Not the most familiar name (though I see one ahead-of-the-curve member of the brethren has slightly stolen my thunder by opening a thread for her just days before this post on the forum whose first rule is...) but Tara is the latest, 2015 version in a long line of illustrious CBBF Canadian Champions, many of whom featured here yesterday.
In the last few years Canadian champions have not exactly set the FBB world alight after their victories though. In 2014 Wendy McMaster won, and hasn't competed since. Tananarive McGowan (2013) competed a couple of times the year after her win but failed to make the top 10 at either show. Joanne Williams (2012) fared a little better on her 2014 pro debut in Toronto but not much, actually placing 10th.
Of the Canadian champions from the last five years, only Fabiola Boulanger has enjoyed any success at all in the IFBB Pro League. After three years and the disappearance of much of the muscle which had won her her pro card, she switched to the Physique division and placed 3rd in New York in 2014 on her pro debut.
Tara checks in for her pro debut
So it's almost a relief to see that although Tara has chosen the Fabiola route into Physique, she hasn't waited years before making her pro debut, but months. And her 4th place at the inaugural Arctic Pro in Alaska at the start of June represents one of the better results recent Canadian Female Bodybuilding champions have enjoyed.
Having "an amazing weekend" at the Arctic Pro
I'd love to give you the full Tara story, but in order to do so I'd have to find it for myself first. She gave a whole series of interviews to a local radio station in her hometown of Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta as she progressed from regional to national triumphs last year, but frustratingly the audio files of those interviews are no longer online.
What we can report though that Tara had been training for nine years before she became national champion and that her role model is Lenda Murray. We've also learned that one of her coaches, Daphne Madigin, is a veteran Canadian female bodybuilder, and the other is the former Olympian Helen Bouchard.
And, er, that's about it. We can't even reliably tell you how old Tara is, but we can tell you she's somewhere between 40 and 50. She didn't compete in the 50+ "Grand Masters", but as well as the Heavyweight and Overall titles at the CBBF Nationals last year, she took home the Masters (40+) Heavyweight and Overall titles. A clean sweep which meant that of the two pro cards awarded at the show, Tara won both!
A big winner on the night, but as I mentioned above, also a "low key" winner. The female muscle lovin' world has been slow to spot her despite her being so gorgeous and the unbelievable (dare I say "Boulanger-esque") shape she was in for her Nationals win. Those who have noticed her have been impressed. She's "seriusly ripped", "a beast in a good way!" And there's even evidence of one-handed typing - So darn Hotttt.
You can follow Tara on Instagram. She might not be so much the ripped beast that she was in 2015 now, but nevertheless she is, like the man says, still very very "hotttt".
Enjoy!
