We said on Tuesday why we felt Female Bodybuilding had had a big win in Chicago with the Ms Wings International Classic, and the day after that at the pro show, Wings of Strength worked that magic again with the result that the sport had another big win.
It was by far the best line-up of the season so far. 15 women - including the three new pros from the previous night - graced the stage. Massive veterans like Tina Zampa and Angela Rayburn (back to her almost bulging through the posing suit best), posed down with Nicole Janveaux - Lightweight winner at the Ms Wings the previous night - and the smouldering Tina Williams, who'd won the Heavyweight class.
There was another beefy veteran, Rita Bello - not perhaps up to the level of her thrillingly freaky past in either size or conditioning, but still... the shape of those biceps, the expanse of her rear lat spread, and of course, those legendary glutes.
And making her pro debut, Donna Salib, over 40 and something of a heart-throb for sections of the female muscle lovin' forum community since her pro card winning showing at last year's IFBB North Americans. Wish I was attending this one, wrote one before the check-ins. You get to see Donna Salib live, you lucky sods! She may not have been packing the "additional 50lbs of muscle" that some of her more optimistic (/deluded) fans had been hoping for, but I can see the attraction for sure.
In Omaha, we noted how WoS seemed to be courting some of the bigger Physique competitors, and how much Amanda Smith had enjoyed her move from Physique to FBBing there. Well, Amanda was doing her close-fisted double biceps again in Chicago, placing the same as she had in Omaha - 5th. And following in Amanda's thundersteps, Natalia Kovalyova (or Natalya Kovalyova or Kovaleva or Kovalyeva and so on and so forth...) - owner of perhaps the most "WTF was that for?!" pro card ever - made her pro FBBing debut, and finished a respectable (if not entirely merited) 9th.
The biggest Physique to FBBing news (apart from the lovely Paige Sandgren the night before at the Ms Wings perhaps), was, however, made by Jill Diorio/Blondin.
Yes, that is the regalia of the Winner she has there. You might say Jill has transitioned with some success! I had zero expectations going into the show because this was all new for me, she confessed afterwards in disbelief. My only goal was to not look out of place or like I didn’t belong. Regardless of what happened, I was proud of myself to taking on a new challenge, pushing myself out of my comfort zone. I’m still not sure I’ve really grasped that I actually DID win. I’m waiting for someone to pinch me.
Turns out that despite my little theory that all this Physique to FBBing traffic is a WoS masterplan, at least some of the women are being (or at least feeling) pushed into it by the IFBB Physique judges. Jill among them. [It wasn't] because of my placings, but the reasoning behind those placings and the judges' feedback that I found myself having to make some decisions, she says. After Omaha, the decision was made to follow the judges' suggestions [my bold] and move up to Women's Bodybuilding.
Her win, indeed the whole IFBB "move the more muscular Physique women up to Female Bodybuilding" push, has not been without its critics. Jill Blondin shouldn't even been in the top 3, raged one forum poster. Too many Physique competitors are coming into Bodybuilding now. I'm afraid I have to disagree though. "Too many" women in the FBBing division is not something I recognise as being possible, wherever they come from. If the IFBB want to make Physique basically Figure plus flexing minus heels (and if you look at the Physique v Figure line-ups at some recent pro shows, they have already pretty much achieved that) then so be it. The more FBBs the merrier, I say. Who knows? WoS might even bring weight classes back to pro FBBing as a result!
Besides, Jill Blondin looks every inch an FBB to me. OK, perhaps she shouldn't have won, but she did, and that success can only serve to encourage more Physique dreams (Valentina Mishina being the lady I currently hope for the most!) to follow.
3rd place Jay Fuchs was the doommongers' champion elect, partly, I imagine, because she's got such a loyal and vocal following anyway, and partly because the pre-contest selfies quickened pulses and had hands below the keyboard all over the world.
Of course, unlike her devotees, Jay is too classy to bitch and moan, and instead heaped praise on WoS, the promoters, and her fellow FBBs. I'm overjoyed [with] 3rd, she wrote. A great energy, fanatical [sic] organization, and the many great athletes. Thanks especially to Jake Wood and the beautiful Lenda Murray and Alina Popa.
Side note - I mentioned the other day how I felt that the sheer number of pics of Kristina Mendoza that James Cook took perhaps betrayed his favourite on the night. Well, as far as Dan Ray's lens was concerned, Jay was #1. Just saying...
No one, though, has talked much about the lady who placed 2nd - Maria Mikola.
It's become a familiar position for her - this was her third runner's-up medal this year after Toronto and Omaha, but for my money her most impressive showing ever in her two seasons of pro FBBing. I thought she looked absolutely sensational, and if anyone was going to have sour grapes over the result, it should be her, but there was no such thing of course - 2nd in a very impressive line up today at the WOS IFBB Chicago Pro!!! she told her (comparatively small number of IG followers. Amazing is all I can say!
I think the relative lack of love she gets from the fans is simply because she doesn't push herself on social media so much, and doesn't do so many video/photo shoots either - the modelling game being a bit beyond her comfort zone, especially the racier side of it. She seems genuinely lovely though - on top of the genuinely lovely body - and until she gets a bit more love from the wider female muscle lovin' community, I'll continue to go out of my way to make sure Maria gets plenty of it here on FMS.
Perhaps the 1-2-3 were out of order, but all of them will be (in all probability, Jay will get an invite if she doesn't qualify on points) at the Rising Phoenix. WoS gained massive credit for helping to put the line-up together and showing them all such a good time. The IFBB may, after all, be the ones pushing Jill et al into WoS' world, but it's Jake, Lenda, Alina and their crew who are making them feel so at home. Extending "the family" as Jay calls it. All, it appears, is as well in pro FBBing as it could be right now, and it's not very often in the past several years we've been able to say that.
Enjoy!
