The Female Physique Webzine/Gallery
THE MS. INTERNATIONAL 2003
CONTEST REPORT
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As big and complex as the Arnold Weekend has become, the Ms. International bodybuilding competition is still not the equal of the Ms. Olympia in importance or prestige, being an invitational and lacking as it did this year a number of the top names in the sport such as Lenda Murray, Iris Kyle (invited but did not attend) and Juliette Bergmann.
Nonetheless, the Ms. International is a very big deal indeed and winning this title is an important stepping-stone to women intent on creating a major career in bodybuilding.
In 2003, there were 18 women competing in two weight classes Ð lightweight and heavyweight. The IFBB has authorized three weight classes, but major competitions like the Ms. Olympia and Ms. International simply don't have enough women competing to justify three classes. This is unlikely to change in the near future now that the IFBB has added Pro Fitness to the women's contests. Figure competition, although brand new, is being treated as the equal of bodybuilding and fitness. This means the time and resources available must now be allocated three ways instead of two, leaving little hope that most promoters will invite or allow more women bodybuilders to compete or raise the prize money available to them to any great degree in the near future.
PREJUDGING
Lighting in the past has been the weak point
of the Arnold competitions. But
this year the lighting was excellent for both prejudging and the finals. Unfortunately,
in order for the entire row of judges to see the bodybuilding comparisons,
the women were posed first on one extreme side of the stage and then the
other Ð and this put them partially out of the light when standing stage
left. This was hardly the fault of the lighting director. But
it should be addressed in the future Ð by repositioning the competitors
or coordinating better with the lighting director.
All the prejudging was held on a stage in the Expo hall, making it available to a lot of people who might not have bought a ticket to see it at the Veteran's Auditorium. Hopefully this kind of exposure will serve to recruit more fans to female bodybuilding in the future.
LIGHTWEIGHTS
The lightweight class at the Ms. International in 2003 presented something
of a problem for the judges. It is always easier to judge a contest
where everyone is at their best. When a lot of the best competitors
are not 100%, scoring a contest can be a lot more difficult. And
that was the case judging the lightweights.
The class of six women included four former class winners of IFBB pro competitions. Valentina Chepiga, competing in the lightweight class, won the heavyweight division of the Ms. Olympia in 2000 and the lightweight GNC; Dayana Cadeau was the lightweight Arnold champion in 2002; Cathy Priest was 2nd in the lightweight division of the GNC, also in 2002. Fannie Barrios was last year's Jan Tana lightweight winner. Given the pedigree of the competitors, the contest on paper looked like an exciting one. Unfortunately, the line-up proved to be somewhat disappointing.
In terms of development of physique, Dayana Cadeau probably showed the most potential in the lightweight division, if not in the whole contest. She has a shape, symmetry and a muscle density second to none. Her only weakness is a tendency to be thick in the waist, but in 2002 she brought her waistline down, so it's clear she can accomplish this when she tries. She also has a sensual quality relatively rare in female bodybuilding. However, Dayana was not really "crisp" on the day of the contest. She had a softness that came from - as she made clear in an interview - trying too hard rather than not trying hard enough. Her diet, from her description, was probably too strict, too low in calories, too long and too deficient in carbohydrate.
Dayana finished in 4th place.
Another disappointment was Valentina Chepiga. Valentina is one of those competitors (like the legendary Frank Zane) who is extremely aesthetic but needs to be in super-sharp shape in order to do well in competition. She doesn't have the fullness of somebody like Dayana and doesn't do well when she's even a little off. In Columbus this year, Valentina was indeed a little off - and ended up placing 5th. In both Valentina's case and that of Dayana, the errors made seem to be in preparation. There is no shortage in the genetics department.
Fannie Barrios, on the other hand, was in very good shape. As I've said before, Fannie is an excellent bodybuilder but suffers somewhat from what the judges feel is a lack of aesthetics. She placed 6th but otherwise might well have finished higher. Sometimes in a case like this, it's simply a matter of giving the judges enough time to learn to appreciate you.
Two surprises came from Denise Masino and newcomer Karina Nascimento. Denise has been placing in the top 6 in pro bodybuilding contests for years. But her overall proportions, while good enough to make her a successful pro bodybulider, have not been viewed by the judges as quite up to the standards required to win top pro championships. But in sports you work with whatever you are given and Denise demonstrated how this is done by showing up in Columbus in the best shape of her life - and in as good condition as anyone in the event. She picked a good show in which to accomplish this, given the weaknesses of some of her competitors, and placed a very popular and well deserved 2nd.
This was the first pro contest for Karina Nascimento from Brazil. If this contest is any indication, she has a great future ahead of her. Karina presents a very attractive and sensual package. She is also an excellent bodybuilder, with a complete and balanced physique, and on stage in Columbus she was in excellent shape. Considering she is a beginner when it comes to pro competition and no doubt has a long way to go in achieving her ultimate potential, chances are that Karina has a number of IFBB championships to look forward to in her future. At the 2003 Ms. International, she placed 3rd.
The winner of the lightweight class was Cathy Priest, and this gives her two pro lightweight titles in two tries, an excellent track record. If the Ms. International used three weight divisions instead of two (lightweights and middleweights together), Cathy would probably be a real lightweight. It is hard to imagine anyone her size beating her in competition, particularly since she seems always to be in great shape. Cathy has an aesthetic body, a very pretty face, and a personality that both the judges and the audience find attractive. If she were going up against a Valentina or Dayana (both of whom have competed as heavyweights) at their best, her size would be a disadvantage. But with neither of the two in excellent shape, and Cathy looking so good and making no mistakes in preparation, she was the clear choice of the judges in 3 out of 4 rounds.
HEAVYWEIGHTS
The heavyweight division was much less problematical
for the judges than the lightweights were. The best competitors in
the class were also in their best shape. So the judges were able
to compare apples and apples rather than apples and oranges.
In the past several years, Yaxeni Oriquen of Venezuela has gradually emerged as one of the top female bodybuilders in the IFBB. She won the Ms. International last year and the GNC heavyweight and overall as well. This year, Yaxeni was an easy winner in the heavyweight division, getting unanimous 1st place votes in all 4 rounds of the competition. She was 4th in the heavyweight class at the Olympia in 2002 and is certainly a prospect for doing even better in the future.
Second in the class was Betty Pariso, who has also become a perennial contender. Considering Betty is one of the oldest of the IFBB women pros, her solid muscularity and ripped condition are even more impressive. Betty Pariso received 2nd place votes from all the judges except in round one. IFBB judges are still tending to treat the first round as if symmetry were the only concern and end up placing competitors lower in this round than they would if giving a score for the entire contest.
Third place was Brenda Raganot and there was no controversy regarding this decision. Brenda has a balanced physique and presents an excellent aesthetic package. All she needs to place higher in the future is "more of the same."
Vickie Gates was placed 4th in the heavyweight class. I am actually somewhat ambivalent about analyzing how accurately the judges score her. A few years ago I praised Vickie for how well she had attacked her weakness and in particular had brought up her legs. But in the last few years, in my opinion and that of many others, Vickie has not showed up in the same great shape, she has never recovered the leg excellence she once demonstrated, and yet the judges continue to score her much higher than she deserves.
That said, Vickie Gates is capable of being one of the very best female bodybuilders in the IFBB. But the judges should demand a higher level of excellence from her than they have been doing in recent contests Ð including this year's Arnold and last year's Ms. Olympia. Nobody should get by on past performance and reputation. Vickie is good enough to win and genuinely deserve it.
Heather Foster and Gayle Moher were 5th and 6th. Gayle was in excellent condition and Heather in relatively good shape. Both of these competitors seem to have some proportional problems that are difficult to overcome. Like Denise Masino, all they can do is come to contests super ripped and muscular and continue to improve their overall presentation and posing in order to outwork some competitors who have genetic advantages but who just don't try hard enough.
FINALS
Prejudging, as anyone familiar with bodybuilding
competition knows, is all about a technical analysis of the physique. The
competitors do the compulsory poses and are compared side by side as the
judges assess
their strengths and weakness. Whatever their strengths or weaknesses
might be, bodybuilders can expect the prejudging rounds will make them
evident.
The finals are about posing and presentation. It's a fact that all rounds in a bodybuilding contest are physique rounds Ð but in the finals you have the chance to pose and present the body in such a way as to draw attention to your strengths and minimize your weaknesses. But posing is not supposed to be judged purely as a performance. The judges are still supposed to focus on physique. At best, a good posing routine can make a judge think, "You know, that competitor is a little better than I gave him/her credit for in prejudging - I need to move him/her up a place."
Judges who score bodybuilders several places higher or lower in the finals are missing the point. They are still looking at the same physique. Has the physique itself changed that much? You'd better have a really good excuse to score a competitor more than a place or two higher or lower in the finals than in prejudging.
THE POSING ROUTINES
There have been women's bodybuilding
contests in which the individual posing was outstanding. With a few
exceptions (Valentina Chepiga, Betty Pariso, Dayana Cadeau, Karina Nascimento,
for example) the Ms. International
2003 was NOT one of them. To use a technical term, the posing generally
SUCKED. And
it's about time that pro women bodybuilders stopped making the same posing
mistakes.
To many of the women were guilty of some or all of the following:
1. They danced and wiggled around instead of hitting poses. With few exceptions, they should stop with the dancing. Dancing around has nothing to do with bodybuilding.
2. They hit poses with no authority, hardly flexing at all and held the poses for only a split second.
3. When they did hit poses, they tended to be the same compulsories that the judges had already seen in prejudging.
4. They seemed to forget they were being judged and played to the audience rather than the officials.
5. They appeared to be more concerned with looking "sexy" or "feminine" than in presenting themselves as champion bodybuilders.
6. All in all, most of the lineup seemed to be apologizing for having muscles rather than celebrating the fact.
Because the IFBB added figure to the contest, the female bodybuilders were told their routines would be cut from three minutes to just two. What did they do with his limited amount of time available? Some came in from the platform at the back of the stage and slowly walked down the steps the posing area. They were just giving away 20 or 30 seconds of their allotted time while not impressing anybody. A few walked from one side of the stage to the other in order to hit poses in front of different sides of the audience. But the audience doesn't score the contest and those long walks took up that much more time. Take Arnold Schwarzenegger's advice: Be out on stage ready to pose when your music starts.
All these mistakes showed that many of the women couldn't even fill up a two minute routine and had no need for three minutes. Photographers were going crazy trying to shoot these performances. You can't get good pictures of dancing and the competitors tended not to hit interesting poses or hold them long enough for good photos. Hint: if you don't hold poses long enough for the photographers to shoot them, how do you expect the audience or the judges to see them? Hit 'em and hold 'em, ladies.
It is also a waste of time to gesture to the audience trying to get them to applaud. If they were excited by what you are doing they would already be applauding. Try to excite them with your POSING! Work out a dynamic, interesting and effective routine with unusual poses that attract the eye and with lots of muscle displayed as aesthetically as possible. Learn the best poses (other than just the compulsories) and then develop variations. Betty Pariso hit a most-muscular pose kind of as a joke but she looked great doing it. Study the classic Ed Corney poses like archer or twisting back double biceps shots. Put some imagination and effort into it. By all means, try to be aesthetic and attractive but remember you are in a BODYBUILDING CONTEST. Bodybuilding is about MUSCLE so make sure you show yours most effectively.
THE POSEDOWN
The point of a posedown is to challenge competitors
who you want to beat or who want to beat you and demonstrate you are better. The
posedown is not a posing exhibition for the audience, however entertaining
it might
be. The women in the Ms. International this year seemed to understand
this a little better than have the women in many other shows.
Many times you see the women stay in a line and just hit poses. Or competitors who are not in first place going out on their own away from the group and hitting shots for the audience. This is hardly a way to gain an extra place on the scoresheets. True, in many cases the posedown is just a way for the officials to kill time while the final scores are being tabulated. What if it isn't? What if you and another bodybuilder are almost equal in the eyes of some judges or they are just undecided as to what your final placing should be?
If nothing else, use the posedown as a way of appearing more competitive and aggressive than your opponents. Get some attention and create some excitement. At the worst you will end up is having a lot action-packed photos taken of yourself. At best, you might do yourself some good in the judging. For example, in the overall posedown smaller Cathy Priest challenged bigger Yaxeni Oriquen very directly, a big smile on her fact, even though it was obvious she couldn't win the posedown. But everyone enjoyed her confidence and she made the posedown much more interesting that it would have been otherwise. That kind of thing really helps your reputation.
THE OVERALL
The process of deciding the overall is a microcosm
of the whole contest. The
participants are compared doing quarter turns "standing relaxed," hit the
compulsory poses and then have a mini-posedown. But as soon as heavyweight
winner Yaxeni Oriquen and lightweight Cathy Priest came out on stage together
I saw most of the judges writing down their choice. In contests with
three weight divisions, the heavyweight has an advantage but the middleweight
sometimes win. It is very rare for the lightweight to beat the bigger
competitors, and Cathy Priest was just too small to beat Yaxeni. The
good big athlete beating the good smaller one, and all that.
So Yaxeni Oriquen is the overall winner of the Ms. International 2003.
CONCLUSIONS
I wish the posing had been better at the Ms. International, and it would have been better if the lightweights as a group were in better shape, but the contest was a success nonetheless. The overall organization of the competition, the lighting, the audience turnout, were all terrific. And Yaxeni Oriquen is certainly a deserving and promotable winner. With the success of the 2002 Ms. Olympia and now the Ms. International, we can only hope the we get continued support from the IFBB, the physique magazines and the potential sponsors for pro female bodybuilding.
There is still some question as to how much respect the women bodybuilders get. For example Yaxeni Oriquen won $7,000 for her victory in the heavyweight class (she got an additional $10,000 for winning the overall). Jenny Lynn, winner of the figure contest won $10,000. Question: Does the IFBB really think the reward for somebody winning a figure event (which is brand new and unproven as an audience draw) should be comparable to that of a bodybuilder who has been training for 10 years or more, has an international following and has to subject herself to the incredible training and diet discipline it takes to win a bodybuilding event?
Furthermore, Susie Curry was awarded $20,000 for winning the fitness contest. Is fitness really so popular and contributes so more revenue to the IFBB and to pro promoters than does bodybuilding to the degree that the fitness competitors deserve larger prizes than do the women bodybuilders? Remember, female bodybuilding has been sanctioned by the federation since 1980 - and it is the primary reason these other women started weight training in the first place and that these other competitions exist at all.
One other thing. In each weight class, only three of the six finalists were given trophies. I suppose the thinking was that only six trophies were given to the fitness and fitness finalists, so only six total would be allocated to the bodybuilders. But - PLEASE - how much can six trophies cost? To finish in the top six at a contest as important as the Ms. International and not have a trophy to show for it is very disappointing. All the bodybuilding finalists should get at least some kind of trophy. Give a girl a break.