The Female Physique Webzine/Gallery
FIGURE COMPETITION:
PHYSIQUE CONTEST OR BEAUTY PAGEANT?
The NPC California Championship in 2002 consisted of men'sand women's bodybuilding, fitness and the new figure division. I was rather surprised to find there were only 5 fitness competitors entered in the show - 3 in one class and 2 in the other. The figure division, on the other hand, had 14 competitors entered. Obviously, a lot of women want to be on stage and show off their bodies, but don't want to go to the considerable effort of developing a competitive routine.
In 2003 there were only two fitness competitors in the event and a whole stage full of women entering figure.
My
question is this: Isn't having women simply walk out on stage, in high heels
no less, and have their figures judged wearing one and two-piece suits just
a beauty contest? And if so, why is this kind of competition being sanctioned
by a physique federation?
Some of the best fitness women have decided not to compete any longer. For example, you won't see Monica Brant at the Ms. Olympia Fitness again. Competitors like Monica simply have no chance against the highly trained gymnasts who enter these contests. My suggestion to the NPC and IFBB has been to somewhat limit the types of moves allowable in fitness competition both to make it safer and to level the playing field somewhat. As fitness is conducted now, the "career gymnasts" simply have too much of an advantage. If, as I have suggested, you simply prohibit tumbling - you know, the series of flips and cartwheels that take the competitor from one side of the stage to the other - you would still allow for plenty of dance, gymnastics and strength moves without giving women trained since childhood in gymnasts an unbeatable advantage. This would also reduce the chances of somebody making a mistake tumbling on a slippery, hardwood floor and being seriously injured.
Even in gymnastics competition, the routines only include two tumbling runs. All the rest is simply "floor exercises," which many non-lifetime gymnasts could learn to do and which could be done relatively safely.
As it is, since fitness routines can still include these very specialized and difficult to master tumbling runs, it seems that fitness women are more and more going to gravitate to "figure" competition, where they just have to stand there and do quarter turns. But is this really ANYTHING to do with sport? Is it going to attract paying customers for the promoters? Are any promotable stars going to emerge from this division? Is anybody going to really care? And won't fitness end up as even more of a gymnastics contest than it already is?
"Just coming out and making quarter turns," says the normally amiable Jerry Fredrick of Iron Man, "I thought it was really boring." I'm sure that many are going to agree with him.. So perhaps the NPC ought to reconsider the nature of the figure division. After all, they are the National PHYSIQUE Committee, and fitness in practice has been defined as a competition in which the women should not work too hard at developing their physiques. If you think about it, the AAU does not sanction "slow running" or "low jumping." At least with some kind of fitness routine included, you are still dealing with at least a degree of athleticism.
Bill Dobbins
WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT FIGURE CONTESTS???
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