The Female Physique Webzine/Gallery

MS. INTERNATIONAL 2002 - CONTEST REPORT
"It was a very good year."

By Bill Dobbins

A LOOK BACK
The annual Ms. International competition has seen its share of problems. Some of these have come about because the contest is the first major pro show for women of the year and whatever changes in its policy toward female bodybuilding the IFBB introduces are first manifest in Columbus.

In 1992 the IFBB issued a set of new rules in response to Bev Francis almost winning the Ms. Olympia the year before. These were the infamous "femininity" rules that had many judges interpreting instructions that women competitors shouldn't be too big for their frames to mean they shouldn't be too big for the lineup! That year, instead of being first or second at the Jan Tana, Marie Laure Mahbir was placed 11th. And instead of being outside the top six at the Ms. International, Anja Schreiner (a lovely young woman with a beautiful but small physique) was given the title. The result was such negative audience reaction and so much booing that Arnold himself had to come out on stage and quiet the crowd. "Screw the judges," said the Oak, to the great delight of the ticket holders.
Betty Pariso as Mike Matarazzo

Competitors showed up for the 2000 Ms. International to find the IFBB had issued yet another set of "guidelines" apparently intended to make bodybuilding for women more acceptable to the Olympics. As a bodybuilding contest it was an absolute embarrassment, with virtually all the women soft and totally out of shape (lightweight winner Brenda Ragaot being an exception). Unfortunately, there are top female competitors such as Vicky Gates who have never yet gotten back to the level of development and conditioning they had attained before the guidelines reared its ugly head - although Vicky this year showed she has almost made up all the ground she lost by trying to conform to the misguided expectations of the federation.

Another perennial problem in Columbus has been the lighting. In the 1980s there was one contest after another at the Veterans Memorial Auditorium that was lit by an individual who wanted it to look "theatrical" - meaning harsh lights almost directly overhead that produced deep pockets of shadow that made the job of the judges and photographers extremely difficult. Subsquently, the lighting was done for television with colored lights playing all over the physiques, making them look pink and blue and hard to see.

In 2002, the lighting was vastly improved and the IFBB backed off its "guidelines" sufficiently so that the audience got to see a real, and a really good, bodybuilding contest. Dayana Cadeau won the lightweight class looking better than she ever had for her entire career. Vicky Gates beat Iris Kyle in the heavweight class, although many felt strongly that Iris was not given her due. However, since Iris had been totally ignored at the Ms. Olympia a few months earlier, never even compared with the top three when she might have been in contention to win the class, it was at least apparent that the judges were paying her some attention.

A VERY GOOD YEAR

There was little to disappoint at the Arnold Weekend 2002. As we have been accustomed to, the event was huge, well attended and excellently organized. The turnout for the women - both the Ms. International and Fitness International - were virtual sellouts. Nor did there seem to be any shortage of sponsors. Who says you can't sell tickets or get sponsorship for female physique events? Of course, not everybody has the same resources or reputation of an Arnold Schwarzenegger or Jim Lorimer, but their success should perhaps convince some that trying a little harder might be a good idea.

As to the contest itself, there was little to complain about in terms of either the quality of the lineup nor of the judging. It is SO NICE to have a bodybuilding contest that is just about bodybuilding - and not about politics or somebody's idea of "what's good for the sport." Let's hope this is the beginning of a longstanding trend. There were a few problems with the lighting (more about that below) but nothing so extreme that, like the 2000 show, the judges couldn't see the physiques well enough to evaluate them properly and the view of the audience so obscured they couldn't even tell how bad the physiques on stage looked.

THE LIGHTWEIGHTS
Valentina Chepiga had always intended to compete as a lightweight. She had been convinced to move to heavyweight by IFBB officials and was rewarded with the Ms.
.......Cathy Priest............Valentina Chepiga...........Dayana Cadeau

Olympia heavweight title in 2001. But she has had less success since and for this year's Ms. International decided to move back down to lightweight - a decision that was also rewarded by the judges with Valentina winning the lightweight title. Valentina is in many ways a Frank Zane kind of competitor. She doesn't have a great deal of mass but can come in with good, sleek definition, excellent aesthetics and beautiful symmetry.

Her biggest threat was from last year's lightweight winner Dayana Cadeau. Dayana is also a beautiful woman wh also has aesthetic physique but seems considerably more thick and massive than Valentina. Dayana is a really big lightweight, along the lines of Andrulla Blanchette (who was not permitted to compete because she failed to sign and return her contract, according to Waye Demilia). Dayana is absolutely convinced that she deserved to win this contest. And when you look at the comparison photos you can see why. No lightweight female pro has the aesthetic muscular develop that Dayana has achieved. But - and this is a "but" that has plagued her for her entire pro career - if she comes in just slightly overweight her waist tends to thicken and her symmetry suffers. Hitting a front pose with her abs locked she looked fine. But the moment she moved or turned to the side that excess became obvious. It wasn't much, of course. But standing next to Valentina, with her tight physique and tiny waistline, it was enough to cost Dayana first place.

When Dayana Cadeau won the lightweight Ms. International in 2001 her waist was tiny! If she can achieve that same leve of symmetry in the future, given all her other strengths, she will be hard to beat.
Sophie Duquette

The battle for third was between Fannie Barrios and Cathy Lafrancois Priest (who wished henceforth to be know simply as Calthy Priest - or Mrs
Fannie Barrios

. Lee Priest on hotel registers). All through prejudging it seemed by the callouts the judges were leaning toward Cathy. But the scoresheets reveal that Fannie actually beat Cathy in every round, although by very close margins indeed. Like Dayana, Cathy was very disappointed at the outcome. However, while she is a beautiful young woman with a highly aesthetic physique, at this level of competition she simply doesn't have quite enough muscle density and muscularity. She doesn't need to be huge. She probably couldn't be all that big given her small frame. But she does need a little bit more muscle.

Two items of note:
(1) The audience was introduced to British bodybuilder Dawn Sutherland, who is certainly one of the more beautiful women in the sport. We can expect to be hearing more from Dawn. She was way overdieted for this contest, lean and shredded but at the expense of her fullness and muscle shape. If Dawn appears on stage in the future without having dieted away so much muscle she will definitely be heard from.
(2) When Sophie Duquette stepped out to do her posing routine in the finals it was obvious the IFBB had decided to relax its policies regarding costumes and props for the women. She wore a cute pink hat to match her pink posing costume. The effect was - well - CUTE.Why should the fitness women be the only ones allowed to wearing costumes on stage?

THE HEAVYWEIGHTS
.........Iris Kyle................Yaxeni Oriquen...................Vicky Gates

A lot of bodybuilding fans were expecting this to be Iris Kyle's year. After being ignored and overlook for several years - in part due to the infamous "guidelines" she had won the heavyweight Ms. Olympia last fall in Las Vegas and in the opinion of many (but, of course, not the the opinion of all) should have taken the overall. In addition, nobody could remember Iris coming into a contest in the past few years in anything but her best shape. So it seemed unlikely she would "beat herself" in the contest. Many were expecting yet another showdown between Iris and Vicky Gates. Certainly, if Vicky could bring up her legs a bit more and achieve the kind of hardness and definition Iris has become famous for, it might be quite a battle.

What few reckoned on was the continued progress and development of Yaxeni Oriquen. At the 1999 Ms. Olympia in Prague Yaxeni has been largely unimpressive. But with each subsequent appearance she had gotten better and better. Even though she lost to Betty Pariso at the 2001 Jan Tana it was clear that Yaxeni was on the move to join the ranks of the top pros. The photos of her that appeared in the March, 2002 issue of Iron Man, taken at Red Rock Canyon outside of Las Vegas, are clear evidence of the quality of her physique. And NOBODY in the sport has quads like that! Certainly finishing third behind Iris and Vicky at the Olympia should have alerted them they had serious competition to deal with.
Betty Pariso.....Gayle Moher

Yaxeni looked marvelous. There was no question about it. Furthermore, for the first time Iris Kyle was actually a little off. Not a lot, but she was clearly not as crisp as in the past. And given the incredible leg development of Yaxeni's physique, Vicky was clearly at a disadvatage, since legs are still somewhat a weak point in her develoment. As a result, Yaxeni was given first place in every round. A clean sweep and a well deserved win.

Gayle Moher placed 4th and in the opinion of many was at her best ever. Betty Pariso this year got her skin color right - which has sometimes been a problem for her. But she wasn't quite as sharp as at last year's Jan Tana. The audience also got to welcome Lisa Aukland, an excellent bodybuilder whose physique needs further refinement if she is going to compete successfully at this level.

THE OVERALL
Arnold and Yaxeni Oriquen - Overall Winner

The overall between Yaxeni Oriquen and Valentina Chepiga was virtually a foregone conclusion - being a classic "good big athlete against a good small athlete" situation.Yaxeni was SO much bigger while still being symmetrical and aesthetic that it wasn't really a contest. However, it was primarily because the of the inability of most smaller bodybuilders to compete successfully against much bigger competitors that the IFBB introduced weight classes into pro bodybuilding for women in the first place. Otherwise, lightweight competitors like Valentina might never get a chance to raise their hands in victory on a pro bodybuilding stage.

THE POSING
Perhaps the most glaring disappointment of the entire Ms. International was the posing routines. I have written before about the problems with women's posing, complaining that is sucks. Guess what - IT STILL SUCKS. One woman after another came out, flitted around the stage doing cute little dance moves, never flexing very hard, failing to hit and hold poses that showed off their muscles. (Kudos to Betty Pariso who did a routine full of comic impersonations of other bodybuilders that was highly successful and entertaining.) I guess the women are still intimated by all the accusaions that they aren't "feminine" enough. But this kind of posing isn't feminine - it's just silly and it doesn't do the competitors any good with the judges. Advice - by all means introduce aesthetics into your routine, but

(1) Hit poses that actually show off your muscles and hold them long enough for the judges to get a look at you.
(2) Don't fill a routine full of compulsory poses, the judges have already seen them.
(3) Don't waste time with a lot of dancing or long walks onto the stage before you actually begin to pose.
(4) When it comes to the posedown, don't go off by yourself and do a "guest posing" routine. Challenge the opponents you think might be a threat. Look at their phsyiques and hit shots that you think highlight body parts where you are better than they are. Don't do comparison poses exhibiting body parts where you think they might be stronger. This is a judged around and it is STILL PART OF THE CONTEST.

THE LIGHTING
Spectacular lighting - but too flat.

There was a lot of comment about how unresponsive the audience seemed. Audiences in Columbus are usually very enthusiastic. Part of the reason had to do with the unimpressive posing routines, as discussed above. But even the better posers tended to fact the same general lack of reaction. One reason was - and here we again - the lighting. As I've said, it was better this year in that we didn't see colored lights playing all over the physiques on stage, and there were not stage lights shining right into the judges' eyes. But the lighting from the front was flat, obviously designed by television for video. Flat lighting means there are no highlights on the muscles when the competitors pose - the kind of lighting you see in good posing and training photos in the magazines or on stage at contests with superior lighting like the Iron Man. The lighting from the front needed to be about twice and bright and angled to show the muscles "pop" when they were flexed. In addition, the stage was constantly flooded with some kind of smoke. Smoke obscures. Smoke hides muscles. Smoke diffuses. DON'T USE SMOKE WHEN YOU HAVE BODYBUILERS POSING ON STAGE! The 0rganizers didn't use smoke for the men's finals. Please, in future don't try to "prettify" the women. The Ms. International is a bodybuilding contest. We want to see MUSCLE!!!

 

THANKS TO THE ARNOLD
I get into the act.

Jim Lorimer - and now his son Bob who will be a major part of next year's contest weekend - needs to step in and make sure the television producers don't shortchange the competitors, judges and the audience with lighting that is too flat to be appropriate for a bodybuilding contest. Other than that, you can only be amazed at how well Arnold and Jim organized the entire weekend. The Expo was huge, featuring not only bodybuilding but gymnastics, martial arts, weightlifting and all sorts of other attractions. There was plenty of transporation and the whole Lorimer staff and crew were efficient, effective and helpful.

The only drawback - if you can call it that - the huge size of the whole thing. You can hardly move in the Convention Center when the Expo is in full swing. Traffic in downtown Columbus begins to resemble rush hour traffice in midtown Manhattan. As has been reported before, the Arnold is now the second biggest event in Columbus all year. The biggest is the annual horse show. As Arnold has said about that show, "I don't mind them having a bigger event. After all, they have bigger competitors."

Thanks to all who made the weekend such a success.

 

 

 

 

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