THE 2002 NPC USA CONTEST REPORT

THE FEMALE PHYSIQUE WEBZINE/GALLERY

By Bill Dobbins

INTRO

For a number of years the USA has been successfully produced by Jon Lindsay at the University of Nevada in Las Vegas and this has turned out to be an ideal venue. Vegas is relatively easy to get to, the Alexis Park hotel is sprawling, comfortable and has extensive grounds which contain three swimming pools (ideal for physique photography) and there are plenty of attractions around the city that let those attending the event play and be entertained after hours.

At the contest this year we found that the female bodybuilders outnumbered the fitness competitors for the first time – with 66 bodybuilders in the event compared to only 44 fitness women. The number and quality of the bodybuilders certainly puts a lie to the oft-believed myth that bodybuilding for women is “dying” (wishful thinking on the part of those who don’t like female muscle, no doubt). The somewhat sparse turn out for fitness is a clear indication that the NPC’s reluctance to limit the tumbling and other difficult and dangerous moves in fitness routines, plus the existence of figure (a specialized beauty contest in which competitors need merely to stand on stage and do quarter turns) is gradually choking off the supply of new fitness women coming up through the pipeline.

Apparently the perceived need to crowd the stage with as many women as possible to create additional income for the NPC and the contest promoters has taken priority over any desire to make National Physique Committee competition actually focus on physique. Which has always meant MUSCLE. Can a return to the "physical culture" contests for men in the 1920s and 30s be far behind?

BODYBUILDING

There was a nice, uniform quality to the whole bodybuilding line-up, the lightweights included. But there are few lightweights in NPC shows who appear to be major pro material. Most look nice, certainly like quality bodybuilders, but more like middleweights who need a little more size. Melanie Thompson, who won the class, did not look out of place in the final posedown of the class winners. Just too small to be competitive.

Rosemary Jennings won the middleweight class and the overall as well. She is now eligible to turn pro and the fact that there are weight class in IFBB pro shows will work to her advantage. Rosemary has a complete physique but will likely need a little more density and muscle maturity to make her mark in the pro ranks. This is not the kind of thing that happens overnight. The idea is to stick to your training, not try “too hard” and not get intimidated by going up against women who have been competing for that many more years.

The heavyweights were an interesting class. Colette Nelson won just as she did in 2001. And just as last year, she had a terrific upper body but was very weak in quad development. Actually, weak in the inner thigh area; the outer head of the quads on her legs is very well developed. I talked to her about her leg training and found she has been severely overtraining her legs – too much and too often – as well as doing a lot of detail work that doesn’t result in much increased thigh mass. In addition, she confessed to doing most of her squats and leg presses with a very narrow stance, which tends to take the stress off the inner quads and adductors, exactly the areas in which she needs more development.

Colette will be competing in the Nationals. Whether there is enough time to make any serious changes in her legs before then is open to doubt. But by making the appropriate changes in her leg routine there is a good chance we will see a lot more balance in her physique in the future.

Another competitor worth mentioning is Michelle Tuggle. Michelle reminds me a lot of an early Yolanda Hughes. She has a beautiful, sleek and balanced physique. Standing next to her she seems huge. But from 30 or 50 feet away when she’s on stage she simply doesn’t have the fullness of shape and overall volume to win this class. But there was a time Yolanda didn’t either and she continued training and growing until she was one of the best in the world. Michelle has made so much progress in the past year (difficult when you train in isolation in Hawaii…that can be a severe handicap) that we can expect to see her being really competitive for the class win in just another year or two.

Of the whole line-up, the best example of real pro potential was Heather Policky, who placed 4^th in the heavyweights. Her mass, shape and muscle density made her look more like a Ms. Olympia competitor than somebody in the USA. This might have worked against her. Standing next to Yaxeni Oriquen or Vicky Gates the judges might have gotten a clearer idea of her quality. As it was, Heather’s overall “look” worked somewhat against her. For example, I think a change of hair style might do for Heather what it did for Betty Pariso. And she might find that sculpting her body by coming in just a few pounds lighter – or perhaps doing a little bit more quality training – could make a big difference.

By the way, fans of Annie Rivieccio might like to know that she could easily have finished slightly higher than she did. As it was, Annie looked the best she’s looked in years. But for some reason, the didn’t look quite as good in prejudging as she did in the finals – and the prejudging is where most of the scoring takes place. I was surprised at how much better she was at night – but whether it was an actual change in the physique, coloring, the suit, the lighting or whatever I can’t say.

FITNESS

As always, I have few comments about fitness judging, since I personally don’t think fitness is judged on any rational or productive basis. I can say that the fitness women are, by and large, continuing to come in slightly more muscular over time. It is becoming difficult for my photo assistants to sort the pictures of the fitness women from the smaller bodybuilders. But because this is happening gradually the judges don’t seem to be penalizing the competitors. Plus, a lot of the fitness women are in this kind of competition because they are very good looking in the first place. Thus the judges are following Dobbins’ rule of female muscle – everyone likes muscles on women as long as the women are beautiful.

If Kim Chizevsky had looked like Kim Bassinger everyone would have been telling her what a beautiful body she had.

The highlight of the short class was the delightful Nicole Rollolazo, former Fitness America winner. Nicole is cute as bug and does a routine second to none. She is one of those fitness competitors like Kelly Ryan and Jenny Worth (among others) who have routines so good you’d pay to see them in a Vegas showcase. (Hint, hint.) Nicole has put on more visible muscle since her Fitness America days (an organization that definitely doesn’t approve of any degree of muscle on women whatsoever). At this point, however, her 4’ 11” physique is not really competitive for the overall title. But what a cutie!

The medium class ended up as the battle of the Kimberlys – Scheindler winning out in the end over Lyons. Either way the audience couldn’t lose. Both Kims are beautiful, athletic with enough muscle to compete as bodybuilders against Rachel McLish or Carla Dunlap (with a lot more diet, of course; early 80s female bodybuilders weren’t big, but they sure got ripped). Since you can’t know how the routines were scored, there is no way to look at these women on stage and know who is going to win. So the fans just have to take it any way it comes.

By the way, speaking of routines, there are no pictures of the individual routines in the photo coverage of the USA. At the evening show, the routines were done along the front of the stage, with a platform in the background. All the lights were focused on the platform, with the front stage perhaps only 1/4 as bright. Too dark to shoot women performing active and energetic routines.

Note to all promoters: Light the whole stage evenly and uniformly. That is your responsibility as a promoter. Otherwise you end up with a lot of dark photos or no photos at all of certain aspects of the contest. Don’t go by whether or not the light is acceptable for video. If the stage is lit for film, and lit evenly, then the judges, audience and photographers all have the best view possible.

The tall class and overall winner was Julie Shipley (or Julie Shipley-Childs, since last year). Again, a gorgeous woman with a beautiful, lightly muscled physique. Julie is one of those women who its just nice to look at – attractive as well as beautiful and all beautiful women are not necessarily highly attractive. She is also an experienced model. On Monday morning following she contest she showed up at the Alexis part at 6:30AM, make up already done, despite have a cold and not feeling well at all. Those of us who photograph bodybuilding and fitness competitors on a regular basis can only pray that her example will be followed by others who might otherwise agree to do a shoot and then skip town without telling anyone, including the photographer, they have decided to leave.

Yeah for Julie.