With a competitive history dating back to 1982, the IFBB North American Championships has been an event that has built an interesting past complete with outstanding competitors, stellar winners, and a colorful combination of American, Canadian, and Mexican entrants that has helped make the event unique.
Over the years, and not surprisingly, American competitors have dominated the winner's circle, as well as the overall entries. And the majority of venues where the contest has been staged were also within the borders of the United States. On two occasions, however, promoter Javier Pollock hosted the event in Mexico in 1993 and '94. But it was the 1994 contest in Mexico City that brought Mexico its brightest moment as a host country since it staged the women's IFBB World Amateur Championships in 1989
It's been 16 years since the 1993 NPC Nationals was staged in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and at that event 61 women were present to compete for the prized weight class titles and overall crown. At that contest, several notable competitors such as Vickie Gates, Nicole Bass, Suzan Kaminga, Yvonne Vazquez and Clifta Coulter inhabited the ranks. But it was a dynamically muscular 110-pound lightweight Californian named Sue Price who rocked the house with a physique that was simply unbeatable that weekend.
Twenty-five years is a long time by anyone's estimation, but when it's put in the context of being a "quarter of a century" it tends to make anything that happened that long ago, almost ancient.
But chronologically, 25 years ago puts us in 1984, and the Olympic Games in Los Angeles dominated sports for most of the summer as athletes from all over the world converged on Los Angeles in the pursuit of gold medals. The signature moment for most of us at the '84 Games was when 16-year-old Mary Lou Retton (all 4-8 ¼, 94 pounds of her) stuck a pair of perfect 10's in the vault to seal a victory in that event and become the first female outside Eastern Europe to win a gold medal in the all-around competition. (Retton, by the way, is now a 41-year-old mother of four daughters).
It's time again for another round of factoids, photos, figures and just plain interesting stuff from the world of women's bodybuilding. This month our coverage will reach internationally to every corner of the globe. Enjoy.
Las Vegas, Nevada: September 25th. No matter what the final results reflect at a Ms. Olympia contest, there is still that mystique that comes with this contest every year - year in, year out. And the 2009 edition of the Ms. Olympia was no different.
On this night-- the 30th birthday of this grand festival of female muscle-- one which had its beginnings in 1980 with Rachel McLish winning the first Ms. O-- a field of 13 women gathered, first at the Las Vegas Convention Center for the prejudging, and then at the Orleans Arena for the final event to add another nugget of history to this already historic affair.
Las Vegas, Nevada: September 25th. No matter what the final results reflect at a Ms. Olympia contest, there is still that mystique that comes with this contest every year - year in, year out. And the 2009 edition of the Ms. Olympia was no different.
On this night-- the 30th birthday of this grand festival of female muscle-- one which had its beginnings in 1980 with Rachel McLish winning the first Ms. O-- a field of 13 women gathered, first at the Las Vegas Convention Center for the prejudging, and then at the Orleans Arena for the final event to add another nugget of history to this already historic affair.
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Perhaps it was because the state of California got off to a running start when it staged the first California Women's Bodybuilding Championships in 1980. And of course there was the already glowing identity Venice Beach and Gold's Gym had brought to Southern California as a bastion for those who aspired to reach muscle stardom. But over the 30 years since that first event, ‘The California' has been recognized as the most prestigious state bodybuilding contest in the country for women.
With the history of women's bodybuilding recently passing the 30-year mark, and fitness and figure divisions now solidly in place, there have been numerous individuals, incidents, and just general factoids that have helped make the sport as interesting as the results of the contests themselves.
In this first of a series of re-occurring articles that will simply been known as ‘Did You Know?', I will endeavor to extract an accumulation of facts, figures, memorable quotes (both good and bad), and various other tidbits that you may not have heard, realized, or stumbled onto in the past.
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