1. ASHLEY KALTWASSER
2. JANET LAYUG
3. COURTNEY KING
4. INDIA PAULINO
5. STACEY ALEXANDER
6. NARMIN ASSRIA
7. STEPHANIE MAHOE
8. JUSTINE MUNRO
9. MICHELLE SYLVIA
10. JAMIE DEL ANGEL
11. SARAH LEBLANC
12. BREENA MARTINEZ
13. TAWNA EUBANKS
14. NICOLE ANKNEY
15. CHRISTIE MARQUEZ
16. KATE ABATE
16. NOY ALEXANDER
16. BIANCA BERRY
16. ANGELES BURKE
16. CHRISTINA FJAERE
16. TAMARA HADDAD
16. ADRIANA HILL
16. VLADIMIRA KRASOVA
16. FRANCESCA LAUREN
16. DAYNA MALETON
16. ANGELA MARQUEZ
16. NOEMI OLAH
16. CATHERINE RADULIC
16. JANELLE SAITONE-MCGUIRE
16. ALLA SEMENOVA
16. ANGELICA TEIXEIRA

1. OKSANA GRISHINA
2. TANJI JOHNSON
3. MYRIAM CAPES
4. REGIANE DA SILVA
5. BETHANY WAGNER
6. MICHELLE BLANK
7. FIONA HARRIS
8. RYALL GRABER
9. WHITNEY JONES
10. MARTA AGUIAR
11. CHIKA ALUKA
12. KRISTINE DUBA
13. SARA KOVACH
14. MISSY TERWILLIGER

1. JULIANA MALACARNE
2. KIRA NEUMAN
3. TYCIE COPPETT
4. DANIELLE REARDON
5. AUTUMN SWANSON
6. MINDI O’BRIEN
7. GLORIA FAULLS
8. ERICA BLOCKMAN
9. TERESITA MORALES
10. JACKLYN ABRAMS
11. HEATHER GRACE
12. KARINA NASCIMENTO
13. LEAH JOHNSON
14. AYANNA CARROLL
15. TAMEE MARIE
16. CANDREA JUDD-ADAMS
16. CEAANNA KERR
16. DIANNE BROWN
16. JAMIE POSTILL
16. JENNIFER HERNANDEZ
16. KRISTINA DYBDAHL-FARNSWORTH
16. LA’DRISSA BONIVEL
16. LEILA THOMPSON
16. LEONIE ROSE
16. MICHELLE CUMMINGS
16. MIKAILA SOTO
16. SHERONICA HENTON
16. YASHA

1. Latorya Watts
2. Nicole Wilkins
3. Candice Lewis
4. Camala Rodriguez-McClure
5. Candice Keene
6. Gennifer Strobo
7. Ann Titone
8. Cydney Gillon
9. Andrea Calhoun
10. Joan Smith
11. Allison Frahn
12. Julie Mayer
13. Ivana Ivusic
14. Adela Ondrejovicova
15. Shalako Bradberry
16. Andrea Paynter
16. Brittany Campbell
16. Candice John
16. Jennifer Taylor
16. Jennifer Brown
16. Kamla Macko
16. Karen Noorlun
16. Karina Grau
16. Maria Luisa Baeza-Diaz
16. Megan Wyble
16. Renata Guaraciaba
16. Vera Mallett
16. Wendy Fortino

Inflammatory Bowel Disease (better known as IBD) affects 1 in 250 people in the UK, with the two main types of IBD being Ulcerative Colitis and Crohn’s Disease.

Ulcerative Colitis currently affects around 146,000 people in the UK with Crohn’s Disease hitting around 115,000.

IBD can be extremely debilitating for some, with symptoms that include chronic fatigue, pain, swelling or cramping in the tummy, extreme weight loss and recurring diarrhoea. These symptoms can occur in varied amounts and can leave some housebound, unable to work or enjoy normal day-to-day activities.

IBD can often be seen as a taboo subject, but one girl hoping to break the stigma is Zoey Wright, who had life-changing surgery after battling Ulcerative Colitis for two years.

During 2012 Zoey had first noticed something wasn’t right within her body, then in just four weeks her weight dropped from 140lbs to 112lbs.

Zoey was frequently being admitted into hospital and had been trialling various medications to attempt to treat the condition.

Her body was shutting down as her white blood cells attacked the healthy lining of her bowel wall, making the bowel extremely ulcerated.

She says: ‘I remember stepping on the scales and seeing the numbers and I couldn’t believe it. I went from being a healthy 140lb to an unhealthy 112lb in less than four weeks.

‘I just cried… I cried a lot. I could barely walk and sometimes I couldn’t even leave my bed to even wash myself because I was so weak.’

This drastic weight loss was a cause for concern and led her doctor to informing her that she would need to have ileostomy surgery – a surgical procedure in which some of or all of the large bowel is removed, and the end of the small bowel is pulled to the outside of the abdomen, forming a stoma.

Somehow, Zoey’s health recuperated enough for her to escape the proposed surgery.

The experience motivated her into trying to heal her body herself instead of relying only on the doses of medication being prescribed to her.

After her hospital stay, she made it her mission to put back on the weight she lost – but she did it with a difference.

Zoey knew putting on weight would be a struggle with her condition, so she decided instead to gain weight through bodybuilding.

With the help of her partner, Conor, also a bodybuilder, Zoey began a new lease of life as a bodybuilder.

But sadly, every time she felt she was getting stronger, her UC got the better of her.

‘Every time I was getting stronger… my UC would remind me it was there, tearing away my insides, causing me chronic pain and leading to countless hospital admissions, countless drugs, treatments. It was mentally and physically pulling me down,’ she says.

With all hard work and little improvement, in November 2014, Zoey made the brave decision to have the ileostomy surgery her doctor had suggested in 2012.

Now, 10 months on from her surgery, Zoey is currently in training for her first bodybuilding show and while some of the symptoms remain, the pain is more bearable and she feels better than ever.

Of course, surgery can play with your emotions and can leave you feeling pretty down, but Zoey, who says on her Insta bio that she’ll be ‘rocking her ileostomy’ when she hits the stage, remains upbeat.

‘Whenever I felt down, I found myself turning it into motivation. Yes, this illness had taken my bowel and changed me physically but why let it change you mentally?

‘When you have passion and drive for something you enjoy nothing will stop you.

‘Body building has always been my coping mechanism and it continues to be that every single day. I’m in control and I’m going to kill it.’

A video posted by Bodybuilding with IBD (@zoeywright10) on Aug 10, 2015 at 8:55am PDT

Courtesy of: Metro UK

When 33-year-old Lyndsey Rosevear of Merritt ventured into the sport of bodybuilding back in January of this year, it was just another chapter in a truly inspirational life story being written by a very remarkable young woman.

Rosevear was born and raised in Prince George. Like many youngsters growing up, she immersed herself in sports, competing and excelling at basketball, volleyball and track and field, amongst others.

“Sports became my life,” she said. “My family was very supportive. They would always come and watch me compete, and even arrange family vacations around my sporting events.”

After graduating from high school, Rosevear enrolled at the University of Calgary.

“I went to a basketball tournament in Calgary when I was in Grade 12, and something just resonated with me about the city. It just felt right.”

Prior to commencing her studies at the U of C in September of that year, Rosevear spent her first post-secondary summer firefighting in B.C.’s forests. Little did she know at the time that the rigorous, seasonal occupation would become her rite of passage each May for the next dozen years.

“I started as a junior initial attack firefighter, and actually did my training out at the base at Nicola Lake,” she said. “I went on to become an instructor at three different boot camps and gradually worked my way up through the ranks — eventually becoming a supervisor, a crew leader and a forest protection assistant.

“I tended to gravitate towards teaching the fitness stuff. I would be up at six o’clock with the guys and girls, making them do a trillion burpees,” she said with a laugh.

During each school year in Calgary, Rosevear would keep up her active lifestyle playing basketball (usually with the guys), running and working out in the gym.

“I even joined a speedskating club, because the Olympic oval is right there,” Rosevear said.

Academically, the Prince George native wasn’t really sure at first what she wanted to study in university, so she simply enrolled in courses that interested her, like linguistics (French and Spanish), science and sociology.

“They kind of led me down the path to international relations — exploring the world, humanitarianism, and so on.”

In 2003, Rosevear did an exchange semester in Spain, and in 2004 began volunteering at the on-campus International Student Centre at the University of Calgary.

“My love for international things just kept growing and growing,” she said. “And volunteering is a big part of who I am. I have this yearning to do things meaningful, and to give back.”

In 2005, while still a student in Calgary, Rosevear decided to go to Nicaragua and start up a development program. It became the Nicaragua International Development Project (NIDP). Rosevear was the founder, and executive director of the non-profit organization for the next seven years of her life. Its aim was the promotion and implementation of water, sanitation and education initiatives in the rural areas of the country.

“During that period, I was kind of living my life in thirds,” Rosevear said. “One third studying at school, one third spending time in Nicaragua, and one third working as a firefighter back in B.C.”

Rosevear’s life would only get busier. After graduating with a B.A. from the University of Calgary in 2007, she managed to find the time to earn a Master’s degree from the European University for Peace and Conflict Studies (EPU), located in Stadtchlaining, Austria — 90 minutes south of Vienna.

“There were 40 people in the program from about 40 different countries,” she said. “We lived where we studied, if you can imagine that many people from that many countries all sharing the same little kitchen.”

The location of the university allowed Rosevear to nurture her love for travel, for languages and for new experiences.

“I went to Italy, to Morocco, to Spain, to Hungary. In fact, we would go over to Hungary from the school for dinner. I remember ordering my first steak ever at a restaurant in Hungary where they spoke no English. The steak came out still mooing. I had to send it back.”

Once back in Canada, the worldly opportunities kept coming Rosevear’s way. In 2010, she chaired a youth conference for international dialogue during the G8 Summit meetings in Vancouver, and subsequently represented Canada at a similar gathering of G8 nations in Russia later the same year. She also managed trips to Brazil and to Mexico.

The next two years saw Rosevear embrace her love of the French language and culture by living in Quebec on three separate occasions. In between, she continued to fight fires each summer in her home province.

“I moved into a place in Quebec City and studied at the Centre de Phoenix,” she said. “Thus began my love affair with La Belle Provence.”

Rosevear became a published author during that time, writing a pair of articles for the magazine Life in Quebec, as well as an award-winning short story.

It was on one of her return trips to B.C. in the summer for firefighting that Rosevear reached an important turning point in her life’s journey.

“I began to ask myself, ‘Do I really want to be a firefighter the rest of my life?’ I decided to try and transition out of my seasonal lifestyle and move to something more career-oriented.”

Rosevear briefly relocated to Vancouver in the spring of 2014, before joining her parents in Merritt in June of the same year. They had moved to the Nicola Valley in 2003. Her dad works at Aspen Planers and her mom at City Furniture. She also has a brother in Kamloops.

“I took an office management position with Diacarbon Energy, the pellet plant, as a communications co-ordinator,” Rosevear said. “Living here in Merritt for the last 14 months has been the longest that I’ve lived anywhere in one place consistently since I graduated from high school.”

It has been during her time in Merritt that Rosevear has begun writing her life’s chapter on bodybuilding.

“A year ago, I noticed that I was probably in the worst shape of my life,” she said. “Somehow, in doing this transition thing, I had gotten away from the things I’d always done that kept me active and fit — whether it be running, playing basketball, working out at the gym, or preparing for firefighting. I looked at myself in the mirror and said, ‘What am I doing; how did I get here?

“A colleague of mine at work, Beshoy Meleka, who’s really into fitness and was getting ready for a bodybuilding competition, planted the seed in my mind that I should train for a competition, too. My first reaction was, ‘Heck, no. Why would I do that?’ but I took a week or two to think about it and finally decided, ‘Why not? What do I have to lose — except all that weight?’”

Like everything else she’s done in her life, Rosevear embraced her latest venture with an unreserved passion.

“I’m the kind of person who always follows their heart, and I’m very challenge-driven,” she said.

“Motivation comes from a number of different places throughout our day and throughout our lives,” Rosevear added. “My motivation was to see how far I could go, and then to be able to look back at how far I had come.”

Once a competition date of July 25 in Vancouver had been chosen, Rosevear poured everything into her training — initially under the guidance of Meleka, and later with the assistance of an online coach.

“From February of this year on, I began to think of that competition date more than anything else,” Rosevear said. “I would wake up in the morning, eat my breakfast, make photocopies at work, and go to bed at night thinking about July 25.”

Rosevear’s gym sessions back then were as they are now, intense.

“I’m in the gym five to six days a week, lifting hard and lifting heavy. Everything is to maximum effort, all the time. Consistency is crucial.”

Lifting weights is important in training for bodybuilding, but nutrition is the key, according to Rosevear.

“That was the missing component when I look back at how I used to train for anything when I was younger. It is so important to eat intelligently and eat for your body. What works for me is something called macro-tracking, where I log the macro nutrients I consume and make sure I am eating proteins, carbohydrates and fats to a certain threshold each day.”

It helps that Rosevear loves to be in the kitchen.

“I enjoy preparing food, and take pride in bringing creativity to healthy eating. In fact, I’ve decided to go back to school this fall and take night classes to be a nutritionist and eventually open my own business. I have a five-year plan.”

In bodybuilding competitions, there are four divisions: bikini, figure, physique and bodybuilding. On July 25, Rosevear had decided to enter figure her first time out.

“I was actually a little disappointed when I found out that in the figure category you only do four mandatory, quarter-turn poses in the two performances and that’s all; whereas, in the physique division and above, you do the mandatory poses as well as six additional poses, and you get a full minute to do a routine. After all that hard work, you want to be able to show off a little,” she said with a laugh.

While Rosevear didn’t finish at the top in her very first competition, she said that she wouldn’t have traded the experience for the world.

“One of the highlights was to be able to celebrate my journey, and what I had accomplished in getting ready for it – all the hard work and dedication I had put into it. I gave it 100 per cent. I couldn’t have given it more.

“Another highlight was having my family and boyfriend there to celebrate with me. They were imperative to my journey. Day in and day out, they were so supportive. The gratitude I have for them runs deep.”

Rosevear said meeting all the other competitors and hearing their stories about how they got into bodybuilding was also incredibly meaningful.

“It was one of the most motivational and inspirational weekends of my life.”

Rosevear is already looking forward to her next competition in March. She’s decided to transition to the physique division.

“The intensity of my workouts at the gym will stay the same. It’ll be more about getting some gains (building more muscle), and then getting leaner to show it off.”

Rosevear could not have completed the first few paragraphs in her latest life’s chapter without a tremendous amount of support from her home community.

“When I looked at all the crazy expenses associated with the sport, I decided to see if I could get some help. I ended up getting over $1,800 in sponsorships from local businesses. I am so grateful to Jamara Joyal Massage Therapy, DSA Auto, Marvin Fraser Ventures and Dentistry in Merritt and others.

“To all the people of Merritt who have encouraged and supported me along the way, I can’t thank them enough. It means so much, and has really helped to motivate me. People have celebrated with me constantly.

“I went to Vancouver feeling like the community of Merritt was behind me.”

Courtesy of: Merritt Herald

A BOOZY nan has told of how she swapped hard drinking for pumping iron – and became a bodybuilding grandma.

Debbie Allsopp, 48, is a female bodybuilding champion with rippling muscles and award-winning determination.

But she’s not always been so focused. The mum-of-three and grandmother-of-two has spoken of her previous boozy nights out – drinking 12 vodka drinks – before finding solace in the gym.

The eight-time competition winner said: “Before I started bodybuilding I would have probably just carried on being that mum who went out once a month and got hammered.

“Now, my whole body shape has changed and I’m much more confident than I was. I pretended to be confident before. Now I don’t have to fake it.”

Debbie, of Peterborough, admits before she discovered the sport, she could happily down a dozen vodka and Red Bulls, chased by half a dozen shots of tequila.

“I was one of those mums who liked a glass of wine and a curry. Then once a month I’d go on a bender and be falling out of a nightclub off my head, drunk as a skunk.

“I was a typical down-trodden mum who lacked confidence in herself.

“I’d been with my husband for 18 years and married for 15, but our marriage broke down.

“We split up eight years ago and divorced, and although my sons James, then 19, and Jacob, 15, were growing up, Jasmine, was only six.”

Talking of losing her confidence, Debbie hit a turning point. She said: “Then I began dating John, who I’d met in a nightclub in Cardiff. He was a power-lifter and said to me, ‘You’re a really confident girl, you’ve got a good figure. Have you ever thought about bodybuilding?’

“Little did he know my confidence was all bravado. I told him the only time I’d been to the gym in the last 20 years was for a bit of a walk on the treadmill. I had no idea how to use weights or anything. I was a total gym virgin.”

The brunette carer followed John’s advice and joined her local gym. There a bodybuilding competition four months away in Port Talbot, Wales, run by the National Amateur Bodybuilders’ Association (NABBA).

She began training and was immediately bitten by the body-building bug. Before long, Debbie was doing five weekly sessions, honing her physique, and felt like a new woman.

Being dedicated, Debbie ditched her fatty diet of homemade bread and cakes, chilli, shepherd’s pie, lasagne and her favourite chips with curry sauce, for super lean chicken, rice, salmon, egg white omelette and vegetables.

She became teetotal and within four weeks, began to see her body change.

She said: “My biceps started growing and I began to get a bit of definition around my tummy.

“Then, 16 weeks later, in May 2012, I stepped on stage in a tiny pink velvet sparkly bikini. They are so skimpy and cut to show every muscle, you are barely covered.

“I was terrified, my whole body was shaking. Obviously, I’d been on a beach in a bikini, but I’d never stepped on stage, fully tanned, in 5 inch heels in front of hundreds of people.

“I was awarded a runner up medal. Even though I didn’t win I felt like I’d achieved something fantastic. I was hooked.”

Eight competitions later, she’s won 2nd and 3rd place in two and been awarded three runners up medals and has 500 bodybuilding friends on Facebook.

“My children, now 27, 23 and 14, are so proud of me and my youngest son has started bodybuilding too,” said Ms Allsopp.

Now boozing has been replaced with supplements, vitamins, omega 3 and amino acids – and doesn’t she look amazing?

Courtesy of: Express UK

High school teacher Candace Daher sees too many teenage girls trying to keep up with the Kardashians instead of more suitable female role models.

She may not have the audience of a Hollywood socialite, but Daher has endured constant self-doubt and fought back — in life and in martial arts competitions — to be successful at home, in the gym and in her career.

Daher, 46, works in student support services at Springfield Collegiate Institute where she graduated in the late 1980s. When she was a student it was considered flirtatious if girls wore tight jeans, she said.

“Now we’re seeing girls where you’re seeing their thong underwear, their bras are exposed and it’s on a totally different level,” Daher said during her break on Friday. “I see these girls who are setting up really bad relationships with boyfriends, parents and other authority figures because they just don’t have that sense of self-worth.

“When you do see them, it’s every day with the false eyelashes and the mid-drift baring tops.”

Many of these girls will “fall into the trap” of showing off their bodies to get value, Daher said.

“If their bellies get too big, they show off their boobs,” she said. “When their boobs are sagging they put on more eyeliner.

“It’s a never-ending cycle that they’re never going to be good enough. The Kardashians are their yardstick. I would much rather have strong female athletes be their yardstick, or a successful businesswoman.

“It’s very disheartening for me. I would love to see them get strength and power from something they’re doing rather than something they were born with.”

Daher was a 16-year-old honours student and “anything but athletic” when she took up karate. She left the sport in her 20s to raise her two children, but picked it up again when her kids were old enough to participate.

In the last 12 years she’s trained in jiu jitsu, earning a purple belt while winning gold and silver medals in international competitions from 2007 to 2012.

It wasn’t easy as she has recovered from two knee surgeries. She also became a single mom in 2007, which left her “crippled with low self-esteem.”

While raising her two teenagers, she went back to university and earned her education degree. Daher credits her healthy lifestyle with giving her the strength to get back on her feet. It worked for her as an adult, but she knows it can work for youth as well.

“When you take on a martial art or anything like that your success is directly related to how hard you work, how much you learn or how much you care about getting better,” she said.

Jiu jitsu is more about strategy, speed and intensity than violence, Daher said.

“It’s very methodical,” Daher said. “It’s basically chess with your body and that’s why I like it.

“When you’re in the moment, you’re not thinking about anything else.”

Daher, who remarried three years ago, recently dropped 25 pounds in 12 weeks to prepare for this weekend’s IBJJF World Master’s Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Championship in Las Vegas.

Anyone looking to get started in martial arts should look for an established instructor who has a black belt in the art they are teaching, Daher said.

“If you go try a class, look to see if it’s mostly white belts and do they have any advanced belts who have skill,” she advised.

“If there is just white belts in there, why aren’t they retaining people?”

Brittany Campbell wraps up a set of barbell curls and leans against a bench press to catch her breath.

It is a Wednesday, and in about 24 hours, Campbell will board a plan for Las Vegas to compete in the Olympia — the pinnacle of bodybuilding — in just her first season as a professional bodybuilder.

Campbell went on to finish 16th, yet 25 days earlier — in her mind — Campbell was done.

Only four shows into a five-show season, Campbell — normally a beaming picture of optimism and willpower — was ready to wrap up her first professional season after a disappointing finish in the Wings of Strength Rising Phoenix World Championships in San Antonio.

Today, however, Campbell is no longer at the psychological mercy of a subjective judge.

“Once you’re able to achieve a physique you’re happy with,” Campbell says, “it frees you from your emotional attachment to the placing. And it frees you to just train the way you train and make you compete for the love of it.

“You can detach yourself from the subjective side of it.”

Were it not for that change of heart, and a conversation with two of her biggest influences, Campbell may never have competed in her first Olympia as she did Friday and Saturday in Las Vegas.

Rise to the top

The month of August, the same month that Campbell qualified for her first Olympia, actually marked two years since Campbell began her bodybuilding journey when a gym mate referred her to coach Terrance Williams.

In just six weeks, Campbell was ready to compete in her first show, the Phantom Warrior Classic in Killeen, in which she received a perfect score.

Her mother, Aurora Patterson — who has been at all 10 of her shows — barely recognized her daughter on stage.

“When she got up on the stage and I saw her I was like, ‘Oh my Lord, that’s my baby,’” Patterson said with a laugh. “It was just wild because you know how you always wonder what your kid’s going to do, what your kid’s going to grow up to be, what are their dreams?

“I could’ve never picked that one.”

Campbell, in fact, didn’t experience anything but gold until her fourth show at the NPC National Bodybuilding Championships 10 months later in Chicago.

Campbell got her first taste of subjectivity at that show, where she not only lost but failed to qualify for a pro card, because judges “didn’t want her looking like a professional at an amateur show,” Williams said.

But Campbell rebounded at her next show, the Team Universe in New Jersey, winning the Class E physique division to become a professional bodybuilder less than a year after her first show.

Professional ups and downs

Campbell actually entered 2015 leading the field in qualification points for the Olympia following her first two shows as a professional.

But after a fourth-place finish in her first pro show and a second-place finish in her second, Campbell finished 10th in her next professional show in March.

Campbell didn’t mind the disappointing finishes, at least at the time, but Patterson felt for her daughter.

“She doesn’t go to the movies, she doesn’t watch TV,” Patterson said. “It’s gym, home, gym, home. Her circle is very small because she doesn’t have time for the things that everybody else has time for — spending time with friends, going out and eating, going to the movies.

“She’s missing out on so much for this. And it hurts me when I know she works so hard, and then she gets up there and her name isn’t called.”

Campbell finished eighth at the Dallas Europa in June and said she was disappointed with her place but happy with her physique.

But when she finished 13th at the Wings of Strength in August, Campbell — the same athlete who Williams called special specifically because of her willpower — decided she was done for the year.

“That probably was the hardest blow of my career,” Campbell said. “I was ready to wrap up the season.”

The drive to finish

In the hallway of the host hotel in San Antonio, Campbell took the advice of Patterson and let it go.

After crying numerous times on behalf of her daughter, Patterson told Campbell that she needed to cry and let go of the emotions that were telling her to cut her season short.

And Campbell did. In the hallway. In front of confused bystanders.

“People walked by, they saw it,” Campbell said, “but I did have to do that.”

Campbell also remembered the words of Williams, who reminded her that “we finish what we start,” and Patterson, who told her finishing the season wasn’t about her.

It was a familiar lesson, one that her pastor, Chad Rowe, and his wife, Marla — who Campbell trained personally for a period — had imparted on her before.

“It’s not about you,” Campbell said. “It’s about the other people (God) can reach through you.

“So I had to stop being selfish in that moment when I didn’t get the placing I wanted, so I wanted to hang up that plan that we put in place.”

Campbell walked back in her room and told Williams that she wanted to finish her season.

A week later, she placed fifth at the Atlantic City Europa, after which, she celebrated her season at Applebee’s.

Later, Campbell was eating peanut M&M’s in her hotel room when fellow IFBB pro La’Drissa Bonivel posted to her Facebook page.

“Congrats (you’re) going to the O!!,” Bonivel posted along with the official list of Olympia qualifiers that had her name on it.

“By doing (the Atlantic City Europa),” Williams said, “the awesomeness came out of it just by finishing — not necessarily crossing the line first but finishing.

“And then when you finish you win.”

The pride of her community

On Wednesday, with Campbell two days away from stepping on the Olympia stage that many bodybuilders only dream of reaching, Campbell admitted the reality still had yet to hit her.

But before she even stepped on that stage Friday, Campbell had already made her friends, family and community proud because of her journey.

“When I was competing, that was a dream of mine to go to the Olympia,” Williams said with a smile. “Well, I’m going, I’m just going on the other side.”

But Campbell hasn’t only impressed with her bodybuilding journey, she has also impacted others with her spiritual journey, even speaking at her church, Destiny World Outreach Center, at a conference that Patterson and her grandmother attended.

“I told her she’s going to be our poster child,” Chad Rowe said. “It’s always good to see fruit — is what I call it — evidence that this works when people apply themselves, not just in the natural, but she had to apply herself spiritually because she wanted to quit. And people in the Bible that wanted to quit that didn’t quit they got great rewards.”

And no matter what her finish was Saturday, as far as Campbell and her friends and family were concerned, for once, she had nothing to lose when she stepped on the stage.

“Top 29 females in the world?” Patterson said two days before the show. “She’s already a winner now.”

Courtesy of: Killeen Daily Herald

A competitive athlete from Conne River says she’s spent a lifetime smashing stereotypes concerning her small stature — and powerlifting, her most recent pursuit, is no different.

“Nobody ever expects me to be a powerlifter because I stand at 4-foot-2 and I only weigh about 93 pounds,” Susan Hill told CBC Radio’s Central Morning Show.

“I always like having that shocked reaction that I get from people.”

A former competitive cheerleader, Hill was forced to quit that sport when high impact cheer training began taking a toll on her body.

“I always have to have something for me to be working towards so for me to not be a competitive athlete anymore was really, really hard,” she said.

A coworker invited Hill along to a powerlifting training session and she quickly took to the sport.

While competitive, Hill said she finds the powerlifting community to be very encouraging.

“Everyone is moreso competing against themselves to be their own personal best,” she said.

“They all want to see you get that weight up when you’re out on the platform, so I really liked that aspect of the sport.”

Hill said powerlifting is made up of a diverse range of athletes.

“You have lifters who are bigger, lifters who are smaller, you have lifters with special needs as well, so they had been used to seeing people overcome all sorts of different challenges to be apart of the sport.”

No special treatment

Hill, who now lives in St. John’s, said her parents never gave her any special treatment because of her height when she was growing up.

“If I needed something on the top shelf my mom would be like, ‘Well, I’m not always going to be here for you, the world’s not always going to adjust for you, you have to find a way to adjust to the world — find a way to get it on your own.'”

That attitude, Hill said, instilled a strong desire to prove she can do anything an average-sized person can.

Hill won a gold medal at the recent provincial powerlifting championships, and said she made a last minute decision to enter the upcoming Eastern Canadian Championships in St. John’s on Friday.

Hill will compete in a 47-kilogram weight class, the equivalent of about 103 pounds.

“I myself am only about 93, which is still up from where I started at 83 pounds. I’m trying to maintain this weight to get to competition,” she said.

“They take the best of three lifts and combine that for a total. I’m hoping for about 460, 470 [pounds] total so, if I can get that between three lifts, I’ll be happy with that.”

The Eastern Canadian Championships take place Friday and Saturday at the Holiday Inn in St. John’s.

Courtesy of: CBC

ABBIE Barnes-Gjoka, from Wantage, took third place at the British Championships in Bournemouth.

Competing in the under 84kg class, the 31-year-old missed out on second place by just 0.5kg.

Barnes-Gjoka, who has been lifting for only about two years, got into the championships by winning her South Midlands qualifiers with some record lifts.

She totalled 362.5kg on all three lifts, which included a 137.5kg squat, 67.5kg bench press and a 157.5kg deadlift.

Barnes-Gjoka, who trains at KA Fitness in Wantage, is now hoping to represent her country.

“I am so proud of myself and really never thought I would get to where I am so early on,” she said.

“I’d like to thank Martin Green for all his coaching and support.”

Courtesy of: Herald Series

Alexandria Senior High School senior Ashley Mitchell was honored Tuesday by Alexandria city officials for her world-class success in powerlifting, and her coach earned recognition as well.

During Tuesday’s City Council meeting, Mayor Jacques Roy presented a plaque to Mitchell on behalf of the city and declared Tuesday, Sept. 22, as Ashley Mitchell Day in Alexandria.

Mitchell is being honored winning her weight class and setting a pair of world records in the 2015 International Powerlifting Federation Sub-Junior Nationals in Prague, Czech Republic. Her efforts helped the U.S. Girls National Team take home the championship.

Those are among the many powerlifting accolades for Mitchell, who helped the ASH girls team win their 20th state powerlifting title and finish second in the USA Powerlifting Nationals.

Her coach, Duane Urbina, said Mitchells is the “best-ever pound-for-pound” powerlifter in Louisiana.

Urbina, the ASH principal who is retiring as the girls’ powerlifting coach, also was honored by the city Tuesday, receiving a plaque from Roy for his accomplishments as a coach and as a principal.

Courtesy of: The Town Talk

Genesa Byrd is a very busy person but still finds time to hold a very competitive edge.

On top of owning and operating Yadkin Valley Gymnastics Academy in Wilkesboro, she also serves as the head gymnastics coach for more than 500 gymnasts.

Last weekend, the 1992 West Wilkes graduate took time away from her rigorous schedule to compete in the 15th Annual Iron Boy Powerlifting Bench Press Classic in Concord and set new state and national records in various events.

Byrd has been running Yadkin Valley Gymnastics for 10 years and has seen her students win more than 20 State Gymnastics Championships, six all-around state titles, have eight Southeast Regional qualifiers and four regional championships.

As Byrd watched her students accomplish their athletic goals, she kept feeling that there was something left in her athletically that she wanted to do.

“I didn’t feel like I was done. I see my girls striving to compete and doing better and I just felt I needed to do something else,” said Byrd. “I’m usually working seven days a week. So if we don’t have classes, then we are at competitions on Saturday and Sunday so I usually have to train before classes start in the morning but basically I work out every day. It was just good to compete again.”

As a three-sport athlete for the Blackhawks in volleyball, basketball and track and field, Byrd was also a two-time state champion gymnast.

According to Byrd, who went by Genesa Holloway in high school, her best sport out of the three she competed in at West was definitely track. She broke three school records including the 100-meter hurdles and the long jump with the latter standing for 18 years. She also set three records during the Wilkes County Olympics.

Byrd had offers to compete in two different sports in college but a knee injury her senior year prevented her competing at the collegiate level.

The idea to compete in power lifting came at the urging of a few friends she had been lifting with. When she got to the competition on Saturday, they had the records posted and felt like she had a good chance to break them.

The bench press competition got off to a rocky start, something that Byrd chalked up to nervousness. Once she got started, the confidence came back and she set a new record with the 185-pound press, beating the previous best of 180 pounds, earning elite status.

Byrd also competed in the Bench Super Reps event and bench-pressed 135 pounds 12 times. She did that while competing in the Master Raw division for 40-44-year-olds.

“I did 175 a little too fast, you have to pause it on your chest and wait for a command and I paused and did the lift before they said ‘up’ and I didn’t really realize that you had to wait so they didn’t count my first lift,” Byrd said. “So when I went back, I attempted that again and lifted it and then the next time I came through, I did 185 and it counted. Since I had broken the record, they gave you a fourth attempt and so I went and hit 195 but then they didn’t count it because of my hip lifting up.”

Byrd, who competed in the Open Raw Division for the 148-pound weight class, also competed in the dead lift — an event she felt more comfortable in.

After clearing 300 pounds, she set a new Class I record with a dead lift of 335 pounds. She also set a new record in the overhead dumbbell press at 60 pounds.

For her efforts, she was named one of the three Outstanding Lifters at the event.

“I wasn’t too nervous about the dead lift because of the fact that it’s not a technical lift. If you get it off the floor and come up with it, you get counted for that so I wasn’t worried about my technique being wrong or them not counting it for a certain reason,” Byrd said.

As much as Byrd wanted to prove something to herself, she also wanted to show the students that she teaches that goals should be set regardless of age.

Byrd doesn’t feel that competing in power lifting competitions will be a one-time thing for her as she hopes to do other competitions similar to the one she did last weekend and against more competitors.

“I wanted to teach them that even with getting older, you can still set new goals and try to achieve those things even after your youth,” said Byrd. “I’m wanting to pass down not just a love of gymnastics but just health and physical conditioning. Teaching that gives them the confidence to be a strong individual, to set their own goals, to strive to be better not just physically.”

Courtesy of: Journal Patriot

Let’s Throwback Thursday to 1992 and one of our very first glimpses of Female Muscle in a movie; Aces: Iron Eagle III and the great Rachel McLish. Rachel plays Anna a sexy, kick-ass heroine with muscle and a killer attitude.

Bodybuilder Matt Kroczaleski has come out publicly as transgender and has adopted the name Janae Marie Kroc, but is still living in both genders and has not fully transitioned from male to female.

Courtesy of: Entertainment Tonight

1. OKSANA GRISHINA
2. MYRIAM CAPES
3. REGIANE DA SILVA
4. TANJI JOHNSON
5. WHITNEY JONES
6. RYALL GRABER
7. MARTA AGUIAR
8. ALVETINA TITARENKO
9. MICHELLE BLANK
10. GIORGIA FORONI

Nicky Elding is celebrating after scooping an international powerlifting medal double.

The 47-year-old Bostonian won silver in both the bench press and deadlift categories at the World Drug Free Powerlifting Association’s European Championships at Italy’s Lake Garda.

Nicky, who competed in the Masters Two category, said she was particularly pleased with her 105kg deadlift.

She also officiated at the event in other categories.Nicky is coached by her husband Chris.

Courtesy of: Boston Standard

A woman who almost died because of a severe bowel condition has become a champion bodybuilder and proudly shows off her colostomy bag in competition.

Zoey Wright, 22, was diagnosed after she lost two stone in just four weeks and felt constantly weak.

She suffered with chronic fatigue and recurring diarrhoea for two years and spent a month in hospital at one point when it was feared her bowel could perforate and cause death.

In November 2014, Zoey, from Penryn, Cornwall, had ileostomy surgery and had a colostomy bag fitted on the outside of her body.

Since then, the former sports rehab student has gone on to win her first bodybuilding competition and qualify for the world championships.

She won Best Figure and Best Body Transformation at the Pure Elite event in Middlesex and wasn’t afraid to pose proudly with her colostomy bag.

On her Instagram page, Zoey wrote: “Well guys and girls.. I’ve only gone and done it!! World championship here I come!

“I’m still on cloud 9. I’ve hardly slept. I’m feeling so overwhelmed… is this a dream!?”

Before the competition, she wrote on her blog: “I’m not going to sugar coat it, preparing for a bodybuilding competition is tough for any normal person, but when you live with a chronic Illness as well it’s a nightmare.

“It’s time to show the world that having a chronic illness doesn’t have to stop you from achieving.”

Courtesy of: Yahoo News UK

AMILA Mallory, Rosian Warrington, Yoly Hawley, Jerry Suero and Germain Navarro all left the Bahamas with not only the hardware, but also their eligibility to become a professional bodybuilder.

While all five were the overall winners in their respective categories, they still have to wait on the ratification of the results of the 43rd Central American and Caribbean Bodybuilding and Fitness Championships held over the weekend in the Atlantis ballroom on Paradise Island.

Mallory took the women’s body fitness crown, while Warrington was the women’s physique champion and Hawley emerged as the bikini champion.

On the men’s side, Suero won the men’s physique and Navarro was the men’s bodybuilding champion.

It was first time charm for Mallory.

“This was my first CAC. I started in February this year, so I felt really good and I was very confident,” said Mallory, who only had two other competitions before coming here to compete.

“I am really, really happy about my performance. The competition was really good and I went up against some very developed winners, so my coach told me that they will fit me in.”

Mallory, representing Bermuda, won the women’s physique 163 category that saw Bahamian Lorraine LaFleur settling for a disappointing third place behind second place finisher Clarisa Morales of Puerto Rico.

Warrington from Antigua and Barbuda was the clear winner in the Body Fitness 1.58A category that didn’t have any Bahamians in the final six. But in the pose down, she beat out the field that included Grand Bahamian Dekel Nesbitt.

Hawley, on the other hand, took the women’s Bikini 169cm D class title to the Dutch St Martin after beating out Bahamian Carina Ferguson, who was sixth. After the pose down, she was declared the overall winner.

In the men’s physique, Suero was overwhelmed as he was crowned the men’s overall champion in the pose down. He was the 178 CM champion.

Navarro from Aruba won the men’s light heavyweight division that left Grand Bahamian Desmond Bain sitting in sixth place. He went into the pose down and easily emerged as the overall champion as the two-day championship came to a close with the final award presentation.

Courtesy of: Tribune 242

Tamara Martin is a grandmother and a power lifter. Yes, the 45-year-old Augusta resident began powerlifting 4 years ago. And recently she competed at the Global Powerlifting World Championships in Las Vegas. Not only did she come in first place, but she also broke the world records in squats, deadlifts, and in full powerlifting total. She beat out the national champion of Ireland in the process.

Martin began powerlifting almost by accident. “Well, I had a stroke at 38,” Martin said. “Six pills for diabetes, high blood pressure and cholesterol. The doctor said, you either change your life or you’re gonna die.”

“I’ve never been an athlete. I started this fitness goal and I lifted weights with a friend, and it was kind of discovered by accident. I’m like, ‘oh, I really like this; This is fun.’

Courtesy of: WBJF