THE FEMALE PHYSIQUE WEBZINE/GALLERY
GNC SHOW OF STRENGTH
WOMEN’S FITNESS REPORT
November 8th, 2002
– New Orleans
back
By Bill Dobbins
The major problem at the GNC Show of Strength for women’s fitness and bodybuilding, the male pros and the expo exhibitors was lack of audience, due mostly to insufficient advertising and publicity (see the female bodybuilding report for more details). But the line-up for fitness was excellent – the “usual suspects” that included Kelly Ryan, Adela Friedmansky, Jennys Worth and Hendershott and more. There were few surprises when it came to how the competitors looked, how they performed or were judged.
If you look at the results you will see how the competitors placed. Exactly what process was used to determine these placings, as usual, can only be guessed at.
In regard to the physique rounds, I’ve written in previous reports on the degree to which the fitness competitors have begun to resemble lightweight bodybuilders. To me, this is a good thing. Physique federations are supposed to be sanctioning physique events, not beauty contests. The trend continued, at least in terms of picking the winners. The top finishers were all tight and muscular, if not particularly big. If you look at the bottom three – Beth Horn, Julie Palmer and Julie Childs – they all had lovely figures but were not in “hardbody” condition.
Julie Childs is an interesting example when it comes to fitness judging. She is beautiful and was very tight and hard when she won the USA overall in 2001. She is also a gymnast and capable of performing routines at a high level. But she wasn’t even close to being in her best shape in New Orleans, so the judges placed her last. If he had been harder and more muscular she would undoubtedly done better.
There is a rumor going around that the NPC is concerned about how muscular the fitness women are getting and are going to try to force them to “tone down.” Experience has shown what will happen if they go that route. For a few contests the women will simply come in softer, not smaller. The ones who do this will end up disappointed as they find themselves placing lower and lower. The judges, after all, are trained to judge physique. Soft women in NPC or IFBB contests simply don’t look as good as those in great shape and the judges will tend – rightfully – to favor those competitors. Arbitrarily setting limits on development, with no regard to how good the competitors look, always causes confusion and controversy – whether in fitness or bodybuilding – and achieves no positive purpose.
Of course, the more widespread inclusion of figure in the NPC and its introduction into IFBB pro events will cause even more confusion in the near future. Just as a lot of women moved into fitness because they felt they couldn’t or didn’t want to put on bodybuilder size, a lot of the fitness contestants are planning a move into figure, where the only athletic demands on competitors are quarter turns. Figure is supposed to be fitness without the routines, but it isn’t. At least it hasn’t been up until now. Figure champions have generally looked very different from the physiques that win in fitness – taller and leaner, more like fitness models. So a lot of the fitness women are going to be disappointed when they make the switch.
Incidentally, the way the IFBB is organized pro women can simply change from bodybuilding to fitness to figure or back again without any need to qualify for a certain type of competition. This is a little like turning pro in tennis and becoming automatically qualified to play professional golf. It is also unfair in that a competitor could be one of those seemingly unlimited number of fitness women whom the NPC allows to turn pro and then later decide to compete in pro bodybuilding. This would give them pro bodybuilding cards much more easily that NPC amateur bodybuilders who find it very difficult to qualify for the IFBB pro ranks through the USA and Nationals. However, my suggestion that pros in one area should be able to compete as amateurs in another – such as pro fitness women who might want to develop into bodybuilders – has been rejected by the IFBB.
What is going to happen to fitness once figure becomes more established is problematical. The ranks of NPC fitness women are diminishing as women move over to figure. Will that happen with the IFBB? And how will bodybuilding audiences react as the female bodybuilders are given less time to compete – fewer finalists, less time for their posing routines – and have to split the prize money with figure women whose training is obviously far less demanding? Will figure sell tickets, other than to friends and family members? Is anyone going to care?
Fitness competitors such as the ones at the Show of Strength are going to be facing changes in their competition very much like the ones bodybuilders had to deal with when fitness came in. They will have to share the stage with yet another group of competitors, so it seems likely their rules will change to accommodate the competition for time. No more cat suit round? No more one-piece? How about not ever women being allowed to do her routine? Or simply fewer women invited to the contest?
In one sense, adding fitness and then figure to NPC/IFBB competition can be seen as a positive trend, with the audience getting to see more and often less extreme examples of how attractive muscles can be. But it also represents a disrespect on the part of the federations for bodybuilding as practiced by women. For example, there has been no rush to establish fitness contests for men. Certainly there are a lot of male athletes available who have athletic bodies and can do handstands and tumbling. Obviously, this isn’t going to happen since the women are looked at as sex objects as much (or more) as they are athletes. This is true in other sports as well. Serena Williams happens to be a great tennis player but her glute-revealing suit she has been wearing attracted attention regardless of her performance. And Anna Kournikova hasn’t won anything but still gets a huge amount of publicity. However, the tennis federation doesn’t alter the rules in order to let Kournikova win a title “for the good of the sport.”
I’ve always thought the tumbling aspect of fitness was given too much priority, but at least the fitness competitors are able to do something besides quarter turns. As I’ve said before, you would pay to see Kelly Ryan’s routine in a show. And the physiques have become worth looking at for a physique audiences as the women have gained more size and muscularity. Certainly, the judges at the GNC didn’t reward the beautiful but too soft bodies of Beth Horn or Julie Childs. But until the federations come around to admitting that they sanction physique contests, not beauty pageants, and that these fitness women are a kind of bodybuilder (what else do you call training with weights and dieting to sculpt your physique) the confusion in the judging standards is not going to get any better. How this will all play out with figure is anyone’s guess.
