Contest of the Day: NABBA Universe

NABBA Universe
12th October, Southport

The NABBA Miss Universe, the oldest female bodybuilding contest of all, was held for the 47th time last month at its usual venue, the Southport Theatre and Convention Centre in Merseyside. Though there has been no 'Bodybuilding' (called 'Physique' in NABBA jargon) Miss Universe since Valentina Yefymchuk was crowned in 2010, there are two 'Trained Figure' (ie. 'Physique' in an IFBB contest) classes, and one 'Toned Figure' (equivalent to IFBB 'Figure') class. So there's absolutely no shortage of quality female muscle to enjoy, and all presented in the thongtastic style that is, for me anyway, a large part of what gives the women of NABBA their enduring appeal.



The Toned Figure class was won by Britian's own Nicola Bentham for the second consecutive year (she also won the NABBA Worlds title in 2012). As we've mentioned before on FMS, it can be a frustrating job trying to find information about NABBA competitors, and this is most definitely the case with Nicola. We have managed to establish that she is from the same part of the world as teenage muscle sensation Georgina McConnell, the north-east of England, and that she works, or used to work as a fitness instructor. Beyond that, I'm afraid, we can only recommend following 'Nikki' on Facebook for more, though I am sure you don't need any information at all in order to enjoy her winning routine.



The other British success story was a second place for Sarah Hallett (like Nicola, previously featured on FMS) in the taller of the two Trained Figure classes.



Sarah, a 43-year-old mother and firefighter (yes, it's time to unleash the female muscle firefighter fantasy again) is the reigning NABBA Miss Britain. She has, pleasingly, received some love from local Welsh media after her second place finish, and the story was picked up and reported by the national media. So if you do want to know more about this amazing woman, read all about her in the original Wales Online article and/or the resulting Daily Mail piece.



The winner of the shorter Trained Figure class, and the Overall Miss Universe for 2013 was Italian NABBA veteran Flora Conte. Regular readers may remember we featured Flora previously on FMS (see Forza e Bellezza NABBA Italia). This was the second time she has gone home with the Overall title, having won it previously in 2010.



The mind boggles at the dedication of women like Flora, who, on top of her numerous appearances at the NABBA Worlds, was competing for the fifth consecutive year here. She could, if she had wanted to, become a pro - the Miss Universe title was a step on the road to pro status for, among others, Alina Popa (who won in 2007). But Flora obviously does it out of sheer love for the sport, turning up year after year in great shape and leaving with a top three finish at the very least. Now in her late thirties, there's no reason to suspect she'll be resting on her laurels and hanging up her posing suit any time soon. See you next year Flora!

And last, but not least, a word about the Brazilian contingent at this year's show, which, unsurprisingly for a federation that encourages the wearing of thongs, was about the largest apart from the Brits. Tereza Augusta (see her routine here) finished third in the taller Trained Figure class, which was won by her compatriot Carol Bittencourt. If you can keep your hands above the table after Carol turns round and flexes those gorgeous glutes at about the thirty-second mark, you are a better man than I...



Auren Malvestiti (routine here) was runner-up to Flora Conte in the shorter Trained Figure class, but I'll leave you today with the lady who finished one place behind her, Cinara Polido, and who, among all the gorgeously tight, thong-framed bottoms on display, wins Swell's vote for the Miss Universe 'Rear of the Year'. At around twenty seconds in, Cinara's left (as we look) cheek starts its own individual little posing routine, and I really can't tell you what happens after that!



Lots more clips on the NABBA2009 YouTube channel. Fill your boots.

Arms of the Day: Lorena Feruzzi

The female muscle freedom fighter...



The first two images that I can remember of a muscle woman 'tooled up' came courtesy of WPW (I think) back in the early 1990s (again, I'm relying on memory). Italian female muscle legend Lorena Ferruzzi provided the beautiful frame to hang the weapons on. That chest in that vest, those legs in those boots. I was innamorato a prima vista (as they say in her hometown of Viterbo) and such is her enduring power over me that all these years later I'm getting all tingly just thinking about that first time.

More Lorena minus the weaponry (but still with that chest) on YouTube

Enjoy!

Muscle Beauty and the Baize of the Day

With the World Snooker Championship entering its second and climactic week in Sheffield (in the UK), FMS is proud to present a week-long selection of female muscle favourites wielding their cues for your viewing pleasure.

And to segue nicely into the week via last week's Italian theme, mmmore Mmmavi...



An 8-ball fanatic, Mavi likes nothing better than cleaning up at amateur competitions in her region. And if her cue ball control isn't quite good enough to win, the red dress sufficiently distracts her opponents from what's happening on the table...



... which is just as well, because she HATES losing.

Forza e Bellezza: Mavi Gioia

So, how to end the week of Italiane? Ah, yes. Mmmavi Gioia…

MAVI BEFORE



Mavi fact
Her real name is Maria Vincenza Gioia.

Mavi says: Three things which make me angry are hypocrisy, fake people and traffic.



They say: [She’s] so scorchingly hot she’d make a bishop kick a hole in a stain glass window.

Mavi fact
She was born in 1977 in Mesagne in Puglia.



Mavi says: I’m fine with being photographed naked. I believe the human body is a masterpiece which can be made into a piece of art and should be immortalised.

They say: [She’s] one of those genetic standouts that make you believe her presence on Earth could only be because of the good graces of God – perhaps he was feeling a little saucy?



Mavi fact
Mavi lives in San Marino with her husband, Gian Enrico Pica.

Mavi says: I wake at 7 and have my personal training clients for the first few hours of the day. Then I go to work at my husband’s company. At the end of the day we train together. Somewhere in the middle of all that I am a housewife.



They say: You can tell from some of the pictures where she is flashing those pearly whites that she could sign any contract for any endorsements and represent a company with beauty and grace.

Mavi fact
She’s a Virgo. Her birthday is August 30th.




MAVI NOW



Mavi says: I like competing but I much prefer modelling.

They say: I’ve never seen a woman with such big muscles and such a beautiful face!



Mavi fact
Mavi started weight training ‘seriously’ in 2000.

Mavi says: In Italy, we have great food. There’s a lot of temptation, but it’s pretty easy to diet too.



They say: Mavi Gioia is bodybuilding's Mount Vesuvius. While her power and her heat are on par with Italy's most famous volcano, it's her curves that are potentially as deadly.

Mavi fact
Mavi is 1.60m or 5’2”.



Mavi says: My favourite bodybuilder is Lenda Murray.

They say: Absolute stunner. She is my idol. I love her, and would love to have her body. [That’s a quote from a woman, by the way.]



Mavi fact
First competed in 2002.

Mavi says: I am happy if my family is well.



Swell says: Apologies if your personal favourite wasn’t featured, but I hope you’ve enjoyed this week of muscular Italian women. We end with 36 seconds of heaven…




Buon divertimento!

Forza e Bellezza: Festa della Liberazione

25th April: Liberation Day in Italy

Mainstream society may have become a little more tolerant of female muscle over the years, but this apparent acceptance is generally reserved for those women who require muscle to achieve high levels of athletic endeavour. The admiration reported in the media for Jessica Ennis’ Olympic body, for example, seems to suggest that ‘muscle for purpose’ is something mainstream society may tolerate. Nevertheless, that tolerance is not without conditions. If a woman ‘goes too far’, further than is deemed necessary for her purpose, noticeably further than her contemporaries in developing her physique, as Serena Williams has done, the amount of admiration or tolerance diminishes considerably, or simply becomes outright rejection.

But although Serena has ‘gone too far’, she still falls into the ‘muscle for purpose’ category. Female bodybuilders do not.

Consequently, all female bodybuilders challenge traditional notions of femininity, of what a woman should look like. In doing so, it has been argued that they ‘liberate’ themselves from the gender roles ascribed to them.

A small number of women in the history of the sport, however, have not just flown in the face of society at large, but have also challenged the definitions of acceptable muscular development laid down by the federations that run the sport.



Change judges, presidents, acronyms, but the concept is still the same. A female bodybuilder has enormous limitations if she wants to compete. Many more limits and boundaries in comparison to their male colleagues. In bodybuilding, subjectivity is part of the game. The federations and the economic interests behind them, that actually control them, draw the lines within which female bodybuilders can operate. What a bodybuilder ‘should be’ is always dictated by the federation and competitors must comply with codes and standards that come from above. But I have never bent to the will of others. Never have I tried to accommodate different federations’ guidelines that wanted me softer, smaller, less hard.
Viviana Violante



Viviana Violante was born in 1965 in Milan. After an injury picked up while skiing put an end to her ambitions as a shot putter, Viviana entered a gym as part of her recuperation in 1985.

I was shy, insecure and perhaps thought that with a strong and muscular body I could build a sort of ‘armour’ to protect the Viviana that was a little afraid of the world. Or maybe the desire to change and create a body, shaping it with its own hands drew me to the challenge. At the same time I wanted to be different. Maybe it was a way to get out of that ‘normality’ that scared me so much. Or maybe, more simply, we are born with this passion and it is innate. More likely is that it is a mix of all these reasons. And once I had taken the road it was with the same intention I have had ever since, to grow and improve. My first contest was a bit of a game... but once I took the stage the emotion was so strong, so all-encompassing that I wasn’t able to do without it.



Her first contest, ‘a bit of a game’, was in 1991, and by 1994 she was competing at European level. Three years later she had been a WPF World champion and turned pro on the IFBB circuit. Her fan base grew as a result of the greater exposure she was now getting, but she always placed very low. In 2000, she hung up her posing suit.



Viviana Violante retired because Viviana Violante wanted to. This is not the story of a woman ground down and forced towards retirement because she was bitter about how she had been treated as a competitor. In fact, she has never suggested, to my knowledge anyway, that retirement was anything less than what she decided she wanted to do at that stage, a decision that was entirely hers alone.



And although she found that she was able to enjoy some of the sports she had always loved - mountaineering, snowboarding, paragliding, boxing, and canoeing among others – she did not give up the weights, and continues to train to this day.

I will always be a bodybuilder. I love being ‘big’. I train every day and I find peace through being a bodybuilder. I don’t need to compete to feel this. I'm training to be as I like to be: large, tight, hard! Without being subject to obligations, limitations or rules dictated by federations or judges. In freedom!



Female bodybuilders might free themselves from the constraints of their prescribed gender roles by developing a muscular physique, but if they then deny themselves the physique they really want because of the constraints imposed by bodybuilding federations, why bother?

We can see that Viviana feels her ‘liberation’ came only after she had retired, so is this the only way for female bodybuilders to truly ‘liberate’ themselves? To turn their backs on competition? To opt out of the sport entirely so that they are no longer at the mercy of the whims of (male-dominated) federations and their ever-changing guidelines? Does real freedom for female bodybuilders mean the end of female bodybuilding competitions?

Thankfully not. The key to ‘liberation’ according to Viviana, lies in the attitude.

I'll just tell you what I always say to the girls who want to compete and ask my advice: ‘GIRLS, train TO BECOME WHAT YOU WANT TO BE, NOT WHAT OTHERS EXPECT YOU TO BE.’ Women should be free to choose the type of physique they desire. So there will be those who like to be softer and those like me who love to be less so. The true essence of our discipline requires that every athlete, every bodybuilder wins her own competition with herself. And the real competition never ends, because with every workout we ‘fight’ against ourselves, against our limits, against what we want to correct and modify.



I love our sport. The most important thing that I gained was NOT the muscles, but the knowledge that if I want to achieve a goal I can do.



For more, visit Viviana's website


Viviana Violante today

Happy Liberation Day!

Forza e Bellezza: NABBA Italia

Or, Italian women also do it in thongs...

Today, FMS features the three NABBA Miss Universe winners to have come from Italy - Flora Conte, Lorena Bucci, and the incomparable Giovanna Rosa, as well as a little tribute to another Italian NABBA contestant that we have a real soft spot for, the lovely Federica Ortu. All of them competed or compete in the Trained Figure category, more or less equivalent to the recently invoked Physique classes in the USA.

As always, bear in mind that NABBA is an amateur bodybuilding federation, and this, we think anyway, makes the achievements of these women all the more remarkable.

Flora Conte
NABBA Miss Universe 2010



A mother of two, Flora won her title at the age of 36, twenty years after she crossed the threshold of the gym, as she puts it. But she was not alone. Her boyfriend at that time, later to become her husband, had also 'crossed the threshold' with her, and as they say, the couple that trains together... Now they co-manage a gym in Tuscany and what's more, Flora's husband, Giuseppe, is also the President of WFF-NABBA Italia, or at least he was until a year ago (it's frustratingly hard to find decent information about the organisation), so I guess that makes Flora Italian bodybuilding's 'First Lady'.



Of her early inspirations and her intial motivation to train, she says, I was enchanted by pictures of Cory Everson... fascinated by the beautiful Lenda Murray, but the athlete I wanted to most be like was our wonderful and inimitable Giovanna Rosa. How fitting then that a decade after her heroine had done so, Flora was to claim the Universe title. And it seems that Flora has provided some inspiration of her own. Waiting for her children outside their school, other mothers at first stood wide-eyed and disgusted, especially those mothers covered in cellulite, she says. But times, it seems, have changed. Over the years, their eyes gradually got less and less wide, and slowly, some of them even began to ask my advice!



Here is Flora's routine from the 2010 NABBA Universe and the subsequent posedowns and awards. If you can find another link to the clip where the sound hasn't been muted, please let me know and I'll replace this one.




Lorena Bucci
NABBA Miss Universe 2004



I'm afraid this is all we have to admire of the 2004 champion. We found just this one photo was suitable for the blog, and we haven't tracked down any clips of her (or the 2004 event) either! A pretty poor showing given Lorena is a past winner (and it's not like she won it in the '60s) of a major international bodybuilding contest. And that's really all we have to say about it other than a message to Lorena herself: Lorena, you really should be more famous than you are, so if you ever drop by and read this, we would love to do an interview with you.


Federica Ortu



Now in her early thirties, Federica has been competing in national and international NABBA, WABBA, IFBA and WPF competitions since for the best part of ten years. She was NABBA Italian champion in 2005, and has three 3rd place NABBA Universe finishes to date. She was also IFBA World Champion in both 2005 and 2006.




So what is it that makes her such an FMS favourite? Well, first of all, there's the beauty. Federica is, without doubt, a very beautiful woman - and I am a particular sucker for her kind of dark, Mediterranean looks and those luscious frizzy locks. On top of that, there's the brains - Federica is a Law graduate. And then when you consider the sacrifice, effort and dedication it takes to compete just once, and then you consider she's been at it since 2003, and as an amateur at that, then you can't help but admire this beautiful and intelligent woman even more.



And then there's the fact that at every contest Federica's conditioning is nothing short of astonishing. I'm reminded of a visit to Florence, where I saw Michelangelo's equally astonishing Unfinished Slaves (an example of which, The Awakening Slave, is shown above) because it's as if the sculptor has chiselled her contest muscles out of her off-season curves. She embodies the idea of the body as a work of art, a living sculpture.



Here is Federica, as sexy as ever, as she performs her routine from the 2011 Universe.



As I was saying the other day (see Forza e Bellezza: Due Artiste) don't you wish routines were longer? Well, you can find another sizzling, but frustratingly short routine from Federica here


Giovanna Rosa
NABBA Miss Universe 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002



And finally, FMS in association with NABBA Italia is proud to present the undisputed, undefeated NABBA Champion of the Universe, Giovanna Rosa.



If the Miss Olympia winner changes, it's because the reigning champ (who's won it six/seven/eight/twenty-four times in a row already) has retired. If the NABBA Universe winner is the same as last year, although it's not unheard of, it's surprising. Giovanna's four consecutive titles at the turn of the millennium, though, is an absolutely unique achievement, and it's extremely unlikely it will ever be matched.



But except for this, what do we know about Giovanna? Well, not much, actually. As noted above regarding Lorena Bucci, there is a paucity of information about NABBA champions (about NABBA competitors full stop) from the eras before the internet went global, frustrating right now, but also perhaps an opportunity at a later date for me (or someone else) to be the author of the definitive Giovanna story.

However, there are clips of this elegant and phenomenally successful competitor in action, including her 1999 and 2002 routines - her first and last triumphs...

1999


2002


And for more Giovanna than you can shake a shitty stick at, go here


Buon divertimento!