The 'High School Bodybuilder' at Wesley Chapel High School in Florida
A few years ago, a homemade video appeared on the forums of a ‘High School Bodybuilder’ called
Danielle Reardon. The clip (which as far as I can see is no longer available to watch) consisted solely of Danielle talking to camera. She talked, as far as I remember, about her future goals in the sport, her love of the lifestyle and the thrill she got from competing. I remember thinking that she was rather eloquent and came across as being very sure of herself and what she wanted. And I also remember thinking,
Hang on! She’s talking about having competed. How can a teenage girl possibly have competed already?
Well, that's first place,
thinks the girl in the glasses. Maybe I can get second.
To Brits like me, the idea that a high school (or secondary school as we say over here) would have a bodybuilding contest is, well, a little far-fetched. As a teenager I might have dreamed that some of the girls from the hockey team, the ones who frequented the weights room anyway, would do a bit of flexing for me, but it never once occurred to my overactive imagination that they would stand on the stage at the school in bikinis as competitors in our school’s bodybuilding show.
Miss Wesley Chapel 2008
It seems high school bodybuilding not only exists, but is well-established in some schools, at least in some parts of the US. The shows are essentially fundraisers for some sporting activity or another at the school, and involve boys and girls. Not surprisingly, perhaps, these shows have attracted rather a large amount of criticism. One member of the American Council on Exercise has said that teenagers experimenting with nutritional supplements, crash dieting or pre-contest dehydration is ‘a recipe for disaster. Emotionally, psychologically, physiologically, their bodies are not ready for it.’
But Danielle didn’t appear to have any of these issues. She seemed well-aware of what she was committing herself to, and did so simply because she had decided that the lifestyle bodybuilding entails was the life that she wanted to lead. And that is exactly what she has done.
Born in 1990 (!), Danielle hails from Florida. She attended Wesley Chapel High School, and competed in their annual bodybuilding show every year she was there, winning it in both her junior and senior years.
It was totally energizing, she says,
I loved the spotlight.
In 2010, she competed as a Figure competitor at NPC shows, and continued to do so in 2011, winning the short class at the Sunshine Classic and finishing 14th at the Nationals that year. But, now 21, it was becoming apparent that all those years of bodybuilding as a teenager meant that Danielle was simply too muscular to succeed in Figure at the highest level, and right from the get-go she had made it her ambition to be at that level, so she decided to move up to Physique.
Danielle at the 2012 NPC Southern States
The improvement in her results were immediate. She won her class (short) at the Mid-Florida Classic, finished 2nd at the NPC Southern States, and consequently qualified for the Nationals. There, she won her class. At the age of 22, she had her pro card.
Danielle wins her class at the 2012 NPC Nationals, obviously
It doesn’t take a crystal ball to see that this young woman is on the verge of becoming a phenomenon. What better advert could there be for the Physique division? And what better way could there be for
Hot and Hard Week to end?
