Contest Candids

We'll be back to the round-up of recent contests tomorrow, but today we can catch our breath with a few candids from the shows featured over the last three days, culled from the hundreds available at Muscular Development, Flex Online, FTVideo, Bodybuilding.com, contest website of the year TEAM-ANDRO, and Lisa Cross's own Facebook page.



Another reason for thinking about the IFBB Worlds as a contest worth a visit is provided by these candids of the 'Farewell Banquet'. I'm not saying they'd let you in, but presumably there's nothing to stop you hanging around the front door or trying to get a job as one of the waiting staff. Better still, get the DJ gig. 'If you want me to play it you're gonna have to flex for it...' It does look like fun, doesn't it?



Swedes Deniz Faith (left) and Eva Lagerhorn Blom (right) both bid to get their favourite tune played. Readers will remember both these beauties competed in Bodybuilding, finishing 5th and 6th respectively. More evidence here that, as we suspected, Deniz is really gorgeous and Eva can control her face when flexing off stage about as well as she can when she's on it.



Katka Kyptova (left) digs into her pudding after her first (as far as we know) show as a Physique competitor. And the kind of glamour you expect at an event called a 'Banquet' is provided by Hungarian fitness goddess Zsuzsanna Toldi (left) and German fitness/bikini babe Valeria Ammirato. Readers who've been with FMS since 2011 (!) may remember Valeria being featured before (see Innamorato with Ammirato). At the Worlds she won the short Bikini Fitness class, and I think if I look at her in that dress and those shoes much longer I'm going to get all innamorato with her again. Zsuzsanna, by the way, didn't compete at the Worlds, so she must have been there to support her Hungarian compatriots. Or perhaps just for the free food.



From Kiev to Madrid, and (left) a picture taken moments after Lisa Cross had competed at the Arnold Classic Europe. Just got off stage and bumped into the gorgeous Olga Belyakova, World Champion, Lisa tells us. Glad I am not the only one who thinks Olga is 'gorgeous'. In case you're still undecided, another close-up of her (right) from the Arnold Expo.



It shouldn't surprise regular readers to see Lisa hanging out with the Russians. We learned that Lisa's degree was in Russian and Politics during our Arnold countdown. Lisa doesn't waste the chance to brush up her Russian with Natalia Yariz and Maria Kuzmina (above) and Valentyna Yefymchuk (below). Lisa says Valentina is such a lovely lady. We have met up a few times now and it is always a pleasure.



Finally from the Arnold Europe, here's Lisa 'having a chat' with Yeon Woo-ji, the Physique class winner, who Lisa reckons is a lovely lady and has a beautiful physique. She doesn't tell us what language they were chatting in. It wouldn't surprise me that much if Lisa had picked up a working knowledge of Korean. Amazing woman. And she wears that dress well, doesn't she?



And from Madrid, it's back in time to September in Las Vegas.

BEFORE



A ripped and veiny Valerie Gangi and a bouffed (and no, that's not a spelling mistake) Tina Chandler at the meet and greet before the show. Valerie is fondly remembered by older fans from her younger, bodybuilding days. She turned pro way back in 1995, and not only looks amazing for her age, but is a serious competitor in the Physique division, winning this year's Tampa Pro to qualify for the first ever Physique Olympia. I've already told you how I feel about Tina this week, so I'll just say it's the thought of having the opportunity to get this up-close and personal with her (and all the other top muscle goddesses) that makes me wonder whether I should blow all my air miles at once for a trip to the Olympia next year.

DURING



Mmmmmm. If this isn't the kind of scenario you've always dreamed of being a part of then you are probably here against your will. All three of the ladies here look like they're having fun. The kind of fun I'd like to be having with the lady in the middle.

AFTER

Just hang around in the Orleans Casino and you will get whiplash as the fbbs walk by.



I can only imagine that if yours truly was just 'hanging around' and spied the newly-blond Aleesha Young, glammed up to the nines with her blue blue eyes and sexy pout, suggestively toying with that bottle of beer, then 'heart failure' would probably be a more likely outcome than whiplash. What a way to go that would be!



The ultimate double date? Europe's finest, the recently retired Brigita Brezovac and Ms Olympia in waiting Alina Popa showing that female bodybuilders can be beautiful, feminine and fashionable. In pairs.

Enjoy!

Contest of the Day: Ms Olympia

This week on FMS we'll be looking back at some of the contests that have been held recently. But don't expect any considered, objective opinions...

Once upon a time, the only way I could get the results of female bodybuilding contests was from muscle magazines. I was excited to see the handful of images of the winner and the other top finishers, but then again being dependent on the magazines for female muscle material meant I was pretty excited about any image of a female bodybuilder in those days. But by the time I was reading that Cory Everson or Lenda Murray had won the Ms Olympia title again, and drooling over the pictures of them posing on stage, a month or more had passed since the contest itself.

It's all different now. Big contests like the Olympia have live webcasts. I can actually watch the show. If there isn't a webcast, there will be a website where I can follow a 'play-by-play' description of what's happening on stage. Images are uploaded within hours of the show, and hundreds of images of each contest, sometimes of each contestant, are available online within days. I'm so much more engaged with female bodybuilding as a sport now.

What hasn't changed is the way I personally 'judge' the contests. From those magazine years until the present I have never been able to look at the women in any objective way. I want my favourite to win. I judge with my heart (or perhaps groin would be a more accurate description). Back in 1988 I would have been looking at the pics in Muscle & Fitness and wishing Anja had beaten Cory (and don't get me wrong I thought Cory was great, but I was in love with Anja). A few weekends ago I followed the play-by-play description of the recent UKBFF British Championships (by reigning champ Rosanna Harte, no less) hoping that my favourite lady would win.

I'm completely unable to think about contests in any other way.

More about the UKBFF later in the week.

But we begin our week of reviews with the biggest contest of them all...

Ms OLYMPIA
26th September, Las Vegas

The result was no surprise, no surprise at all. Iris Kyle was crowned for the ninth time (a record for any bodybuilder, male or female) and for the eighth time in a row. It is a magnificent, unique achievement, and to my untrained and ignorant eye, she really did look back to her best after a disappointing showing at the Ms International, when she had been suffering from illness (though that hadn't stopped her winning it). One spectator who attended the show agreed, I saw her at the Arnold and was not that impressed with her performance. But at the Olympia people were in awe when she flexed her back and hit her poses. Another female muscle fan claimed, You had to be there to believe it. She exudes champion attitude. She was really shining with confidence and really had the most professionalism.



It's easy to knock Iris (as we noted here on FMS in our Ms O countdown). She is held by some to be responsible for the demise of female bodybuilding at its highest level, simply because she has turned up in her best shape year after year. It seems to me that is a peverse way to look at it. In fact, I think what has happened is that Iris has forced her competitors to raise their game. To challenge her, to really challenge for the Ms Olympia title, you are going to have to bring a spectacular package to Las Vegas. In years past that spectacular package has been brought a number of times by Yaxeni Oriquen. In 2009 it was Heather Policky, and last year it was Debi Laszewski who had never been better. This year, though, the challenge came from Alina Popa.




Before the show we wondered how she could improve on the physique she had presented the judges in 2011 and 2012. We knew she hadn't been seen on stage since last year's Olympia. We knew she had been preparing in Colorado at Heather Policky's ex-husband's gym, the gym frequented by Mr Olympia Phil Heath. We thought that if there was anywhere she could find that little extra surely this was the place for her to be. We imagined her emerging from the Rockies bigger and better than ever.



And we were not disappointed.

Debi Laszewski finished in the top three for the second year in a row. Yaxeni Oriquen, the Olympia veteran of Olympia veterans, was fourth, her lowest placing since 2009 - which was probably more indicative of the high overall standard than any shortcomings on her part. Gorgeous Brigita Brezovac, in what we now know was sadly her last ever competition, was fifth, and the top six was completed by rising star Juanita Blaino, competing in her first Olympia.




Personally, I was very very taken with Juanita, as I have been every time I've seen pictures of her in competition. Her glutes, I am quite happy to admit, are two of my favourite things in female bodybulding at the moment. I was also, as I always am, extremely excited to see the bounteously muscular physique of Mmmmonique Jones (8th place) in a posing suit. Her routine, full of understated slinky sexy moves was one of the 2013 Ms O highlights for the area in and around my groin.




My heart went out to Tina Chandler, a long-time FMS favourite, who finished 12th (last because Tammy Jones withdrew). I'm beginning to wonder if we are ever going to see the stunning 2011 Tampa Pro Tina again, but having said that, if Slave had been judging the show, Tina would have been in the top six just for being Tina.



But 2013 at the Ms O was, for me, all about Alina. And not just for me. She has that je ne sais quoi, that x-factor, that makes her appeal not just to the fans, but to her peers, and just about anybody else with an interest in the sport. It was unanimous that Alina should have won, said one of the fans who attended. Not the first time that a female bodybuilding result has been questioned, I don't want to make that tired, old point again. But that fan continued, From other ladies who were on that stage to the countless FBBs at the event. From fans to photographers all in favour of Alina. It was overwhelming. And not to mention social media was heavily in favour of her as well. No one, it seems, is immune to Alina's charms.



With the genetics I have bodybuilding is my only option to compete right now, tweeted Tarna Alderman after the Ms Olympia. @ALINAPOPA1 shows it can be feminine! I've been a big fan of Alina since I got into bbing, [she's] literally the only reason I've stayed with bbing, very inspiring.




Alina certainly has more followers than Iris has ever had. For all her achievements, and despite her consistent excellence over more than a decade, Iris has never won the fans' hearts in the way Alina undoubtedly has. More pertinent than that though, is the reaction of Alina's peers to her Olympia performance. They might indicate that it is now Alina, not Iris, who sets the standards other female bodybuilders aspire to.

Alina now leads the challenge to dethrone Iris - in fact she looks like the only contender. She leads the popularity stakes with the fans, and female bodybuilders the world over look to emulate her. And since the Olympia she has taken to her Facebook page to speak to her sisters of iron, calling for a collective effort to reinvigorate the sport. Alina may not be Ms Olympia. Not yet, anyway. But, it seems to me that she can rightly claim to be the leading female bodybuilder in the world now.



Review the 2013 Ms O routines on YouTube (first of three parts) here

Enjoy!

FMS Ms O Countdown: Jennifer & the Joneses

The IFBB Pro League in 2013 consisted of just three contests which Olympia hopefuls could enter in order to gain qualification for the big show. Two of the contests were won by women competing in their first professional show.

The first contest of the year, the Toronto Pro, was, rather controversially you may recall, awarded to Jennifer Scarpetta. It was not only her first pro show, but her first show of any kind for nearly three years. She had won her pro card at the first attempt as a bodybuilder at the NPC Nationals in 2010, so in terms of win percentages, she has an extremely impressive record. Since Toronto, Jennifer Scarpetta has become Jennifer Abshire after marrying her long-time girlfriend Megan Abshire. It's been quite a year for her then. And though she's extremely unlikely to keep that win percentage up and pull off the sort of result she did in Toronto, a good showing in her first Olympia would round it off nicely.

The other first-time pro winner was Tammy Jones, who, unlike Jennifer, took a few more goes at the Nationals before winning her pro card last year. Her memorable message to her doubters after her Nationals victory was reported in full by FMS in our contest review of 2012. Her win in Tampa, while less controversial than Jennifer's, was no less surprising given the quality and combined contest experience of the women she beat, although I doubt Tammy was surprised. In an interview last year after her Nationals win she said, I’m very competitive and want to beat everybody. I’m not nice to people, I just want to win. My short-term goal is to put on a good 10 pounds of muscle and make it to the Olympia stage. I don’t just want to be on the Olympia stage, I want to be in the mix. I want to be in that top-five group. I want to win! So I’m working very hard to do that. Who'd bet against that kind of determination?

Sandwiched between those two shows was the Chicago Pro, won by Monique Jones for the second year running. After her victory last year, FMS said that there's something about her frame that says future Ms Olympia, genetically it seems she has a lot of latent potential there that hasn't been brought out yet. Well, I think it's safe to say that Monique has brought out the genetic potential in a bucket in 2013. Unlike the other two 2013 winners, Monique has Ms O previous. This will be her third appearance, and FMS expects her to be challenging for the top 3 if she turns up in Las Vegas in anything like the shape she was in in Chicago.


JENNIFER ABSHIRE (USA)



Born: Aurora, Illinois
Age: 35
Height: 5'6" (1.67)
Best Ms O: on debut
In 2013: Toronto Pro Winner






TAMMY JONES (USA)



Born: Fort Myers, Florida
Age: 34
Height: 5'6" (1.67)
Best Ms O: on debut
In 2013: Tampa Pro Winner

MONIQUE JONES (USA)



Born: Fort Knox, Kentucky
Age: 34
Height: 5'9" (1.75)
Best Ms O: 7th 2012
In 2013: Chicago Pro Winner