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!

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.

MUSCLE! @Tampa Pro 2017

At the beginning of the month, the Tampa Pro provided the best Female Bodybuilding contest of the year prior to the Rising Phoenix. 17 women competed - the biggest line-up of the year, and - in my opinion anyway - by far the best in terms of quality. Sheila Bleck was crowned champion for the third time since 2014, with Britain's best Lisa Cross resplendent in her best ever shape runner-up for the second year in a row.



While on holiday, ol' Swell here has to admit to having spent a little more time than usual at the local hypermarket with its free wi-fi on the day after the show, drooling over the women, and Lisa in particular. The rest of the weekend was even spicier than normal for Mrs Swell. I'm sure that Lisa would approve of her effect.




This is the second year that Lisa has been under the guidance of Alina Popa, and the results are clear for all to see. One fan rocked up at the pre-show meet and greet with his video camera and found Lisa with Angela Rayburn. "Are you the famous Lisa Cross?" he asks. Poor Angela doesn't get a lot of screen time, Lisa revels in the attention. I'm frankly quite surprised how well our roving reporter handles it when she pouts and hits a double bicep. My voice would have gone up at least an octave.



Any other show this year and Lisa would have been facing the issue of how to get the big sword back through UK customs, and a lot of the forum chatter I've seen since the event has been about how she was "robbed" here. I'm not so sure. Sheila Bleck is one hard woman who is hard to beat in Tampa, where she's competed four times since 2012 (when she was runner-up to Sarah Hayes), winning on the last three occasions.



Her perfect proportions and flawless conditioning once again proved to be more than enough for the Tampa judges, and, as always, Sheila had the best evening routine.



Outside of the top two, it was a memorable pro debut for 3rd place Pauline Nelson (last seen on FMS winning that pro card in July), and in 4th Virginia Sanchez finally brought the size and conditioning from her prep and hotel room shots to the stage.




6th place Janeen Lankowski had her best day as a pro since she was 3rd (behind Sarah and Sheila) here in 2012, and Alicia Alfaro (aka Alfaro-Mesa), at her seventh attempt and her fifth in Tampa, finally cracked the top 10 and was awarded 7th.



Outside the top 10, Australia's Kahla Bullemor returned after a three-year break to provide female muscle lovers all over the globe with something to swoon over. I almost didn't recognise her to be honest - I remembered her shredded physique from 2014, but had never thought she could be as stunningly beautiful as she looked here.



Perhaps the fact that she was somewhat less shredded this time (although her legs still looked pretty damn peeled) allowed her natural gorgeousness to shine through, perhaps she's just one of those women who gets more beautiful with age. Whatever the reason, the fan search for candid pics of Kahla at the show is on, although judging by the lack of images on her Instagram that actually feature herself, that search may not prove to be fruitful. Let's hope it won't be another three years till we see her again.



Check out more clips from the show on fbbspy, and contest galleries - NPC News Online and FTVideo are my personal go-tos, though the former doesn't have anything from the evening show, it does have an extensive check-in gallery to wade through, and though the latter does have some evening stuff, it's mainly just from the awards.



More from Tampa tomorrow.

Enjoy!