Last week, I mentioned how much I enjoy clips of female bodybuilders walking, and illustrated the point with an FMC preview from 2012 starring Gillian Kovack.
In the clip, as you can see, Gillian is walking from one photo shoot location to another. She's in heels, wearing very little. She's oiled up, and absolutely magnificent, in her peakiest peak condition, so there's much to appreciate - so much in fact that I've found myself watching it over and over again again, just as I did when it first took my breath away five years ago. It never gets dull, and, I imagine, probably never will!
But last week I also found myself glued to a thirty-second clip of Figure phenom Sandra Grajales Romero. No photo shoot scenario, no oil, no bikini. OK, there a fair bit of Sandra's body on show, most notably her sensational back. And what's she doing? Pouring water from a big bottle into a small bottle. And I can't stop watching.
I've looped it a couple of times to allow better appreciation.
How mundane does what she's doing have to be before watching her gets boring?
Next week, Sandra does some dusting, and Lisa Cross adjusts the timer on her boiler to allow for British Summer Time. In her pyjamas. OK, I've made that up. Obviously Lisa would never wear pyjamas, but I am on the lookout for more clips of muscular women doing very mundane tasks. Any reader suggestions would be most welcome.
Enjoy!
Showing posts with label Gillian Kovack. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Gillian Kovack. Show all posts
Monday, 29 May 2017
Friday, 26 May 2017
Never Better: Gillian Kovack - Toronto 2012
GILLIAN KOVACK
4th, 2012 Toronto Pro
Gillian was one of FMS' Women of the Year in 2012 on the back of her performance in Toronto (and her blond to brunette transformation, and a Female Muscle Clips preview where all she does is walk!). So, despite her having had some (all too rare but) very strong showings since then, most notably her two 4th places in 2015, when we think of Gillian's best, we can't get beyond her smouldering 2012 pro debut.
And, believe it or not, I'm pretty sure Margie Martin would agree. One and a half years ago, wrote Gillian in 2016, one of the 2014 Toronto Pro athletes approached me near the SkyDome to introduce herself and tell me that she had one of my pictures from 2012 in the album she keeps to help motivate her to perform at HER best! She was, of course, Margie, and some time later on her own Instagram, Margie showed us that picture. It was Gillian's back, on stage in Toronto two years before they met.
I doubt, however, me and Margie were the only ones squirrelling images of Gillian's beef away in our special albums. That year, Lisa Giesbrecht took the title, Kim Buck was 2nd, and Britain's own Wendy McCready a career best 3rd. All great, all looked fantastic on the day, but I've looked back at the pictures and the video available from the show (all in the name of proper research you understand), and honestly I couldn't understand then and I still can't understand now why Gillian didn't win.
She's big. A big girl, noted George Farah on the MD play-by-play during prejudging. She's thick, he noted during her routine. Anyone else get the impression the man had lost a little of his usual eloquence while watching Gillian? Can't blame him if that is the case. That's certainly how she generally affects me, and he's looking at her in the flesh!
For me (and probably Margie too), Gillian was magnificent here. Magnificent width on her shoulders and that back. Big, beefy quads and glutes, and thick, thick hamstrings. She hasn't got the smallest waist but with her shoulders and legs she doesn't need one. She's magnificent (did I say that already?) And those deep, dark, smouldering eyes...
We really like Gillian, said FMS back in 2012. We really like her a lot. And we've continued to do so since then, even when she hasn't been at her best (and gone back to being blond). She's got that thing, whatever it is. Her struggles - financial, mental - eloquently (if only briefly) documented by Gillian on her blog - have only made us admire her more. She spoke back in 2016 of wanting to focus more on the coaching side of things, of wanting to continue her education, and refusing to become just another "Instagram fitness bimbo". She updated the blog once. Then it went quiet. Gillian, so often so good, doesn't seem to be about to return to competition.
I think that is a real shame. And Margie would probably agree.
Watch FMC's Gillian walking preview here.
4th, 2012 Toronto Pro
Gillian was one of FMS' Women of the Year in 2012 on the back of her performance in Toronto (and her blond to brunette transformation, and a Female Muscle Clips preview where all she does is walk!). So, despite her having had some (all too rare but) very strong showings since then, most notably her two 4th places in 2015, when we think of Gillian's best, we can't get beyond her smouldering 2012 pro debut.
And, believe it or not, I'm pretty sure Margie Martin would agree. One and a half years ago, wrote Gillian in 2016, one of the 2014 Toronto Pro athletes approached me near the SkyDome to introduce herself and tell me that she had one of my pictures from 2012 in the album she keeps to help motivate her to perform at HER best! She was, of course, Margie, and some time later on her own Instagram, Margie showed us that picture. It was Gillian's back, on stage in Toronto two years before they met.
I doubt, however, me and Margie were the only ones squirrelling images of Gillian's beef away in our special albums. That year, Lisa Giesbrecht took the title, Kim Buck was 2nd, and Britain's own Wendy McCready a career best 3rd. All great, all looked fantastic on the day, but I've looked back at the pictures and the video available from the show (all in the name of proper research you understand), and honestly I couldn't understand then and I still can't understand now why Gillian didn't win.
She's big. A big girl, noted George Farah on the MD play-by-play during prejudging. She's thick, he noted during her routine. Anyone else get the impression the man had lost a little of his usual eloquence while watching Gillian? Can't blame him if that is the case. That's certainly how she generally affects me, and he's looking at her in the flesh!
For me (and probably Margie too), Gillian was magnificent here. Magnificent width on her shoulders and that back. Big, beefy quads and glutes, and thick, thick hamstrings. She hasn't got the smallest waist but with her shoulders and legs she doesn't need one. She's magnificent (did I say that already?) And those deep, dark, smouldering eyes...
We really like Gillian, said FMS back in 2012. We really like her a lot. And we've continued to do so since then, even when she hasn't been at her best (and gone back to being blond). She's got that thing, whatever it is. Her struggles - financial, mental - eloquently (if only briefly) documented by Gillian on her blog - have only made us admire her more. She spoke back in 2016 of wanting to focus more on the coaching side of things, of wanting to continue her education, and refusing to become just another "Instagram fitness bimbo". She updated the blog once. Then it went quiet. Gillian, so often so good, doesn't seem to be about to return to competition.
I think that is a real shame. And Margie would probably agree.
Watch FMC's Gillian walking preview here.
Thursday, 21 July 2016
Obsessions New & Old
What, I wondered as I first thought about this week's selections, are my particular female muscle obsessions? You would think I'd know after roughly 30 years. Two key points were easy to identify. One, "The New", I expanded on on Tuesday, and the other will be dealt with on Saturday. Apart from that, I had a few assumptions.
Abs would surely have to be one, but then a glance at the most numerous labels over the last five years or so revealed that I'd made more posts concerning Biceps.
What goes on backstage would have to be another. As someone who's never been to a show, let alone been granted entry to a pump room (aka the holiest of holies), I guess it could be something about the attraction of the forbidden. Perhaps I'm so obsessed with backstage pics and clips because I know it's the closest I'll ever get. Perhaps it's the knowledge that nowhere on Earth is there a greater density of female muscle.
And it doesn't even have to be the big girls. I can get excited about just about any backstage clip, including Bikini. As long as there's pumping and flexing and tanning and oiling, I'm all over it. Below is a recent example of a fine bit of backstage camera work. Mostly it's the Figure pros. Diana Schnaidt is just one of many highlights.
And while we're on the subject of the Figure ladies, there's a somewhat newer obsession I appear to have developed, regarding their lack of flexing on stage and their obvious desire to flex the hell out of their muscles almost all of the rest of the time. It started a couple of years ago when Alicia Coates flexed her biceps at the Olympia...
Since then I've been monitoring the amount of gratuitous flexing ladies of the Figure division do when their not on stage at contests - in, for example, the pump room. Seems to me it's a lot. As much as possible in fact, but it doesn't end there. What about when they get interviewed after they win? Again, there's a lot. Really.
Take for example the lovely Stephanie Rowe, interviewed below by Ashley Adams for HD Physiques. Now Stephanie, as all women with muscle seem to me to do, gesticulates a lot during the interview. Inadvertent flexing you might call it, just keep your eyes on the arm closest to you. But then, as is customary at the end of these interviews, Stephanie shows us a pose (for the impatient, it's at 2.20). A Figure pose.
Can Stephanie resist giving us another kind of pose as well? Can she f**k?!
So, I obsessively wonder, does this mean that Alicia and Stephanie would like to do a bit more flexing on stage? Are all Figure ladies, or at least the ones who post themselves flexing, fully-pumped on their IG feeds day after day after day, frustrated flexers? Is the only cure a move up to Physique à la Shanique Grant?
Shanique, Figure (left), and flexing
Perhaps. But for the classiest competitors, the fact that they don't get to do the double biceps or the side chest or the abs and thigh doesn't stop them sneaking a sneaky flex into their "presentations". And the best example of this I've found this year has got to be the ever-classy Cydney Gillon winning at the Miami Muscle Beach Pro. Check out the cheeky, blink-and-you-miss-it rewind-no-I-didn't-imagine-it tricep flex at 0.24.
Obsessed? Yes I am!
In an effort to bring some sort of sanity to this post, I wondered if the blog labels would reveal obsession with particular women. The top five were both predictable and surprising. Alina has more posts dedicated to her than any other woman - predictable. Lisa Cross comes a close second - also predictable, given that I'm a Brit and am ever so slightly obsessed with Lisa. Shannon in fourth and Marthe and Margie tied for 5th - also predictable. But I was genuinely surprised to find that my third most written about woman was the much-missed Slovenian she-beast Brigita Brezovac.
I don't regret a single post, I just wouldn't have counted Brigita among my top five of the past five years if you'd asked. And I guess that just goes to show how little I know! Possibly though it has something to do with the fact that the tip top number one label is "Muscle", and there can be no doubt at all that Brigita always had plenty of that.
And so, to another of my lasting obsessions. No, it's not the tongue, or the outfit - although in the case of that clip neither of those things hurt - it's the walk.
Honestly, I think if I ever saw a female bodybuilder, a real female bodybuilder, especially one who I recognised, out in public walking along the street, well, I think I would probably just keep on following her until I was either confronted, arrested, or had a door of some sort slammed in my face. I could watch clips of female bodybuilders walking all day. Every day. And I'm so enamoured by them that if a longer clip starts off with a walk before fading into something else, I'm gutted.
As George Harrison sang, something in the way she moves...
Right. Time to get this over with. I've already probably given the impression I am, if not mentally deranged, super-creepy. But if you share any of these obsessions, or indeed others - glutes, Brazilians, Brazilian glutes, Dani Reardon, female muscle hand bras, extreme vascularity, that bulge - then I'm sure we'd have something to talk about if we met at a place that has become another of my obsessions, the Girls with Muscle chat room. Look out for 6ft1swell joining the chat and say hello.
Or get the hell out of there sharpish. Your call.
Abs would surely have to be one, but then a glance at the most numerous labels over the last five years or so revealed that I'd made more posts concerning Biceps.
What goes on backstage would have to be another. As someone who's never been to a show, let alone been granted entry to a pump room (aka the holiest of holies), I guess it could be something about the attraction of the forbidden. Perhaps I'm so obsessed with backstage pics and clips because I know it's the closest I'll ever get. Perhaps it's the knowledge that nowhere on Earth is there a greater density of female muscle.
And it doesn't even have to be the big girls. I can get excited about just about any backstage clip, including Bikini. As long as there's pumping and flexing and tanning and oiling, I'm all over it. Below is a recent example of a fine bit of backstage camera work. Mostly it's the Figure pros. Diana Schnaidt is just one of many highlights.
And while we're on the subject of the Figure ladies, there's a somewhat newer obsession I appear to have developed, regarding their lack of flexing on stage and their obvious desire to flex the hell out of their muscles almost all of the rest of the time. It started a couple of years ago when Alicia Coates flexed her biceps at the Olympia...
Since then I've been monitoring the amount of gratuitous flexing ladies of the Figure division do when their not on stage at contests - in, for example, the pump room. Seems to me it's a lot. As much as possible in fact, but it doesn't end there. What about when they get interviewed after they win? Again, there's a lot. Really.
Take for example the lovely Stephanie Rowe, interviewed below by Ashley Adams for HD Physiques. Now Stephanie, as all women with muscle seem to me to do, gesticulates a lot during the interview. Inadvertent flexing you might call it, just keep your eyes on the arm closest to you. But then, as is customary at the end of these interviews, Stephanie shows us a pose (for the impatient, it's at 2.20). A Figure pose.
Can Stephanie resist giving us another kind of pose as well? Can she f**k?!
So, I obsessively wonder, does this mean that Alicia and Stephanie would like to do a bit more flexing on stage? Are all Figure ladies, or at least the ones who post themselves flexing, fully-pumped on their IG feeds day after day after day, frustrated flexers? Is the only cure a move up to Physique à la Shanique Grant?
Shanique, Figure (left), and flexing
Perhaps. But for the classiest competitors, the fact that they don't get to do the double biceps or the side chest or the abs and thigh doesn't stop them sneaking a sneaky flex into their "presentations". And the best example of this I've found this year has got to be the ever-classy Cydney Gillon winning at the Miami Muscle Beach Pro. Check out the cheeky, blink-and-you-miss-it rewind-no-I-didn't-imagine-it tricep flex at 0.24.
Obsessed? Yes I am!
In an effort to bring some sort of sanity to this post, I wondered if the blog labels would reveal obsession with particular women. The top five were both predictable and surprising. Alina has more posts dedicated to her than any other woman - predictable. Lisa Cross comes a close second - also predictable, given that I'm a Brit and am ever so slightly obsessed with Lisa. Shannon in fourth and Marthe and Margie tied for 5th - also predictable. But I was genuinely surprised to find that my third most written about woman was the much-missed Slovenian she-beast Brigita Brezovac.
I don't regret a single post, I just wouldn't have counted Brigita among my top five of the past five years if you'd asked. And I guess that just goes to show how little I know! Possibly though it has something to do with the fact that the tip top number one label is "Muscle", and there can be no doubt at all that Brigita always had plenty of that.
And so, to another of my lasting obsessions. No, it's not the tongue, or the outfit - although in the case of that clip neither of those things hurt - it's the walk.
Honestly, I think if I ever saw a female bodybuilder, a real female bodybuilder, especially one who I recognised, out in public walking along the street, well, I think I would probably just keep on following her until I was either confronted, arrested, or had a door of some sort slammed in my face. I could watch clips of female bodybuilders walking all day. Every day. And I'm so enamoured by them that if a longer clip starts off with a walk before fading into something else, I'm gutted.
As George Harrison sang, something in the way she moves...
Right. Time to get this over with. I've already probably given the impression I am, if not mentally deranged, super-creepy. But if you share any of these obsessions, or indeed others - glutes, Brazilians, Brazilian glutes, Dani Reardon, female muscle hand bras, extreme vascularity, that bulge - then I'm sure we'd have something to talk about if we met at a place that has become another of my obsessions, the Girls with Muscle chat room. Look out for 6ft1swell joining the chat and say hello.
Or get the hell out of there sharpish. Your call.
Thursday, 11 June 2015
Toronto: The Magnificent Seven
As the Women's Bodybuilding at the Omaha Pro had been slagged off both in advance and afterwards, I resolved to avoid all previews and reports from Toronto. It seems to me that however big or small the field, whatever you might (subjectively) think about the quality of the women on show or the judging, I think what matters in these harsh times is that the show took place and female bodybuilders were part of it. Who knows how long much longer that will be the case? Let's celebrate while we still can.
In Omaha the previous weekend there had been ten of them. Last Saturday in Toronto, they were but seven. And FMS is going to give each and every one of those seven some appreciation in today's post. There'll be no gripes and no whinging. Just love and admiration. They are female bodybuilders, and they are all magnificent.
7 AMANDA AIVALIOTIS
After winning her pro card at last year's NPC North Americans, Amanda made her professional bow in the city she calls home at the age of 45. Good to see Amanda didn't neglect to get a cheeky most muscular or two into her routine - something she is known for - and I'm also happy to see she hasn't taken any notice of the forum posters who don't like her on stage facial expressions, 'cos I love 'em.
Amanda started training at the age of 16 - The moment I touched a weight, I was ready to sculpt my physique. Once I stepped on stage, I was hooked on bodybuilding - she says, reckoning it is the Spartan Greek in her blood that provides the fascination she has with creating the perfect physique. Her gym sounds pretty Spartan too - brick walls and chains hanging from the ceiling - she says. And now she has broken her pro cherry, she plans to compete again this year, possibly twice more.
6 BONNIE SWITZER
Bonnie who? I said to myself as I looked at the competitor lists before the show (and no, that doesn't count as a preview). Boy did I feel stoopid when I saw the prejudging pics late Saturday night UK time. Of course! How many other Bonnies are there?
For the first time since 2012, the Bonnie who is better known as Pappas (although it seems she's been Switzer (or Pappas Switzer) for a while) [easy on the brackets! - ed.] graced the stage in Toronto, and to my eyes anyway, she looks just as charismatic as I remember her. I've caused a few accidents! she says. I can believe it. And she's still on a mission. I love being able to turn it on in the gym, sweat, swear and lift with the best of them, but also able to go out and prove that female muscle can be sexy, feminine and very appealing. Mission accomplished in Toronto, I reckon.
5 MARGIE MARTIN
Look at those big and juicy thighs cascading out of those denim shorts - if there was a prize for the best check-in outfit, I reckon Margie would win it at every show. And like Amanda, Margie squeezed out a most muscular. Could she be any more "vesuvial"?!
She was pretty much FMS' Swoon Queen in 2014, and the way she's started the contest season in 2015, she ain't gonna be losing her crown any time soon. Imagine being enveloped by all that beefy black muscle. At this point in my life it means more than it ever did before - says Margie, which I hope means she ain't going to stop doing what she does to me for a long time to come. Uh-oh, I feel a swoon coming on...
4 GILLIAN KOVACK
Gillian, I noticed you were listed both here and in Omaha as one of the Physique competitors. Was that your idea of a joke? Getting me all worried and all. No joke, she says, wagging a finger. I just wanted to give you a nice surprise. And I was a nice surprise, wasn't I? Well, OK, then. I'm blushing, naturally. You were a lovely surprise. A lovely big surprise? she asks, those big brown eyes searing straight into mine...
She's back. And she's still got that back. A back that moved me so at the same show three years ago now. She was going through her dark hair phase then, now she's back to blond and back to her best. Collected another 4th place at the Toronto Pro yesterday, Gillian really said after the show. Combined with the result in Omaha that should be enough points to qualify me for the Wings of Strength Rising Phoenix Women's Bodybuilding World Championship in San Antonio on Aug 22nd! So after a needed week off I'll be starting my prep. Thankfully, those competitor lists were wrong and the big and beautiful Gillian is still every inch a bodybuilder.
3 JANA BENDOVA
The first of two Czechs who proved to be the dark horses of the show, Jana's name didn't ring any bells before the show, but as soon as I saw the pictures, I recognised her. Not facially, as it happens, but rather it was the insane conditioning, and the striations across her pure muscle pecs in particular, that were familiar.
Muscle Memory tells us that Jana's been competing at European and World level since 2010. She's had some podium finishes, but never managed to win a title. Safe to assume then that she had received one of those discretionary pro cards handed out by national federations - pretty much the only way for European bodybuilders to get on the pro circuit these days. And well-deserved it was I'm sure. She's certainly done whoever was responsible for the award proud in her first pro outing.
2 VERA MIKULCOVA
Last time I remember seeing Vera, she was sweating buckets, emitting deeper grunts than is considered ladylike in most circles, and curling about as much as my car weighs (I may have made that last bit up). I was impressed. And I have to say I am impressed this time around as well. Them's some big ol' biceps she is sporting, and at over 5'8" (1.73m) she carries all that muscle on a seriously statuesque frame.
Like her compatriot Jana, it may appear that Vera has come from nowhere to take 2nd place here, but it's not as though the Czech Republic have never produced quality female bodybuilders, is it? The heirs to Zuzana and Jitka have arrived. And if there was any doubt before, there isn't now. They're serious contenders.
1 CHRISTINE ENVALL
It takes more than a tight layer of clothing to hide muscles like Christine's, and on stage there's no mistaking the quality and quantity she carries these days. Her leg bicep alone was probably worth the price of admission to many of the female bodybuilding fans lucky enough to see Christine take the title in Toronto. 2014 saw her debut at the Olympia after a career spanning more than two decades. Now, just a year on from that career highlight, she's a pro champ for the very first time.
The emotion of her win is there for all to see in the contest galleries, and why shouldn't she be? At 42, she's bound for the Wings of Strength Rising Phoenix World Championships - not exactly a name that slips of the tongue, even if it is rather apt. But I very much doubt Christine gives much of a hoot what it's called, just that she's going to be there, and that one more career highlight might be waiting there for her. In both Omaha and Toronto there have been some surprises. Who knows what surprises might be in store in San Antonio come August 22nd?
Next stop for Female Bodybuilding: Chicago, July 2nd.
In Omaha the previous weekend there had been ten of them. Last Saturday in Toronto, they were but seven. And FMS is going to give each and every one of those seven some appreciation in today's post. There'll be no gripes and no whinging. Just love and admiration. They are female bodybuilders, and they are all magnificent.
7 AMANDA AIVALIOTIS
After winning her pro card at last year's NPC North Americans, Amanda made her professional bow in the city she calls home at the age of 45. Good to see Amanda didn't neglect to get a cheeky most muscular or two into her routine - something she is known for - and I'm also happy to see she hasn't taken any notice of the forum posters who don't like her on stage facial expressions, 'cos I love 'em.
Amanda started training at the age of 16 - The moment I touched a weight, I was ready to sculpt my physique. Once I stepped on stage, I was hooked on bodybuilding - she says, reckoning it is the Spartan Greek in her blood that provides the fascination she has with creating the perfect physique. Her gym sounds pretty Spartan too - brick walls and chains hanging from the ceiling - she says. And now she has broken her pro cherry, she plans to compete again this year, possibly twice more.
6 BONNIE SWITZER
Bonnie who? I said to myself as I looked at the competitor lists before the show (and no, that doesn't count as a preview). Boy did I feel stoopid when I saw the prejudging pics late Saturday night UK time. Of course! How many other Bonnies are there?
For the first time since 2012, the Bonnie who is better known as Pappas (although it seems she's been Switzer (or Pappas Switzer) for a while) [easy on the brackets! - ed.] graced the stage in Toronto, and to my eyes anyway, she looks just as charismatic as I remember her. I've caused a few accidents! she says. I can believe it. And she's still on a mission. I love being able to turn it on in the gym, sweat, swear and lift with the best of them, but also able to go out and prove that female muscle can be sexy, feminine and very appealing. Mission accomplished in Toronto, I reckon.
5 MARGIE MARTIN
Look at those big and juicy thighs cascading out of those denim shorts - if there was a prize for the best check-in outfit, I reckon Margie would win it at every show. And like Amanda, Margie squeezed out a most muscular. Could she be any more "vesuvial"?!
She was pretty much FMS' Swoon Queen in 2014, and the way she's started the contest season in 2015, she ain't gonna be losing her crown any time soon. Imagine being enveloped by all that beefy black muscle. At this point in my life it means more than it ever did before - says Margie, which I hope means she ain't going to stop doing what she does to me for a long time to come. Uh-oh, I feel a swoon coming on...
4 GILLIAN KOVACK
Gillian, I noticed you were listed both here and in Omaha as one of the Physique competitors. Was that your idea of a joke? Getting me all worried and all. No joke, she says, wagging a finger. I just wanted to give you a nice surprise. And I was a nice surprise, wasn't I? Well, OK, then. I'm blushing, naturally. You were a lovely surprise. A lovely big surprise? she asks, those big brown eyes searing straight into mine...
She's back. And she's still got that back. A back that moved me so at the same show three years ago now. She was going through her dark hair phase then, now she's back to blond and back to her best. Collected another 4th place at the Toronto Pro yesterday, Gillian really said after the show. Combined with the result in Omaha that should be enough points to qualify me for the Wings of Strength Rising Phoenix Women's Bodybuilding World Championship in San Antonio on Aug 22nd! So after a needed week off I'll be starting my prep. Thankfully, those competitor lists were wrong and the big and beautiful Gillian is still every inch a bodybuilder.
3 JANA BENDOVA
The first of two Czechs who proved to be the dark horses of the show, Jana's name didn't ring any bells before the show, but as soon as I saw the pictures, I recognised her. Not facially, as it happens, but rather it was the insane conditioning, and the striations across her pure muscle pecs in particular, that were familiar.
Muscle Memory tells us that Jana's been competing at European and World level since 2010. She's had some podium finishes, but never managed to win a title. Safe to assume then that she had received one of those discretionary pro cards handed out by national federations - pretty much the only way for European bodybuilders to get on the pro circuit these days. And well-deserved it was I'm sure. She's certainly done whoever was responsible for the award proud in her first pro outing.
2 VERA MIKULCOVA
Last time I remember seeing Vera, she was sweating buckets, emitting deeper grunts than is considered ladylike in most circles, and curling about as much as my car weighs (I may have made that last bit up). I was impressed. And I have to say I am impressed this time around as well. Them's some big ol' biceps she is sporting, and at over 5'8" (1.73m) she carries all that muscle on a seriously statuesque frame.
Like her compatriot Jana, it may appear that Vera has come from nowhere to take 2nd place here, but it's not as though the Czech Republic have never produced quality female bodybuilders, is it? The heirs to Zuzana and Jitka have arrived. And if there was any doubt before, there isn't now. They're serious contenders.
1 CHRISTINE ENVALL
It takes more than a tight layer of clothing to hide muscles like Christine's, and on stage there's no mistaking the quality and quantity she carries these days. Her leg bicep alone was probably worth the price of admission to many of the female bodybuilding fans lucky enough to see Christine take the title in Toronto. 2014 saw her debut at the Olympia after a career spanning more than two decades. Now, just a year on from that career highlight, she's a pro champ for the very first time.
The emotion of her win is there for all to see in the contest galleries, and why shouldn't she be? At 42, she's bound for the Wings of Strength Rising Phoenix World Championships - not exactly a name that slips of the tongue, even if it is rather apt. But I very much doubt Christine gives much of a hoot what it's called, just that she's going to be there, and that one more career highlight might be waiting there for her. In both Omaha and Toronto there have been some surprises. Who knows what surprises might be in store in San Antonio come August 22nd?
Next stop for Female Bodybuilding: Chicago, July 2nd.
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