FMS Ms O Countdown: South American Beasts

Anne Freitas was huge, muscular, rock hard and ultra-conditioned, Real Female Bodybuilding reported after the Toronto Pro. When she was only awarded second place in favour of the much less muscular Jennifer Scarpetta she shot a look across the Toronto stage that was one part disgust, one part disbelief, and about 10 parts pure female bodybuilder fury.

Many felt the judges' choice of Scarpetta was a political one, the report continues. Jennifer's superbly muscled and beautifully aesthetic body over the pure freaky mass of runner-up Freitas and third place Rita Bello. However, the report also noted that if the Toronto Pro was all about muscle then there was a good argument for the monumentally muscular Rita being outright winner!

I get the impression that these two women cause IFBB judges to wake up in a cold sweat in the middle of the night. Perhaps the judges' nightmares are due to the prospect of some genuine 'female bodybuilder fury' being unleashed against them, or that one or more of Anne or Rita's fans will hunt them down. Or maybe they just wake up in a cold sweat because they are at a loss as to how to mark these two freaky South American beasts in the context of the current climate in the IFBB towards female bodybuilding.

When Rita took 4th at the Tampa Pro in 2011 (the freakiest, hardest woman in the show according to Dave Palumbo, who added, I don't think I've ever seen conditioning on a woman like this before) the lovers of hardcore muscle women immediately fell for her. At the same contest in 2012, in much the same condition, she finished 12th.

Meanwhile, Anne had won the contest in Hartford last year and marched triumphantly to her first Ms O having gained a legion of fans for her ultra-conditioned self.

This year, both of them have been runners-up, Anne amid the controversy in Toronto, Rita in Chicago. As the Argentinian P.E. teacher (imagine!) had also finished 3rd in Toronto, she finished top of the qualification points table, and achieved her dream and goal to participate on the Ms Olympia stage.

The South American beasts and their freaky mass will both be on that stage on Friday. Just a few more sleepless nights for the judges until then.


MARIA RITA BELLO (Arg)



Born: N/A
Age: N/A
Height: 5'2½" (1.59)
Best Ms O: on debut
In 2013: 3rd Toronto Pro, 2nd Chicago Pro







ANNE FREITAS (Bra)



Born: Criciúma, Brazil
Age: 38
Height: 5'2" (1.57)
Best Ms O: 8th 2012
In 2013: 2nd Toronto Pro

FMS Ms O Countdown: Veterans

Cathy LeFrançois and Debi Laszweski have, between them, over forty years of contest experience. Cathy first competed at in a local amateur show in Québec in 1990 as a 19-year-old. I really didn't have any idea about what I needed to do, she says. I learned to pose by looking at pictures in magazines. Someone told me that I needed to do some sort of dance routine for the night show, so that is what I did. She walked away with awards for best poser and best routine, and the conviction that she had found her calling. Debi, inspired at 21 to take up weight training by Linda Hamilton's Sarah Connor physique, first competed three years later, in 1994.

By 1995, Cathy was a pro, and by 2000 had become one half of bodybuilding's premier couple after marrying Lee Priest. She had competed at two Olympias by the time she made a sojourn into figure, with little success, in 2005, the same year her marriage ended (I'm not suggesting these things are connected!). Since 2006 not a year has gone by without her stepping onto the stage as a competitor, her biggest wins being her three consecutive New York Pro titles between 2008 and 2010, and victory at the Tampa Pro in 2011.

The Tampa win put paid to thoughts that Cathy's best years were behind her, and she has finished in the top 6 at the last two Ms Internationals. The older I get the better I get! she says. More muscle gain, maturity and your fan club grows with it. I would like to be in the top 5 again! I would love to be top 3 and be the one holding my friend Iris Kyle's hand.

Debi has already been there, holding Iris' hand last year as she finished second, breaking the 'Iris first Yaxeni second' result for the first time since Heather Policky was runner-up in 2009. In fact, since that year, Debi's Olympia record is as good as, if not better than, Yaxeni Oriquen's, with a second, two thirds, and a fourth place.

No one can begrudge her this belated success. At the 2000 and 2001 Nationals she was so dismayed by the judges' decisions that she took four years out of competition, and after her return in 2005, when she came second, missing out on her pro card again, she commented that I always seem to do the wrong show at the wrong time. It was more than ten years after her first competition that she was finally able to turn professional. Subsequently, she has been a regular in the top two or three at the Olympia and the Ms International, and describes her career as currently being at a pinnacle.

If Debi were to walk off the stage as the new Ms Olympia on Friday, which is her avowed aim, it would be a shock of seismic proportions. As her fellow female muscle veteran has said, To beat Iris Kyle she would have to be retired! But, you never really know what's going to happen at female bodybuilding shows, and if that unlikely event does occur, nobody could say that Debi hadn't earned it.


CATHY LEFRANÇOIS (Can)



Born: Amqui, Québec
Age: 42
Height: 5'3" (1.60)
Best Ms O: 4th (lightweight) 2000, 2003
In 2013: 5th Ms International









DEBI LASZEWSKI (USA)



Born: Wausau, Wisconsin
Age: 43
Height: 5’2½" (1.59)
Best Ms O: 2nd 2012
In 2013: 3rd Ms International

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

FMS Ms O Countdown: The Champ

This Friday (nice and early in the weekend so the IFBB can get it out of the way no doubt), the 34th Ms Olympia contest takes place in Las Vegas. It's quite possible, given the attitude of the IFBB towards female bodybuilding, that it will be the last, but that's not the reason why Steve Wennerstrom has said it is the most significant Ms O since Rachel McLish won the first one in 1980. In fact, the significance of the contest this year is that should Iris Kyle win her ninth title, she will become the most successful Olympian - male or female - ever.

The chances are that she will. If you were able to bet on the contest (you're not - I've been looking for odds for over a week now, so unless you go direct to some back-street Las Vegas bookie, it seems you simply can't bet on bodybuilding), you'd be crazy to bet on anyone else. Iris Kyle has a contest CV that is second to none, and has won the last seven Ms Os.

Nevertheless, you have to feel that Iris has got a raw deal. Take the Wennerstrom article quoted above. Will Iris Kyle live in infamy? is the title. A strange title given that she is on the cusp of history. Why would the most decorated athlete in the history of the sport have to suffer 'infamy'? I've read the article countless times and still can't work out why Wennerstrom chose that title. It's indicative of the negativity that is directed at her, through absolutely no fault of her own.

Furthermore, Iris' achievements, perhaps because they have come during a period of decline for professional female bodybuilding, are largely unheralded. She has never had the kind of publicity that the other eight-time Ms O, Lenda Murray, enjoyed. By all objective criteria, Iris is the greatest ever female bodybuilder, but it's unlikely she would come out on top in any poll among fans or even her peers as such.

It's weird that I find myself feeling slightly sorry fo her (I doubt very much she wants or needs anyone's sympathy) but as we begin our countdown to the Ms O, spare a thought for the reigning champ. In many ways, Iris is the epitome of all female bodybuilders in this period: she deserves so much better than she actually gets from her sport.

IRIS KYLE (USA)

Born: Benton Harbor, Michigan

Age: 39

Height: 5'7" (1.70)

Best Ms O: Winner 2001 (heavyweight), 2004, 2006, 2007, 2008, 

2009, 2010, 2011, 2012

In 2013: Ms International Winner

In the coming days, the other 12 women who will be competing on Friday.

Enjoy!