Female Bodybuilding, Fitness and Figure
COMPETITION REPORTS

By Bill Dobbins

Introduction
When Joe Weider got together with promoter Wayne Demilia to move the Olympia Weekend permanently to Las Vegas a few years ago, the intent was to attempt to duplicate the success of the annual Arnold Schwarzenegger weekend of events in Columbus, Ohio. To this point, the effort seems to be paying off. People like coming to Las Vegas for bodybuilding, since it’s a great vacation/resort town and the Mandalay Bay has proved to be a terrific venue – with all the ingredients needed for the weekend activities all in one place.

The Mandalay Bay Theater provides excellent facilities. The new Convention Center allows the Expo to be held in one huge room, rather than being split between two smaller ones as it was before. And the “beach” area is ideal for the Joe Weider Muscle Beach activities, with an occasional bikini contest thrown in to provide eye candy.

The only drawback to the Vegas locale in 2003 came from nature. The Olympia weekend happened at the same time Los Angeles and San Diego were experiencing out-of-control fires. A lot of people were stranded as major freeways were closed and damaged to air traffic facilities caused the L.A. and S.D. airports to shut down. Air traffic was disrupted all over the country as schedules were shuffled and rearranged and there wasn’t a rental car to be had in all of Las Vegas. Many who had planned to return home Sunday or Monday were stuck in Vegas until Tuesday.

The Press Conference
Like last year, the Olympia Press Conference was scheduled for Thursday, with the women’s prejudging following an hour later. Wayne Demilia feels that running the show like this means that many who attend the press conference will stay to see the women compete. Since the audience for the women was substantial there appears to be some truth to this. However, it also means that a lot of fans have to take an extra day off from work and pay an additional night for a hotel room in order to see women’s prejudging. You have to wonder if putting the press conference and prejudging off until Friday wouldn’t be a better idea.

The press conference was fairly predictable, with a few questions coming from the physique press, a number from fans but little or no interest exhibited on the part of the mainstream news media. There was some discussion and plenty of disagreement regarding selecting pro representatives to the IFBB or the male and female bodybuilders, and that could prove to be an interesting story to watch unfold.

Interestingly, a fan asked bodybuilder Iris Kyle to comment on how women should go about getting sponsorship in bodybuilding. But she was asking the totally wrong competitor, since one major key to promoting careers and getting sponsors interested is good publicity and exposure in the magazine – and as will be made clearer in the report below Iris is among the worst when it comes to promotion and publicity of all the top female bodybuilders.

BODYBUILDING

Weigh In
At the meeting on Wednesday night, the female bodybuilders are weighed-in to determine in which class they will compete and all the competitors draw numbers and are briefed about how the contest will be run.

Unfortunately, although the IFBB has authorized three weight divisions for women, some events – like the Ms. Olympia and Arnold’s Ms. International – still feature only two weight classes. This means that true lightweights – women of about 125 pounds or less – have to compete against women who are much larger. Since the IFBB likes the idea of smaller (and therefore more “acceptable” female physiques) they would do well to insist on promoters using all three weight divisions. The argument against this often involves the complications of organizing and paying for fitness and figure as well as female bodybuilding, but this shouldn’t happen at the expense of legitimate competition among the bodybuilders.

Another reason for including a lightweight division is to encourage crossover to bodybuilding on the part of fitness and figure competitors. Can you imagine a lightweight bodybuilding class that included Monica Brant, Timea Majorova, Kelly Ryan, Tracey Greenwood, Stacy Simons, Dina Al-Sabah and a few others? Dynamite lineup in a lightweight class but most don’t have the muscle to be middleweights.

One problem with the weigh-in continues to be women showing up not prepared to step on the scale wearing bikinis. While you can certainly tell in most cases whether a competitor in a sweatsuit should be a lightweight or heavyweight, the point of weighing the bodybuilders is to record their exact weights, both for the historical record and to help the federation make future adjustments to the weight divisions. The competitors ought to be instructed that they need to be prepared to be weighed-in wearing bikinis (either at the meeting or soon after) or not expect to compete.

Lightweights
The lightweight class featured a number of “personal best” achievements – particularly in the case of Dayana Cadeau and Denise Masino.

Pound for pound, and body part for body part, you could make a case that Dayana is the best female bodybuilder in the sport. She has a Flex Wheeler-type fullness and symmetry unmatched in the sport, a physique as full of curves as a mountain road. Dayana’s weak point has always been a slightly too wide waistline. But that was when she was competing at 135 pounds or more. At the 2003 Ms. Olympia, Dayana weighed in at a waif-like 127 pounds, with the tiny waist of an 1890s Gibson girl.

Dayana got a significant number of first place votes in all the rounds except the first, where she got none. This is yet another example of the degree to which the judges do not understand the IFBB judging guidelines and continue to treat the first round as if it were only about “symmetry” and nothing else. There are apparently some other misunderstandings on the part of the judges since some had her 4th and 5th in round one but she received no scores this low in any other round. Somebody should instruct the judges that they are supposed to be looking at everything in every round and judging each as if they were deciding the entire contest. As it turned out, Dayana finished in second place and not that many points behind lightweight champion Juliette Bergmann.

Denise Masino also showed up in Las Vegas looking the best ever. Considering the amount of time, and energy she devotes to publishing Muscle Elegance, the demands of so much travel and her other business interests, Denise is exhibit A when it comes to rejecting the excuses of so many bodybuilders that they can’t hold down a job and get in great shape at the same time. As her husband Robert explains, “When we got to a city, the first thing Denise does is find a local gym and make sure she gets in her training. No matter what else is going on, she won’t miss workouts.”

Denise finished third in her class, behind two of the best physiques of all time – Juliette Bergmann and Dayana. One judge explained later. that he feels Denise has a few genetic, proportional problems that handicap her in such a strong lineup - but that she should be congratulated for doing the absolute best with what she has been given to work with. Since Denise has made so many improvements in the past few years, she might well prove him wrong in the genetic department as well.

Cathy Priest, who remains one of the most beautiful women in bodybuilding, finished 4th. Cathy is one of the competitors who suffered because of the lack of a true lightweight class. She weighed in at 134.4 pounds but would have been much sharper and more impressive at a leaner body weight. In a real lightweight class he might be the best ever. Hopefully, Wayne Demilia will add a third class in future Olympias, even if it cuts into the time and expense now being devoted to figure.

Angela Debatin finished 5th – with some observers giving her a place higher. Angela is a competitor who simply needs to keep working and keep improving. She should take the lesson from Denise that you can keep improving every year no matter how long you’ve been in the sport.

Fannie Barrios ended up 6th, and the high point for her was her posing routine. Fanny came out on stage seeming to be covered in gold or bronze and won the audience over with a very classy routine. Her routine was one of the high points of the show.

Kim Harris was 7th and continues to look defined and balanced in competition. Her problem is she seems not to have changed much since becoming an amateur champion and seems to lack the mass and density needed to compete at the pro level. By herself on stage she looks great; but she suffers when compared to her thicker and fuller rivals.

Rosemary Jennings finished 8th and, unfortunately, she deserved last place. There is nobody in the class who more pure muscle than Rosemary, but she seems unable to get into the really top shape needed to place well in the pros. While Kim Harris has the dieting down and needs to work on gaining more quality mass, Rosemary is in the exact opposite position. But what is wrong with either of these bodybuilders is not something that can’t be improved by adjustments to their overall training/diet programs.

Juliette Bergmann, winner of the lightweight Ms. Olympia title, announced that this is her last year of competition. Next year she’ll be back at the judges’ table officiating at IFBB pro shows. She certainly went out on top, winning yet another Ms. Olympia title. There were a few who thought Dayana Cadeau had the better physique, but it is hard to find any fault with Juliette. She is a complete bodybuilder. While her body is somewhat less dramatic than somebody like Dayana, she has no real weaknesses.

Not only that, but Juliette’s presentation was much stronger than that of Dayana. Juliette has a very simple approach to posing: She hits poses that are perfect for her and she holds them long enough for the judges and the audience to understand what they are looking at – kind of a Frank Zane approach. Dayana is a skilful poser, but there is something almost diffident about her approach to her routine. It is kind of soft and feminine (actually, very much like Dayana’s actual personality), as if she doesn’t want to seem to be trying too hard and she doesn’t hit and hold poses hard enough or long enough to allow observers to get the full impact of how excellent her physique is.

Because Juliette is the reigning champion, in the process of retiring and has such a great physique, it may be that Dayana couldn’t have done anything with her posing routine to win her class this year. But there is always next year. Dayana isn’t retiring and can expect plenty of victories of her own if she continues to show up in such good shape and learns how to present herself more effectively.

Heavyweights
Until a few months before the contest, Lenda Murray – 7 time winner of the Ms. Olympia title – was not sure if she would be competing. Lenda was in negotiation with Vince McMahon about joining World Wrestling Entertainment as a professional wrestler. But the decision on whether she will become a part of the WWE was postponed, so Lenda decided on short notice to prepare for the Olympia.

The lack of time Lenda had to prepare was somewhat evident when she took the stage. She was in excellent shape – ripped and defined – but she seemed a little bit depleted, a bit too lean. Watching Iris Kyle posing beside her, it was evident that Iris has no significant physique weaknesses, and her legs – particularly the calves – were much better than were Lenda’s. Of course, what Iris doesn’t have is Lenda’s overall appeal and charisma, and since she all but refuses to do photos for magazine publicity (asking some photographers, but not getting, for as much as $1500 for a basic editorial shoot). Iris has a reputation for keeping much to herself and has certainly not become a favorite of the judges, the media or the audience.

Of course, what is not her fault is that Iris suffered somewhat from the continued lack of understanding on the part of the judges as to what round one is supposed to be about. She got no first place votes in the first round and several judges placed her 3rd. She did get better scores in round two – compulsory poses – with some first place votes and only one 3rd (no doubt scored by a judge in need of Lasik surgery).

What this indicates, as did some of the other scores, is that the judges persist in thinking of round one as a “symmetry” round rather than (as they should) a round in which the judges should consider every aspect of the physique they can observe while the competitors are “standing relaxed” (and don’t we wish they would actually pose that way as the are supposed to) and use that as a basis for deciding which bodybuilder is the best. Every round should be judged as if it were the entire contest and that the winner of the round would win the whole contest. There is no judging for “symmetry” or “muscularity” or anything else – there is only selecting who is the best bodybuilder.

JUDGING IFFB ROUNDS

Given Iris’ overall lack of popularity and poor promotion, she probably could have done nothing to beat an in-shape if somewhat too lean Lenda at the 2003 Ms. Olympia. But she sealed the deal with her posing routine. Lenda’s posing at the Ms. Olympia this year was nothing short of magnificent. She came out wearing a black, studded bikini and holding a black scarf. She used the scarf to simulate a whip, then a blindfold and finally an exercise device. She didn’t dance around or act cute and feminine. She hit a series of more-or-less static but highly dramatic poses calculated to give everyone an ideal view of what is great about her physique. Lenda has always been a good poser. But this routine was unbelievably effective.

Iris, on the other hand, used her time on stage to do mostly variations of the compulsory poses, which everyone had already seen. After a short while posing center stage, she walked all the way over to stage left and began posing for the audience on that side of the theater. Then she walked all the way back across the stage to pose for the audience stage right. Unfortunately, there are no judges at the sides of theater and the judges are scoring the contest. Ignoring the judges this way, her performance seemed calculated to demonstrate a lack of respect for them, a deliberate snub - and that is certainly no way to try to earn higher scores in a bodybuilding contest.

Iris could have been scored worse in round three, but ended up with seconds and a third. This suggests to me that the judges were more forbearing than they might have been and didn’t take the implications of Iris’ performance personally. Maybe they just don’t expect that much of her so are hard to disappoint. But that kind of tactic is certainly dangerous when you are competing in a subjectively judged sport.

Yaxeni Oriquen placed 3rd in the heavyweight class and looking at the scoresheets you can see that most judges had her 3rd in most of the rounds. Yaxeni has made tremendous progress as a bodybuilding the past few years and has the potential to become even better. She needs to learn to totally sculpt and define all that amazing muscle mass she carries and to keep improving her presentation. Since she seems capable of this, no doubt she will be an even more serious threat to win major contests in the future.

Betty Viana placed 4th and frankly was not at her best – although she still looked like a very good bodybuilder. Apparently, Betty had gotten sick before the contest and while she was in good shape she wasn’t as finished-looking as she is capable of. Expect more from her in the future.

Denmark’s Helle Nielsen was 5th and was in good shape considering coming to the Ms. Olympia required a last-minute adjustment after she unexpectedly (she says) won the Jan Tana and suddenly found herself qualified to compete in Las Vegas. She says she considers 5th at the Ms. Olympia to be quite an achievement, considering this was only her second pro show and she looks forward to making this the foundation of a successful pro career. Certainly, she has a lot to work with – since Helle exhibited as much solid muscle as anyone on the stage.

Betty Pariso was 6th and the biggest competitor on the stage. Betty was also the oldest at 47 – although as ripped and muscular as she was her age was not evident. Several judges agreed that Betty has done everything she could with her physique and placed lower than she might have liked because of a few inherent problems she can’t do much about. But Betty is one of those competitors who don’t beat themselves and she should take a lot of pride in how well she prepared for her Ms. Olympia appearance and how entertaining was her performance.

Vickie Gates placed 7th and announced this would be her last competition. Certainly, Vickie has not achieved the level of excellence in the past few years she is capable of. In 1998, at the Ms. Olympia in Prague, my contest report for FLEX described Vickie has having weak legs. The following year she not only won the Ms. International title but did so in part because she had improved her legs so drastically and dramatically. But the year 2000 was when the IFBB issued its catastrophic “guidelines” – or “don’t try too hard” rules – and while Vickie won the Ms. International again it was one of the worst contests ever in terms of the conditioning of the competitors and Vickie herself again showed extreme weakness in the legs.

Vickie’s physique has never been the same – although she has so much talent that she has done relatively well nonetheless. She is a much liked and appreciated competitor and will be missed on stage. Hopefully, if she becomes a judge or women’s pro rep Vickie will take the lesson of the “guidelines” to heart and resist any effort on the part of the federation to pressure the women to be anything but their best.

The Overall
Juliette Bergmann was reluctant to schedule any photo shoots Sunday morning because she wanted to win the Ms. Olympia overall and whoever the winner of that title might be was obligated to do a seminar at that time.

Unfortunately, the “good big athlete beating the good small athlete” maxim proved true in Las Vegas and Lenda Murray
won the overall and a record 8th Ms. Olympia title. The judges began passing their scores to the chief judge almost from the time Lenda and Juliette began posing together, so they evidently felt it was a slam dunk.

What remains to be seen is whether the physique magazines will give Lenda the attention they did not when she won in 2002. Here is a beautiful and popular female bodybuilder, who seems to be everything that the federation, the magazines and the whole sport seem to agree that a female physique competitor ought to be, and yet she doesn’t have a major sponsorship agreement and gets little coverage in the magazines. No wonder she is considering wrestling.

Somebody ought to do something about this. Lenda deserves better and so does the sport of bodybuilding for women.

FITNESS
As usual, there isn’t much to say about IFBB fitness. The outcome of fitness competitions are fairly predictable because the judges seem to score in a very predictable manner – although why they judge fitness physiques as they do remains a mystery. It is almost always a “round up the usual suspects” situation.

Since the judges so often treat the routines as a gymnastics contest, it is no surprise that Susie Curry does well. Her tumbling is the fastest of anyone on stage. How fitness and the necessity to be a gymnast does in the future is up in the air – fitness is gradually being destroyed on the amateur level and NPC judges seem to be rewarding non-gymnastic performances to a great degree – but that’s the way it is for now.

Kelly Ryan was disappointed because she worked very hard on a new and highly entertaining routine and the judges didn’t seem to like it as much as she expected. However, the audience did. Kelly’s performance continues to be one you’d pay to see as part of a Las Vegas act.

One change in progress is the increasing defection of competitors from fitness to figure, where they don’t need to perform a routine. This is causing fitness to be even more than ever a gymnastics contest, with many of the best and most attractive physiques no longer being part of the fitness lineup.

On that subject, why have the judges decided that fitness and figure physiques should be so different? And what is it about the physiques of Susie Curry and Adela Friedmansky, for example, that the judges have decided is so great in fitness – even though they would probably not score that high in figure contests? Both Susie and Adela have become more muscular over time (Susie at this point to where her upper body seems well out of balance with her legs) and continue to get high physique scores no matter what, contest after contest. Is there really a standard by which they can be identified as having the best physiques, or is it more a case of success breeding success?

Many increasingly point to politics as being at the root of this situation, but this isn’t something anybody can be sure of.

Looking at the scoresheets, it is interesting how much variation there was in the scores. Susie got some firsts, seconds, thirds and even a sixth in one round. In the first round, Claudia Kinska got a first, only with an 8th, 9th and 10th. So much for consensus. Obviously, the judges are not all that clear on what the standards are than are the rest of us. Wayne Demilia and Jim Manion would certainly not tolerate this much variation in bodybuilding scoring.

So how do you judge a fitness contest? Maybe the answer is to look to see where everyone has placed in the past and vote accordingly. That way you have an excuse if somebody criticizes your results.

However, aside from the scoring one problem with fitness is the amount of time it takes up. We not only have to sit through the routine of every single competitor, but the fitness women compete in four rounds – the extra round being the “cat suit” compulsories. In a contest with three separate types of female competition, do we really need that extra round of fitness? Personally, I’d much rather see another weight class added to the bodybuilding.

FIGURE
The year 2003 has been the first year of IFBB sanctioned figure competition. Apparently, the IFBB thinks it is very important since they are giving figure competitors equal time on stage and about equal prize money to the female bodybuilders, who have been building their sport and their audience since 1980.

I have always thought figure was easier to understand than fitness, since it is essentially a beauty contest for fit models and there are no performance scores to confuse the issue. However, just as with fitness, there seems to be a tendency on the part of the judges to score on the basis of who has won in the past. So you can be pretty sure that the winner of a top level IFBB pro figure contest is going to be Davana Medina or Jenny Lynn – with Monica Brant getting in near the top because she has such a good physique and is so charismatic on stage but looks too much like a bodybuilder in comparison to the real “model” types to win.

So not surprisingly the order of finish at the Figure Olympia was Davana, Monica and Jenny –although the order could have been scrambled without many objecting. Mari Kurdla was 4th which is also not unexpected. Although she has more of a “bikini” body than the others, Mari is super-attractive and positively shines on stage. The judges and the audience like her a lot, with good reason.

I’ve had very complementary things to say about Davana, Monica and Jenny in the past - but I was very impressed with the whole figure lineup in Las Vegas (speaking more as a photographer than a journalist trying to write a contest report). Dina Al-Sabah is gorgeous and looks as if she could easily be a lightweight bodybuilder. D.J. Wallis is one of the most beautiful physique women I’ve ever had the pleasure of shooting photos with (and we did a beautiful set of pictures at the Mandalay Bay that weekend). I’ve always been impressed by the elegance and sophistication of Aleksandra Kobielak and I’ve become a real fan of the gorgeous and exotic Hannah Park. The only problem will Elaine Goodlad in figure (she finished lower than she has come to expect) is that she so obviously has the genetics of a really lovely and impressive bodybuilder – and so as well as she has done in figure it may be the wrong kind of competition for her.

So I don’t know why Davana wins some shows and Jenny others – since they both look good but about the same every time I see them. I do know the judges like the long-legged model look they both have and women without that kind of proportion may have trouble beating them in the past. I also think we are going to see a gradual evolution in the direction of more muscle in figure as we have in bodybuilding and fitness in the past.

All the more reason why fitness and figure women should be encouraged to try bodybuilding, rather than the other way around.

CONCLUSION
My only complaint about figure is the degree to which the IFBB is pretending it is a sport. Why are there two physique rounds – featuring a one-piece and a two-piece suit? What do you learn in terms of physique competition by covering up the torsos of the figure women with a piece of cloth? What’s next – evening dresses?

And I don’t believe the figure competitors should be taking so much money away from the bodybuilders. Wayne Demilia gave a long description at the press conference about how much money he loses promoting the women in Las Vegas. However, though it seems that adding figure did not increase the ticket sales of the women’s competitions, the figure women (who have not demonstrated their ability to draw in a sizable paying audience after only a year of existence) are getting prize money roughly equal to that of the bodybuilders.

As attractive as the figure women are, whether enough people are willing to pay to see them is questionable. And treating this competition as equal to bodybuilding (or worse, dropping female bodybuilders in favor of figure as GNC did with the Show of Strength) shows a profound disrespect for women’s bodybuilding that you don’t find in other sports in which males and female participate.

Women’s bodybuilding doesn’t bring in the money that bodybuilding for men does (although they’d do better if the federations and magazines would support them) but they certainly have a bigger paying audience that does figure, no matter how attractive the figure competitors might be. It seems a shame that the female bodybuilders seem to be being forced to subsidize fitness and figure.

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