT AND HARD 100


Oana, your 2017 Hottest Hard Woman in the World

For the fourth year running, you lovely lovely readers have enabled me to compile a list that, though not nearly as well-known, stands in opposition to those "Sexiest Women on Earth" type lists found in the "gentlemen's magazines", presenting an alternative vision of female beauty to the mainstream ideal. Strong and sexy.



Top of their classes: Anita Herbert (Bikini), Tina Nguyen (Figure),
the one and only Oksana Grishina (Fitness) & Cris Goy Arellano (Physique)

Out of the 100 women in our 2017 list, 47 compete in the Physique division, 26 compete in Bodybuilding, 13 in Figure, 3 in Bikini, and just one, Oksana Grishina, in Fitness, leaving 9 women who have not, so far as we know anyway, competed.



BOOM! Sarah Williams - not just top Brit in 2017, but the highest placing British bodybuilder ever on the Hot and Hard 100. BOOM! Sarah is not just the highest new entry on this year's list, but the highest Hot and Hard 100 new entry EVER!



Physique may have dominated the list overall, but there was beef to burn in the Top 10, where, as well as Sarah, you could find Selma (#4), Alina (#3), and Theresa (#2), and the outgoing and incoming Queens - Margie Martin and Helle Trevino.

We leave you today as we left you then, with your #1...



Tomorrow, Mrs Swell springs a surprise in our April review.

Mrs Swell's Easter Surprise: India

OK, so as I said yesterday, Mrs Swell has sprung an Easter surprise for yours truly in the shape of a two-week sunshine break. Bit of a spanner in the works though because ol' Swell's passport has only gone and bloody expired. The joys of the passport office - not to mention the "fast track" fee - await me today. Anyway, as I also said yesterday, don't blame the lady if, for a while, the posts are not of the usual standard.



Today, a brief trip to India. Again.



It's not that I'm particularly interested in the country's muscle women, it's just that the size of its English language media makes it so much easier for me to keep my eye on the Indian scene than it is to keep track of developments in, for example, South Korea.

And that media is churning out female muscle stories at the moment.




Front and centre for some of that attention is, of course, Deepika Chowdhury, India's only IFBB pro. Her 7th place in the Arnold Australia last month was widely reported in the online Indian media, even as she was bemoaning how unknown she remains. I am the only Indian woman to represent the country, but not too many people seem to be even aware of this sport, said the molecular biologist from Pune.



Given that in pretty much all of the rest of the world the situation is exactly as she describes it, I reckon Deepika should think herself a bit luckier than she does. No British woman has ever had their bodybuilding triumphs - not to mention a 7th place! - reported in the national media as far as I know - at least not in a story written specifically about the contest they've competed at. Local media, yes, often, but national media coverage is unheard of. And though I'm sure it is true there is a lack of public awareness in India, the media seem to be doing all they can to rectify that.



101 India's mission, they say, is to report on "India's evolving subculture scene - people whose beliefs, values, styles, and attitudes differ from that of the prevailing culture". Expect a few more muscle women on their YouTube channel in future.

Beauty of it is, I've been pretty much following Indian FBBs for the best part of two years now, and new names, like Yashmeen Chauhan Manak, just keep popping up all the time. Similarly, nor had I come across fitness model Ankita Singh, whose muscular beauty headlines today's post, before I read about her on the female-centric and somewhat bizarrely-titled Indian news website The Ladies Finger.



Same article, and I find another new name - Karuna Waghmare, who, as you can see above, is not one of those "small b" bodybuilders. Her chest and calf muscles ripple even when she’s simply sitting across from me, gushes the article's author, Chatura Rao, who does an excellent job with it, speaking to a variety of women - including the ubiquitous Deepika Chowdhury... I touch her arm in greeting when we meet and feel the warm firm muscles, writes Rao. Read the whole piece (gushes and all) here.



A similar theme to Rao's piece can be found in a report by Delhi-based journalist Ravinder Bawa, ie. it's all about breaking down barriers in a traditionally conservative culture. Female bodybuilders in India have ignored criticism, she writes. It will take sometime before the sport becomes common among women, but until then many are overcoming milestone after milestone to make a path for others. And you can watch her report (with footage of a national-level contest including, among others, teenage sensation Europa Bhowmik - see previously on FMS) on CGTN America.

Enjoy!

And tomorrow? Who knows?

I'll probably have time to jot some ideas down at the passport office though...

Around the World: India

Around the World is an occasional series celebrating the female bodybuilders of a particular country, and examining any issues peculiar to muscle women there.



You are the embodiment of those who want to beat the odds to achieve excellence.

It doesn't seem that long ago that FMS was writing about Ashwini Waskar, an Indian female bodybuilder from Mumbai who, when competing, was obliged to wear a more modest sports bra and shorts on stage rather than a normal posing suit. Since then we've reported on the Indian media's celebration of Shweta Rathore's international success, seen how Elle India congratulated seven muscular women for "overthrowing every feminine stereotype", met India's IFBB Figure pro Deepika Chowdhury, and most recently the 17-year-old sensation from West Bengal, Europa Bhowmik.



The times, at least for muscular women in India, appear to be changing. And changing fast. Deepika Chowdhury was in the country's national media towards the end of January after she became the first Indian woman to be invited to compete at the Arnold Classic in Australia, and a couple of weeks ago Shweta Rathore (again) and Thingbaijam Sarita Devi found themselves being celebrated in the international and national media for winning different (as far as I can tell anyway) Miss India titles.



One picture accompanying the news about the 34-year-old Devi allegedly shows her with Indian cricket deity Sachin Tendulkar (if you are not familiar with him, then think of your national sport, now think of the greatest ever player, alive or dead - Sachin, retired but very much alive, is the Indian equivalent). Apparently he is "an admirer".



Unfortunately - and I say that because it would be really nice if I could report Indian female bodybuilders were getting celebrity admirers - this is not actually true. Sachin is, unless I'm very much mistaken, an admirer of Laishram Sarita Devi, India's first professional female boxer and quite a celebrity in her own right in India, and not (yet) an admirer of Thingbaijam Sarita Devi, champion Indian female bodybuilder.



As well as her 2016 Miss India title, Thingbaijam has previously represented her country and brought home medals from Asian championships - hardly surprising given the size of those arms - and I imagine Thingbaijam'll be representing India once again this year. She has become a real beast, as one delighted forum poster puts it.



Meanwhile, in a corner of India so remote that the Chinese government doesn't even acknowledge parts of its most north-eastern state - Arunchal Pradesh - are, in fact, Indian territory, the "only female bodybuilder" there, Paklu Taipodia, has been making regional news recently, and not only because she's had contest successes.



A mother of three and a former competitive weightlifter, Paklu was 5th in a national event at the end of last year, and began 2017 by winning the Eastern India Miss Fitness title - an achievement widely reported in the regional Indian media. Perhaps most significantly though, when Paklu travelled with her husband to meet Arunchal's Chief Minister at the end of January, she was promised "every help from the state government in future competitions at national and international level".



State assistance for female bodybuilding? I like this Chief Minister. Pema Khandu is his name and that's him shaking Paklu's hand above. I like him a lot. And the quote that began today's post - You are the embodiment of those who want to beat the odds to achieve excellence - that's his. He is, apparently, a "keen sports enthusiast", and according to Indian media was "astounded by her sheer determination and courage".

State assistance for female bodybuilding! Only, it seems, in India.