Olympia 2017: Yer Ms Olympias

There was a time when there was one Ms Olympia, and she was called Cory. Or Lenda. In 1995, when Kim was Ms Olympia, the Fitness Olympia was added to the show. Eight years later, the Figure Olympia was held for the first time, and Ms Olympia was Lenda. Again. Iris reigned when Bikini made its Olympia debut in 2010, and then in 2013 the addition of the Physique Olympia meant that, for two years at least, there were five female divisions. As I'm sure you need no reminding, The Ms Olympia was last held in 2014, and since then we've had four Ms Olympias each year and yet no Ms Olympia. And the four from 2017 - two new, two recrowned - kick off our FMS Olympia week.

Let's meet them in order of their divisions' introduction.

Ms FITNESS OLYMPIA
OKSANA GRISHINA



Given that the last person to beat her in any competition was Tanji Johnson at the Arnold Classic Europe in 2013, it was hardly a surprise that for the fourth consecutive year, Oksana won. Gosh, she said afterwards, sounding as surprised as everyone else.



The Olympia is pretty much the one time I actually watch Fitness routines, and Oksana never fails to stun. She didn't reprise the spinning round the stage in a giant hoop like some kind of human gyroscope routine from the Arnold Classic earlier this year, opting for a more balletic and altogether more typically Oksana-like performance. But as much as I am always impressed by the power, grace and artistry of her routines, it's the body that really appeals, always the most muscular in the comparison round.




You wouldn't know it to look at her but she's 39 now, and still the sole Fitness competitor in your Hot and Hard 100 - up from #31 to #23 in 2017. With an Instagram following of well over a quarter of a million, she also provides the fitness inspiration to hundreds of thousands of women the world over. Pure class.

Ms FIGURE OLYMPIA
CYDNEY GILLON

!NEW CHAMPION!



I don't like to blow my own trumpet, but in March, on the occasion of the divine Ms Gillon's Hot and Hard 100 debut, ol' Swell's crystal ball was cooking with gas...

Already this year she's got between Candice Lewis-Carter and Latorya Watts to earn a silver at the Figure International. Could she be Ms Figure Olympia in 2017?

Absolutely.




I was hardly going out on a limb though. Cydney's star has been rising in the last couple of years - 3rd at last year's Olympia came at the end of a season where she had won two pro titles, this year she was 2nd at the South American Arnolds and runner-up in Ohio, and she prepared for the Olympia by winning the Arizona Pro the previous week. Her time had come, and at the age of 25, this former collegiate track athlete and junior Bodybuilder becomes the 7th different woman in 14 years to be Ms Figure Olympia.



Here she is interviewed after her win by NPC News Online's Tony Doherty and mind you don't, as I did, get hypnotised by Cyd's dancing bicep as she gesticulates. Or those yummy shoulders. Or that big gold medal slapping against her tight hard abs...



No muscle in Figure? The evidence suggests otherwise!

Ms BIKINI OLYMPIA
ANGELICA TEIXEIRA

!NEW CHAMPION!



The second of our two new Ms Olympias, and the first of two Brazilians, Angelica Teixeira had, like Cydney Gillion, been getting closer and closer to the top of her division over the last couple of years. After failing to place on her Olympia debut in 2015, she turned things around last year with two pro wins before finishing runner-up at the Olympia. This year she has swept all before her, winning at the Arnolds in Ohio and Australia before she arrived in Las Vegas and justified her billing as favourite.



She's now based in the US, but her native Brazil is where it all started. I grew up seeing all the fit women on TV all the time, and at the beaches there are so many people with amazing bodies, she says. It’s very easy to get inspired in Brazil. Just as I thought!



This was, she says, the day my dream came true. It took her 30 competitions to become the Bikini Queen, but she wasn't resting on her laurels - within a week she was on a plane to Seoul to compete at the Asia Grand Prix. Bikini contest #31.

Ms PHYSIQUE OLYMPIA
JULIANA MALACARNE



Dana Linn Bailey won the first Physique Olympia back in 2013, and since then... one winner. The challengers might have changed - Dana Linn and Tycie Coppett in 2014, Kira Neuman got close in '15, Dani and Heather Grace last year, Jennifer Taylor and Heather again this, but the now 43-year-old Juliana Malacarne remains the undisputed, undefeated (in four years, anyway) Queen of Women's Physique.



Was it close(r) this year? I wouldn't say I agreed with the judges about the placings, but then again, when it comes to Physique, that's pretty much always true, but I always say this, and I always mean it - this was the best Physique line-up I had ever seen, ever so slightly tarnished by Shanique Grant's absence (again). Fact is, no one had just the right amount of muscle and conditioning for this year's judging zeitgeist like Jules did.




And while some other multiple Ms Olympias - mentioning no names - may have outstayed their welcome, there is no sign of a backlash against this one starting any time soon. Congratulations from her peers flooded in on her Instagram, and the fan forums lit up once more for this Physique dream. In my opinion, the sexiest woman on earth, one fan wrote. Juliana is perfect from head to toe. Absolute feminine beauty! You wouldn't bet against her making it five in a row next year, would you?



We leave you today with Juliana's winning routine.



Ai karamba!

Olympia all week on FMS.