Olympia 2017: Yer Ms Olympias

There was a time when there was one Ms Olympia, and she was called Cory. Or Lenda. In 1995, when Kim was Ms Olympia, the Fitness Olympia was added to the show. Eight years later, the Figure Olympia was held for the first time, and Ms Olympia was Lenda. Again. Iris reigned when Bikini made its Olympia debut in 2010, and then in 2013 the addition of the Physique Olympia meant that, for two years at least, there were five female divisions. As I'm sure you need no reminding, The Ms Olympia was last held in 2014, and since then we've had four Ms Olympias each year and yet no Ms Olympia. And the four from 2017 - two new, two recrowned - kick off our FMS Olympia week.

Let's meet them in order of their divisions' introduction.

Ms FITNESS OLYMPIA
OKSANA GRISHINA



Given that the last person to beat her in any competition was Tanji Johnson at the Arnold Classic Europe in 2013, it was hardly a surprise that for the fourth consecutive year, Oksana won. Gosh, she said afterwards, sounding as surprised as everyone else.



The Olympia is pretty much the one time I actually watch Fitness routines, and Oksana never fails to stun. She didn't reprise the spinning round the stage in a giant hoop like some kind of human gyroscope routine from the Arnold Classic earlier this year, opting for a more balletic and altogether more typically Oksana-like performance. But as much as I am always impressed by the power, grace and artistry of her routines, it's the body that really appeals, always the most muscular in the comparison round.




You wouldn't know it to look at her but she's 39 now, and still the sole Fitness competitor in your Hot and Hard 100 - up from #31 to #23 in 2017. With an Instagram following of well over a quarter of a million, she also provides the fitness inspiration to hundreds of thousands of women the world over. Pure class.

Ms FIGURE OLYMPIA
CYDNEY GILLON

!NEW CHAMPION!



I don't like to blow my own trumpet, but in March, on the occasion of the divine Ms Gillon's Hot and Hard 100 debut, ol' Swell's crystal ball was cooking with gas...

Already this year she's got between Candice Lewis-Carter and Latorya Watts to earn a silver at the Figure International. Could she be Ms Figure Olympia in 2017?

Absolutely.




I was hardly going out on a limb though. Cydney's star has been rising in the last couple of years - 3rd at last year's Olympia came at the end of a season where she had won two pro titles, this year she was 2nd at the South American Arnolds and runner-up in Ohio, and she prepared for the Olympia by winning the Arizona Pro the previous week. Her time had come, and at the age of 25, this former collegiate track athlete and junior Bodybuilder becomes the 7th different woman in 14 years to be Ms Figure Olympia.



Here she is interviewed after her win by NPC News Online's Tony Doherty and mind you don't, as I did, get hypnotised by Cyd's dancing bicep as she gesticulates. Or those yummy shoulders. Or that big gold medal slapping against her tight hard abs...



No muscle in Figure? The evidence suggests otherwise!

Ms BIKINI OLYMPIA
ANGELICA TEIXEIRA

!NEW CHAMPION!



The second of our two new Ms Olympias, and the first of two Brazilians, Angelica Teixeira had, like Cydney Gillion, been getting closer and closer to the top of her division over the last couple of years. After failing to place on her Olympia debut in 2015, she turned things around last year with two pro wins before finishing runner-up at the Olympia. This year she has swept all before her, winning at the Arnolds in Ohio and Australia before she arrived in Las Vegas and justified her billing as favourite.



She's now based in the US, but her native Brazil is where it all started. I grew up seeing all the fit women on TV all the time, and at the beaches there are so many people with amazing bodies, she says. It’s very easy to get inspired in Brazil. Just as I thought!



This was, she says, the day my dream came true. It took her 30 competitions to become the Bikini Queen, but she wasn't resting on her laurels - within a week she was on a plane to Seoul to compete at the Asia Grand Prix. Bikini contest #31.

Ms PHYSIQUE OLYMPIA
JULIANA MALACARNE



Dana Linn Bailey won the first Physique Olympia back in 2013, and since then... one winner. The challengers might have changed - Dana Linn and Tycie Coppett in 2014, Kira Neuman got close in '15, Dani and Heather Grace last year, Jennifer Taylor and Heather again this, but the now 43-year-old Juliana Malacarne remains the undisputed, undefeated (in four years, anyway) Queen of Women's Physique.



Was it close(r) this year? I wouldn't say I agreed with the judges about the placings, but then again, when it comes to Physique, that's pretty much always true, but I always say this, and I always mean it - this was the best Physique line-up I had ever seen, ever so slightly tarnished by Shanique Grant's absence (again). Fact is, no one had just the right amount of muscle and conditioning for this year's judging zeitgeist like Jules did.




And while some other multiple Ms Olympias - mentioning no names - may have outstayed their welcome, there is no sign of a backlash against this one starting any time soon. Congratulations from her peers flooded in on her Instagram, and the fan forums lit up once more for this Physique dream. In my opinion, the sexiest woman on earth, one fan wrote. Juliana is perfect from head to toe. Absolute feminine beauty! You wouldn't bet against her making it five in a row next year, would you?



We leave you today with Juliana's winning routine.



Ai karamba!

Olympia all week on FMS.

Michaela of the Day

FROM ORLANDO TO THE OLYMPIA




Michaela comes 3rd on her pro debut at the end of April 2016. The moment and feeling when they call your number for first callout, she says afterwards. Indescribable emotion. She leaves the contest convinced the pro stage is "right where I belong", but despite her success, what makes Michaela Michaela is her sheer relentlessness. The debut is over, she writes. But the pursuit continues.



She has a month before her next show in Toronto, and almost everything she posts during that month is absolute freaky gold. It's been hard to pick just a few, but I had to include the not-long-after-contest hammies - "pursuing details" is Michaela's only explanation for mooning her entire IG following. The best photo you've ever posted, writes one of them (a bodybuilder chap). I show this to everyone.



All those fish meals have really been paying off... and by fish I mean sushi, says Michaela. Apparently the theory is that sushi thins the skin. Well, based on the evidence we have here, I would have no argument with that theory at all. One of those photos you can't get out of your head long after you have actually stopped looking at it. What must they feel like to touch? What must they feel like to have?



And I also couldn't leave this one out. One of FMS' Images of 2016. We titled this "What the Photographer Saw" when we chose it as one of our "perfect" pictures back in August, we said back before New Year. This photographer/workout buddy of hers must see Michaela pretty much every day, you might expect the shock and awe of Michaela, all muscle and veins, not to be quite so great for her. However...

It was taken about a week before Michaela won her first pro title at the Toronto Pro.




With it came the much-coveted Olympia qualification - at the age of 21. Blessed to be apart of the IFBB and stand amongst the best physiques in the world, she said.



Cue a new slew of new freakery. And zero days off.



First order of business after stepping off stage yesterday, revealed Michaela. Leg training. 15 weeks out. And also while she prepped for the Olympia, Michaela started up her own PT business. I've truly found a liking in helping individuals and seeing their progress, she said. I am very eager to keep this going and help anyone that is willing to put in the effort! Yeah, wondering how Michaela defines "effort"...



Beginning of July, a good 8 weeks out, and Michaela is already looking ridiculous.



Fast forward to the start of September, and despite the picture being about the scales and what they reveal ("for the oh so curious," she says), there's no hiding those quads.



Surely her legs can't look any freakier than that, you might be thinking. A reasonable assumption it is, but as Michaela was waiting to board the plane to Las Vegas, this (above) is how she passed the time. Not since the vascular pomp of Lisa Giesbrecht maybe five, six years ago have we seen anything quite like this. Jaw to the floor stuff.

And if you are curious about the rest of her legs...



Despite all this freakery though, Michaela failed to make the placings at the Olympia. She was in good company - Anne Freitas, Branka Njegovec, Erica Blockman, and ten more of the finest female physiques on the planet also finished outside the top 15 - but for the first time in her career, a contest didn't go as well as she had hoped.



However, being Michaela, there was no hint of disappointment, rather an embrace of the challenge she now faced. I have a lot to work on from the smallest of details to the biggest, she said afterwards. And I can't wait to show up on a stage next time with a completely renewed physique, performance, and maturity as an athlete.



I love this part, she added.

21 Reasons (#17)

Due to some work commitments and Mr and Mrs Swell's now annual sojourn to the South of France (not the bit that was recently on fire, thankfully), the FMS offices are going to be closed this week, next week and the week after. Nevertheless, as always, we don't want to leave you totally FMS-less, so we've lined up 21 Reasons, one daily picture (or two or three), plus one reason why we love doing what we do, as if we were explaining it to one not so convinced of the glory of the muscular female.

Enjoy!

#17
DANI



If Dani Reardon didn't exist, perhaps one of the better female muscle fiction writers would have invented her. The high school teen muscle queen who goes on to rise to as close as you can get to the summit of her chosen sport without actually being on it...




How far she has come. And, with the exception of the "incident" that led to her being detained by the police back in 2014, she has always been on that rise, both in terms of her professional career, and in terms of her popularity with female muscle fans.

Until now.

I think we are close to seeing the end of her as a competitor, writes one forum poster, obviously better-informed about Dani than I am. She seems to be turning into a bit of a head case and didn't even train much the first half of this year. Sponsors dropped her hand over fist. Her Olympia progress doesn't seem to be on track either. I'm afraid she'll get her ass handed to her this time and she'll slowly fade away afterwards.



All she's ever known is building muscle and competing. It's the only thing she's ever done. And in the period she's been doing it, she's given me as much pleasure as any other muscle woman. And, more importantly, she remains an inspirational figure to (hundreds of) thousands of women across the world. They're not and I'm not ready to stop cheering for Dani. Not by a long chalk. So I hope he's wrong in his prediction.

I hope the best years for Dani are yet to come.