Forza e Bellezza: Due Artiste

One of the many indicators that attitudes to female bodybuilding and female bodybuilders are 'wrong' among most of the (male-dominated) federations has, in my opinion, been the demise of the routine. Once upon a time, they were so much more than just a race to get through as many poses as possible before the music was cut and the next competitor ushered onto (and then just as quickly off) the stage.

Now a minute long if you're lucky, competitors were once upon a time given a full three minutes each. Women like Diana Dennis, rarely hitting a traditional pose in the course of her routine, made them into performances, with all the artistic connotations of that word, and they were often set to more than one piece of music. There are still some true artists out there, but with so little time given to them in competition, they can only find the time and space to truly express themselves as guest posers.

It's a shame that this aspect of the female bodybuilding show has declined in importance so much. Competitors muscularity and proportions have already been judged by the time the evening show comes around. What's the point of a routine if it's just a quick run through the same poses we've already seen in previous rounds? And furthermore, if these federations are, as they claim to be, so concerned about competitors' femininity, why are they deliberately downsizing the one part of the contest where feminine expression was most possible?

So, as my little reminder of what once was, and what could be again, today, FMS presents two of our favourite proponents of the long-lost art of the contest routine.

Two Italians. Two Claudias. Two artists.


Claudia Profanter

Also known as...

Claudia's alter-egos, Claudia Perfonter and Claudia Profonter

Claudia was a two-time WABBA world champ by the time she first competed at the Miss Olympia in 1989, finishing 11th. Long before I ever saw Claudia in motion her eyes, lips and muscles had made a big impression on my teenage self. She was Italian, after all, and that, as far as I was concerned, definitely made her count as an 'exotic' beauty.



Claudia's European and World Champion physique

Many years later, long after Claudia's final competition in 1991, I finally saw one of her routines. And she was glorious! What impressed me about her then, and still does now, is that as a direct result of the time there once was for each routine, Claudia can take her time (if only contestants had that luxury now, we might see it more often) and Claudia really does take her time. Consequently, each pose becomes an event in itself. Each pose has a beginning, a middle and an end.



See what you think with two of Claudia's Miss O routines.

Firstly, 1990, where despite a small wardrobe malfunction, Claudia delivers a stunning routine. There's also the added bonus (especially for fans of the deeper female voice and/or Italian accents) of a little of Claudia speaking English afterwards. But I urge you to keep watching to the very end as the crowd make their disapproval of the judges' decision known when she is announced in 9th place.



Claudia was bigger (and darker) in 1991, and her routine was, I think, even better than the year before. This wasn't good enough to improve her position by much, though, and she finished 8th. We don't have the announcement of the placings in this clip, but there's further evidence of her popular appeal nonetheless. Keep watching to the end of the routine to hear what this crowd thought of Claudia and her routine.



If you're still hungry for Claudia, other routines can be found  here and here 


Claudia Montemaggi

Q: What happens when a stunningly beautiful woman from Italy with a background in ballet and gymnastics becomes a bodybuilder?

A: Claudia Montemaggi.



While Claudia Profanter was making her last appearance at the Olympia in 1991, the second of our two Claudias was making her Olympia debut. Claudia Montemaggi had won the European Amateur Championships the year before, and had top three finishes at the World Championships and World Games behind her as well.



Her routines are among the most memorable you will ever see. She's everything a female bodybuilder can be (and everything a bodybuilding federation could want a female bodybuilder to be). She's certainly muscular, but there's nothing masculine about her. She's graceful, athletic, powerful, charismatic and sexy.

Firstly, Claudia at the 1989 World Games. Eurosport's Simon Reid notes at the end of her performance that 'you can certainly hear who the crowd's favourite is', but during her routine, both Simon and his co-commentator have left you in no doubt she's their favourite too. She's described as 'very very elegant', and as being 'in her own class' before the routine has barely got under way. By the time she's in full flow, the audience cheering her every move, she's made Simon wonder about the judging criteria, asking his colleague 'Does sex appeal have anything to do with it?'



Three years later, here's Claudia at her second and last Olympia. And apparently she's lost none of her power to win over the crowd or make a commentator a little hot under the collar while watching her. The man with the mic on this occasion becomes so obviously turned-on by Claudia that his female colleague eventually feels she just has to remind him: 'Jim! You're married!'



And for a little more of that Claudia M appeal,  go here


And if by now you're not convinced that female bodybuilders should be given more time for their routines again, that this could be one way of making the sport more attractive to the public...

If you're not convinced that at their best these routines are neither solely dance, gymnastics nor merely a collection of bodybuilding poses but a combination of all of these things, a performance style truly unique to the sport of female bodybuilding...

If you're not convinced by the two Claudias, the two Italian artists, at their peak...

Well... then you probably run a bodybuilding federation.


More from Italy tomorrow. Buon divertimento!