An Introduction
Short of authoring an entire book on the subject of outstanding lightweight bodybuilders, the following should be considered as, at the very least, a spirited effort to salute a cross-section those women who have left a mark on the sport of women's bodybuilding while laboring under the perceived disadvantages due to their physical stature.
In a sport that has, for the most part, long rewarded the look of those contestants who are larger than life, lightweights have endured a struggle for recognition as each decade in the sport's history has passed.
This salute is by no means comprehensive - in fact it barely scratches the surface - and for reasons of space limitations and the sheer number of women who could be covered, if a particularly deserving competitor is left out, I humbly apologize for the oversight. It is simply an impossible task to feature every lightweight winner of so many major events that have taken place throughout the world over so many years.
Because many lightweights are immediately familiar by name and level of fame, I have chosen to forego including photos of several of the luminaries we all know so well. For example, women such as Juliette Bergmann and Dayana Cadeau who have won Ms. Olympia titles, books could be written on their bodybuilding accomplishments individually. Suffice it to say, they are legendary in their physical magnificence, and would be at the top of any list that honors the best in lightweight bodybuilding.
The following article might be better described as ‘Part I' in an ongoing series of articles, and if those who read this initial offering have suggestions as to who should be added in the future, by all means start a list, in fact, I invite the idea of a collective effort.
BODYBUILDING LIGHT
With the exception of contests in the earliest days of the women's bodybuilding where there were no distinctions between competitors in either height or weight, women's bodybuilding has, through the decades of the 80's to the present, offered various weight classes to women. And throughout this 30-year period of time in the growth of the sport, the number of weight classes contested and the differences in the bodyweights attached to these classes has experienced considerable change. As is the case with any sport where constant change takes place, the inevitable progression in the women's physiques - due primarily to the years of training and addition of muscle to their respective physiques - has created a notable evolution. Within that evolution a gradual change in the weight regulation of the weight categories has taken place. Specific to the lightweight division, changes have taken place over the years, but the top end of the class (before entering into the middleweight category) has, for the most part, remained static at around 114-115 pounds.
In all, throughout the world however, lightweights have been hard-pressed in their ability to make their presence felt, while the overall titles available have been a precious commodity, and for lightweights, few and far between. Still, lightweights have managed to win overall NPC USA and NPC Nationals crowns, IFBB European titles, World Amateur titles, and at the pro level they have claimed victories as high up the contest totem pole as the Ms. International and Ms. Olympia.
A CLASSY CLASS OF WOMEN
From the first United States Women's Bodybuilding Championships and American Women's Bodybuilding Championships - both held in 1980 - it was immediately apparent there was a need to differentiate between the widely varying sizes of the women competing. These were the days when the phrase "judging apples and oranges" became a common refrain when panels of judges struggled with the variety of physiques.
Even before there were designated weight classes, many of the women who roamed the stages at early contests were bona fide lightweights....if there had been weight divisions. Lisa Lyon would have quite easily fit into a lightweight division. And future stars such as Lynn Conkwright, Stacey Bentley, Madeline Almeida, and Corinne Machado-Ching all became card-carrying members of the pro ranks before they could be labeled as lightweights.
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| Lynn Conkwright | Astrid Aschwander |
So, with the coming of the 1981 competitive season both of the above-mentioned events created two weight classes to make the competitions easier and fairer to judge.
The lightweight division was designated for any contestant under 114 ½ pounds, while the middleweight class would comprise all contestants over 114 ½. With a fair number of competitors weighing below 100 pounds in those early contests, competing against women who outweighed them by over 15 pounds was still a tall order. And with the level of visible muscle on physiques of every size and shape increasing with each passing year, ‘true' lightweights (those weighing less than 100 pounds) had to rely heavily on genetics and an overall aesthetics that would hopefully catch the judges' eye.
At the international level in 1981 change was also necessary, and the 114 ½-pound (52 kilos) lightweight limit was adopted by the IFBB for all competitions beginning with the first IFBB European Championships where Switzerland's Astrid Aschwander used a deep set of abs and good overall muscular balance to earn the lightweight class victory. She would win that title again in 1983. The 1st World Games staged in Santa Clara, California, in 1981, also used the two-division format and saw American lightweight Pam Brooks capture a gold medal in a very competitive LW class of 20 women from nearly a dozen countries.
In 1982 a third weight class was added and the word ‘heavyweight' entered the women's bodybuilding lexicon for the first time in the United States. The rest of the world would be somewhat slower to follow the American lead with the new ‘big' class.
But by 1984 the fields of contestants nationally were so large a fourth weight class was designated. The lightweight class topped out at 105 ¾ pounds - a drop in poundage that pleased many of the smaller competitors. Middleweights ranged from 105 ¾ to 116 ¾. The new light-heavyweight class covered competitors from 116 ¾ to 123 ¾, and the heavyweight division included any contestant over 123 ¾ pounds.
Today if those weight classes were still in place, at least two more classes for heavier contestants would be needed, while the lightweight class would contain no more than two or three contestants.
During the years when four weight classes flourished, dynamic lightweight winners at the Nationals and USA included the likes of Janet Tech, Charla Sedacca, Susie Jaso, and Lori Okami. All eye-catching bodybuilders to be sure, but with one element in common.....each would find the professional ranks extremely difficult competitively even when aspiring to crack the top five of any given event.
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| Susie Jaso |
As always there were exceptions, and while both Stacey Bentley (the 1980 Zane Invitational winner), and Lynn Conkwright (the 1981 IFBB Pro World champion) weighed well under the 114 ½ mark, neither competed in a contest where weight classes were contested before turning pro. In 1981 the lightweight winner at the American Women's Championships was gritty Californian Mary Roberts. Her future successes as a pro came with considerably more muscle she added to her physique over the next four years of her career. In 1985 Roberts won the IFBB Pro Worlds, and finished second to Cory Everson at the ‘85 Ms. Olympia, but virtually no one would have mistaken her for a lightweight at either of those events.
As the lightweight winners of the NPC Nationals and NPC USA continued to dazzle fans, Charla Sedacca won the overall NPC National crown in 1987, and the stunningly muscular LW Susan Myers turned the trick with an overall NPC National victory in 1989. To date, only four lightweights have won the NPC National overall title.
The NPC USA has had an even stricter code in its willingness to recognize lightweights as overall champions. With Stella Martinez winning the lightweight and overall US Women's Championships in 1982, it would be
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| Clifta Coulter |
another 14 years before Clifta Coulter would outmuscle her bigger sisters to win the 1996 NPC USA overall title. Further, no other lightweight has won the overall USA crown since.
Californian Sue Gafner became one of the few competitors who won a LW class title at both the USA and Nationals. 
Her victory in 1988 came after the fact, when, as a third-place finisher, she was elevated to the top spot when the top two finishers in the LW class tested positive in a year when the event was drug tested.. Gafner dispelled any thoughts of her muscular quality when she won the LW class
at the 1990 NPC Nationals. She further solidified her stature by winning the inaugural Jan Tana Pro Classic in 1991 without the benefit of a lightweight division. The victory was even more meaningful to Gafner considering the fact it was also her pro debut.
Following Myers' overall Nationals victory in 1989 with a physique that was decidedly more muscular than had been seen in prior NPC National events, the 90's saw the coming of Sue Price and Michele Ralabate. This spectacular duo gave the bodybuilding world a twosome that became forever linked by their remarkably similar career paths.
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| Sue Price | Michele Ralabate |
Sue Price first made her presence felt, placing fifth for three consecutive years as a lightweight at the NPC Nationals from 1990 to 1992. But in 1993 she dazzled everyone at the Nationals by not only winning the LW division, but scoring a convincing victory in the battle for the overall. To this day she is remembered as one of the most finely detailed and muscularly fit NPC National overall winners ever.
Right behind Price the following year entered the equally impressive Michele Ralabate. Another mighty mite in the same vein as Price, Ralabate was the LW runner-up to Price at the 1993 NPC Nationals. Her lightweight victory and subsequent overall win in 1994 was just as convincing as Price's a year earlier. It was the first time, before or since, that lightweight competitors took the overall NPC National title in consecutive years.
The similarities between Price and Ralabate didn't end in the amateur ranks.
Sue Price made her pro debut at the 1994 Jan Tana Pro Classic and promptly won the event. A year later Michele Ralabate, right on Price's heels, followed suit also winning the Jan Tana contest in her pro debut. In 
1995 Price and Ralabate competed together for the first and last time at the Ms. Olympia. Both cracked the top ten with Price finishing a very respectable fourth, followed by Ralabate in eighth. It would be the last contest for Price, while Ralabate would compete one more time at the 1996 Ms. International finishing sixth. In both cases, the duo quietly voiced their concerns that they would be hard-pressed to compete on an even playing field with the likes of Kim Chizevsky and Lenda Murray who featured a considerably larger physical presence onstage. So, two of bodybuilding's finest physiquewomen of the day ended their respective bodybuilding careers - although Ralabate made a short-lived and unsuccessful attempt to move into the pro fitness division.
In 1995 Denise Masino continued the run of striking lightweights as she topped the NPC Nationals LW
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| Denise Masino |
division before embarking on an 11-year pro career spanning 1997 to 2007 that included nine invitations to the Ms. International and two qualifications for the Ms. Olympia. Masino's most successful results came when the pro weight classes were in place, and she enjoyed her best year in 2003 winning the LW division at the Night of Champions, adding runner-up effort at the Ms. International, and a third-place finish at the Ms. Olympia - not bad considering she bowed to the mega-muscular Paula Suzuki in the posedown for the overall at the ‘95 NPC Nationals.
In 1996 Clifta Coulter not only won the overall NPC USA title, she became the first competitor to win the LW USA title twice - and five years apart (1991 and 1996) to boot.
A year later Tonia Villalobos won the 1997 USA LW division, and repeated that victory at the 1999 USA. After winning the
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| Tonia Villalobos |
MW class at the 2001 NPC Nationals, Villalobos (now Moore) stepped aside from competitions, but entered the pro ranks in 2006 and is currently active having competed twice.
Over the past three decades lightweights too numerous to mention have made stellar appearances on the stages of contests nationally as well as internationally. And many have carved their own personal niche in the history of the sport.
In 1983 Susan Roberts (no relation to Mary Roberts) became
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| Janet Tech |
the first competitor to win both the National and USA lightweight classes - and she accomplished the feat in the same year.
Janet Tech wowed audiences with her perfect structural balance and accompanying musculature all on a 5-2 frame that varied in weight from 105 to 114 pounds. She won the 1984 USA LW title, followed by another LW victory at the 1988 NPC Nationals. Tech went on to win the gold medal at the 1988 IFBB World Amateur Championships before turning pro. Competing on the pro level in a five-year period that included her competing in three Ms. Internationals (she placed as high as fourth in 1989), and two Ms. Olympia events reaching the 10th-place position also in '89, Tech's diminutive size found her being overlooked in many of the pro events where high numbers of entrants took part.
In 1985 Susie Jaso earned victories at both the USA and Nationals, but her stint as a pro found her struggling to crack the top ten. In a four year pro career, an eighth-place finish at the 1986 IFBB Pro
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| Renate Holland, Betty Weider, Juliette Bergman |
Worlds was her top placing. She placed 11th at both the Ms. International and Ms. Olympia in 1986.
Sandy Kamberger flirted with the national level during the mid-80's and when she was selected to represent the USA as a lightweight at the Women's World Amateur Invitational contest held in Tokyo, Japan, in 1987, her victory qualified the striking Oregonian for a journey to IFBB pro ranks - a road she chose not to pursue.
Nineteen eighty-seven was also the year Charla Sedacca began the year winning the MW class at the NPC USA, but dropped down to the LW class in winning the NPC Nationals. Sedacca was so good, she added the overall NPC National title, and quickly followed up winning the 1987 IFBB World Amateur LW gold medal. Sedacca was the first lightweight to win the overall NPC National title, and the first American to win the IFBB World Amateur lightweight crown - following in the lightweight footsteps of Erika Mes ('83), Ellen Van Maris('84), Juliette Bergmann ('85), and Renate Holland('86).
Sharon Marvel made a striking first impression
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| Sharon Marvel |
when (competing as Sharon Arrildt) took the LW and Overall titles at the inaugural NPC Junior Nationals. Turning pro in 1989 winning the MW class at the NPC Nationals, Marvel settled in to a five-year pro career that saw her place as a high fifth at the 1991 Ms. Olympia, and sixth at the 1993 Ms. International. Although Marvel possessed one of the most perfectly proportioned physiques of the day, she struggled to compete for the highest placings. Her final pro event (after having competed in four previous Ms. Olympia contests during her career) was the 1995 Jan Tana Pro Classic where she placed 10th.
One of the most striking lightweights at the end of the 80's was Texan Sharon Canady. A lightweight winner at the
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| Sharon Canady |
1989 NPC USA, Canady also won the overall NPC Junior USA the same year. In 1990 she was invited to compete at the Ms. International (when the event was still considered a pro/am contest) and placed 12th. In two entries at the NPC Nationals in 1991 and 1993 she finished third in the LW class in each and dropped from the competitive scene.
Sharon Lewis also managed to stand out in a crowd and although she never won a major event during an amateur career that ran through the late 80's and early 90's, her two runner-up finishes at
the 1987 and '88 NPC Nationals also led to a runner-up LW silver medal at the 1989 IFBB World Amateur Championships, and a LW bronze medal at the 1989 World Games.
Still other lightweights made strong impressions at the amateur level in the early 90's as witnessed Mary Ellen Campo. A lightweight winner at the NPC Junior Nationals and NPC USA in 1990, she moved on to win the LW class at the IFBB North American Championship in 1991, along with a runner-up LW finish at the NPC Nationals. In 1992 she finished her competitive bodybuilding exploits by earning the silver medal at the 1992 World Amateur Championships in Rimini, Italy. Campo never aspired to the pro level.
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| Sally Gomez | Mary Ellen Campo |
In 1991 Florida's Sally Gomez won the NPC National LW class, and followed that success with a gold medal at the IFBB World Amateur Championships the same year. Gomez accepted an invitation to the 1993 Ms. International and finished 10th. It would be the final competition of her career.
Virginian Denise Gerard was also a power-packed lightweight competitor in winning the 1998 NPC National LW title. At just a shade over 5-0 in height, Gerard entered six pro contests up to 2004 with her best showing coming at the 2002 Southwest USA Pro Cup placing second in the LW class. Gerard is planning a comeback in 2010 having been away from competition for the past six years.
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| Peggy Schoolcraft | Denise Gerard |
The 1997 NPC Team Universe was the launching pad for LW and overall winner Peggy Schoolcraft. Showing one of the most highly defined physiques in LW annuals, Schoolcraft represented the USA at the 1997 IFBB World Amateur Championships and earned a gold medal in the process. Schoolcraft would compete just twice as a pro placing fifth at the 1999 Jan Tana Pro Classic and ninth at the 2001 Ms. International before ending her competitive efforts.
With the coming of the new millennium outstanding lightweight's continued to surface.
Mary Ellen Doss won the 2000 NPC USA LW crown, and kept her head of steam into 2001 where she added the NPC National LW title to earn pro status. Doss competed as a LW pro on three occasions in 2002, '03, and '04, and placed in the top five at each event. Her competitive career as an amateur and pro lasted just over a dozen years.
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| Carla Salotti |
Emery Miller snagged the 2003 NPC USA lightweight title, before moving up to the MW class in 2004 to win the NPC Nationals at a heavier bodyweight to enter the pro ranks. Competing as a pro since
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| Emery Miller |
2006, Miller has entered three Atlantic City Pro events and the Europa Super Show as a LW.
There was a level of delicious irony when Carla Salotti won the 2005 NPC National lightweight title. She represented her home state of Massachusetts - a state that, in terms of size, matched Salotti's miniscule build to a tee. Salotti was also the first female to win an NPC National title from that state. Her additional amateur successes also include a LW and overall win at the 2004 NPC Masters Nationals, and the LW class at the 2004 IFBB North American Championships. As a pro, Salotti has competed six times (once in the figure division where she did not place) since moving up to the pro ranks in 2006.
As another of the rare breed of women have competed in three decades, Vicki Nixon got her start with a LW and overall victory at the NPC Delaware in 1986. Active all through the 90's and into the 2000's Nixon turned pro in 2005 after winning the LW and overall titles at the 2004 NPC Team Universe, and placing fourth at the
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| Vicki Nixon |
IFBB World Amateurs the same year. As a current pro, Nixon has earned a pair of third-place LW finishes at the 2005 Charlotte Pro and 2007 Sacramento Pro
Championships as her best efforts.
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| Claire O'Connell |
Californian Claire O'Connell has also seen a wagon load of lightweights come and go over the years considering the fact that she competed in her first contest in 1984 at the age of 16 ½. In those days her name was Claire Bullis, and she was active in both powerlifting and bodybuilding. In 1987 Bullis also won the NPC Teen Nationals LW class. Fast forward to the 2000's and O'Connell now has two daughters, and a renewed determination to take bodybuilding seriously. In short order O'Connell won the LW and overall at the 2006 NPC California, followed by a LW victory at the NPC USA the same year. At a mere 4-11 ¾, O'Connell put on extra pounds to move up to the MW class to finish third at the NPC Master Nationals in 2008.
LIGHTWEIGHTS ON FOREIGN SHORES
Of course not all lightweights who rose to prominence in their competitive careers came from the United States. In fact a large number of the very best bodybuilders - regardless of class - came from outside the borders of the USA.
In the early 80's Holland was a juggernaut in its production of a seemingly endless line of top-flight lightweights. With the inaugural IFBB World Amateur Championships in 1983, the lightweight division was claimed by a Dutch competitor for three consecutive years. Beginning with Erika Mes in 1983, followed by Ellen Van Maris in 1984, and anchored by Juliette Bergmann in 1985, all eyes were on Holland to see who the next bodybuilding star would be. Coincidentally, it was a German who finally broke the string of Dutch winners in 1986, and her named was Renate HOLLAND.
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| Erica Mes | Ellen Van Marris |
Erika Mes had her beginnings in the NABBA organization and in 1980 she won the NABBA Miss Universe title. As an IFBB pro she competed in four Pro World Championships (finishing as high as sixth in 1986) and two Ms. Olympias where she missed cracking the top ten on both occasions. At just 5-0, she competed at no more than 103 pounds, but her beautiful bodylines and classy routines drew a large fan base. Mes drew additional attention when she posed in a beautifully photographed layout in the September 1987 issue of Playboy's Dutch edition. Due to the notable ‘exposure', the IFBB saw fit to suspend Mes in 1988, but her popularity within the sport never suffered and she competed in her last pro event at the 1989 IFBB Pro Worlds.
Ellen Van Maris, unlike Mes, rocketed to the Ms. Olympia after her World Amateur victory, and with considerable success. As the only pro event Van Maris ever competed in, she entered five consecutive Ms. Olympia contests from 1985 to '89. In 1986 she finished third, and in '87 she was the runner-up to Cory Everson. After two fifth-place finishes in '88 and '89 she retired from the competitive seen. To this day, she remains as one of the most successful Ms. O contestants who missed winning the title. Van Maris was selected as an inductee into Joe Weider's Bodybuilding Hall of Fame in 2005
Juliette Bergmann's career is well documented
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| Juliette Bergmann |
and it is safe to say she left no stone unturned when it came to placing high at major events. Like Van Maris, Bergmann is also a Bodybuilding Hall of Fame recipient and rightfully so. A two-time winner of the Dutch Grand Prix, Bergmann was a LW winner at the IFBB European Championships in 1985, and added the IFBB World Amateur LW gold medal the same year. Bergmann also began her pro career in 1985 competing in her first Ms. Olympia. She would compete at the event seven times (with a 12-year break from 1989 to 2001) winning the overall title in stunning fashion at the 2001 Ms. O. She would win two more LW Ms. Olympia titles before retiring for good in 2003. That's three successive Ms. O lightweight titles if you're keeping score. Bergmann has remained involved in bodybuilding and is an international judge, a member of the IFBB executive committee, and President of the IFBB Dutch Federation.
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| Cornelia Kindbeiter |
Holland would produce another World Amateur lightweight champion in 1989 when Ina Lopulissa captured the title. Lopulissa would also make her pro debut at the Ms. Olympia in 1989, and after placing last in a field of 18 that year, she requested to be re-instated as an amateur with the understanding that she would no longer be eligible for future pro status.
Germany's Cornelia Kindbeiter never made the ascent to the pro ranks during her competitive career, but as a lightweight at the amateur level few women in the early 80's showed the level of impressive muscular development as this tiny dynamo. In 1984 at the IFBB European Championships, Kindbeiter brought the ‘wow factor' and was a unanimous winner in the lightweight class showing cross-striated triceps, quads and glutes - elements that had rarely been seen in women's bodybuilding at the time. Injuries hampered her career progression that would have created considerable popularity among hardcore bodybuilding fans.
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| Maria Concetta Serio |
In 1985 the WABBA organization produced the exquisite Italian Maria Concetta Serio as its Pro World champion that year. Serio would make the switch to the IFBB in 1987 and place eighth at the Pro Worlds and 15th at the Ms. Olympia. Similar in stature to Erika Mes, Serio's overall look was highly aesthetic and very popular with European audiences.
By the late 80's central and eastern European nations were beginning to flex female muscle at an accelerated rate, and that progression has continued with considerable dedication to the present day.
Among the first lightweights to make a lasting impression was Eva Sukupova. From Czechoslovakia (and later the Czech Republic), Sukupova won the 1990 IFBB European LW title, followed by a LW gold medal victory at the 1992 IFBB World Amateur Championships. As a pro Sukupova's career was distinguished competing in seven Ms. Olympia contests placing as high as seventh. She was also a runner-up at both the 1994 and '96 IFBB Prague Grand Prix.
In virtually the same career time frame as Sukupova, fellow Czechoslovakian (and later representing Slovakia) Zuzana Korinkova was the 1989 IFBB European LW champion, and the LW gold medalist at the
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| Zuzana Korinkova |
IFBB World Amateur Championships. Competing in two Ms. Olympias without placing in the top ten, Korinkova was a smash hit with hardcore fans of female bodybuilding. In one of bodybuilding's more touching moments, Korinkova was brought to tears at the 1991 Ms. Olympia when judges missed calling out even once during the prejudging. Tears streamed down her face for over 15 minutes. Her muscularity was dense and highly defined and her popularity soared while her placings remained static. Korinkova placed eighth at the 1993 Ms. International and sixth and seventh at the 1992 and 1995 Jan Tana Pro Classics respectively. The high point of her pro career came in 1996 when she won the IFBB Slovakian Pro Grand Prix before leaving the competitive scene the same year.
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| Pavla Brantalova |
Central and Eastern Europeans continued to place well through the 90's and into 2000 as the Czech Republic saw Pavla Brantalova win the 1998 IFBB European LW title, followed by a silver medal-winning runner-up LW finish at the 1999 IFBB World Amateur Championships.
Russian Natalia Proskouriakova ranks as one of the most successful lightweight ever at the world level capturing two IFBB World Amateur LW crowns in 2000 and 2002. She also added a pair of silver medal runner-up finishes in 1999 and 2001.
England also produced a pair of outstanding lightweights in Andrulla Blanchette and Joanna Thomas.
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| Andrulla Blanchette |
As an amateur, Andrulla Blanchette was just 114 pounds when she won the 1993 IFBB European LW title, and the 1993 World Games LW gold medal. As a pro, however, the 5-2 Brit really blossomed and in a seven-year career where her bodyweight increased to 134 pounds she competed 13 times (including six Ms. O's and four Ms. Internationals), she captured the lightweight Ms. Olympia crown in 2000. Her career contest resume contains several strong LW placements including a runner-up finish at both the 2000 Ms. International and 2001 Ms. Olympia.
Joanna Thomas, on the other hand, encountered a shorter, yet stellar competitive career. A lightweight and overall winner at the 1998 British Championships, Thomas competed for four years as an IFBB pro. Making her pro debut winning the LW class at the 2001 Jan Tana Pro Classic, she placed 10th at her
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| Joanna Thomas |
first Ms. Olympia the same year. Adding runner-up LW finishes at the 2003 Jan Tana Classic and 2004 Show of Strength, Thomas once again squeezed into the top ten as a LW at the Ms. Olympia finishing seventh in 2004. Her last contest to date eventuated in a fourth-place LW finish at the 2007 Atlantic City Pro Championships.
Elsewhere, Mexico's star lightweight Martha Sanchez used a balanced physique with excellent muscular detail to win the 1994 IFBB North American LW & Overall titles. She also won the LW class at the 1992 North American. Turning pro in 1996, Sanchez competed three times at the Jan Tana Pro Classic missing a top ten finish each time before she retired from competition.
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| Karen Smith |
Canada's Karen Smith used a highly detailed and balanced overall look to capture the 1995 Canadian National LW title but didn't pursue a path to the pro level. Smith did, however, move up to the MW class to finish fifth at the IFBB North American Championships after her Canadian LW win.
Canada further showed its strength to produce quality bodybuilders when Cathy Lefrancois and Dayana Cadeau surfaced from the same gym in Quebec City, Quebec. Both outstanding, but showing vastly differing structural designs in their respective physiques, each has secured a strong fan following and both have amassed impressive contest resumes that will solidify their places in the sport's history.
After an active competitive career as an amateur, Cathy Lefrancois turned pro in 1995 and has been a distinguished competitor ever since. With nine invitations to the Ms. International and five Ms. Olympia contests to her credit, she has been at her best most recently with victories at both the 2008 and 2009 New York Pro Championships. She also placed sixth at the 2008 Ms. Olympia. During the years when a LW division existed in the pro ranks, she won the Ms. International LW title in 2003. With little argument Lefrancois ranks among the best LW
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| Cathy LeFrancois |
bodybuilders ever.
In Dayana Cadeau's case, she ranks as Canada's most successful female bodybuilder ever, period. Turning pro in 1997 after winning the overall title at the Canada Cup that year, Cadeau has been rock steady in her competitive march through the years. Having competed in 26 pro contests over the past 13 years, Cadeau has competed in 10 Ms. Internationals and 10 Ms. Olympia events. In 2004 she hit the jackpot winning the lightweight class at both of those contests. Her 2004 victory at the Ms. International made it two LW wins at that event having previously taken the 2001 Ms. I crown.
Primarily a middleweight at the amateur level, Nicole Ball won the Canadian National MW title
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| Nicole Ball |
three times capturing the overall title in 2006. Ball's only exploits as a lightweight have come at the pro level winning the 2007 Atlantic City Pro LW title in her pro debut, and finishing second as a LW at the 2009 Europa Pro Championships. She did, nonetheless, make it to the Ms. Olympia stage finishing eighth in 2007 and 11th in 2009.
Austria's Susanne Niederhauser banked on her extraordinary overall structural qualities and just the right level of musculature to reach the pro ranks in 2002. That year she won the LW class at the IFBB Southwest USA Pro Cup. Her victory qualified her for the 2002 Ms. Olympia where she finished seventh among the lightweights. She continued at the pro level as a bodybuilder until 2007 with good
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| Susanne Niederhauser |
results, but in 2008 she made the switch to pro figure competitions with predictably disastrous results at two pro figure events. Niederhauser did not compete at all in 2009.
Down under, tiny Australian Kathy Illingworth became a world class amateur competitor placing fifth in the LW class at the 1999 IFBB World Amateur Championships after winning the Australian National title. Combining a striking combination of muscle definition and great overall muscular balance she had developed as a bodybuilder was not enough to maintain her motivation to stay at a high competitive level and unfortunately she left the competitive scene at the turn of the millennium.
Whenever the conversation drifts to who might be considered
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| Kathy Illingworth |
pound-for-pound the most muscular lightweight currently competing, Finland's Marja Lehtonen is always near the top of everyone's list. A veteran of over 20 years on the competitive stage as both an amateur and pro, Lehtonen is a muscular marvel. She was a seasoned veteran of international competitions competing at the IFBB European Championships and the IFBB World Amateur Championships. Lehtonen turned pro in 2001 and posted strong finishes through 2004 (a total of six pro contests) placing no worse than third at any event including the 2004 Ms. Olympia where she finished third in the LW class. Lehtonen's most recent effort came at the 2008 Atlantic City Pro where she placed fourth.
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| Marja Lehtonen |
Many of the sport's cognoscenti consider Lehtonen one of bodybuilding's most underappreciated competitors in the past 10 years.
With the IFBB World Amateur Championships standing as the world's most prestigious international amateur event, only two lightweights have managed to wrest the overall title away from larger competitors. With an overall winner being selected each year since 1997, Russian LW Svetlana Lomachevskaya captured the overall crown in 2005, while Italy's Claudia Partenza claimed the overall title in 2006.
TWO MORE LIGHTWEIGHTS FOR THE RECORD BOOKS
In the world of bodybuilding, lightweights can easily go unnoticed, and two of the best who exemplify this reality are American Pam Kusar and Slovakia's Jana Purdjakova. If both women don't ring an immediate bell, you can be excused. While Kusar was not at the top of bodybuilding headline news over the course of her career, Purdjakova was somewhat more fortunate due to her successes on the European continent. One point remains constant with both, neither has taken the opportunity to enter the pro ranks, even when each has qualified to do so on many occasions.
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| Jana Purdjakova |
Internationally, it would be fair to say that Jana Purdjakova is well known for her accomplishments at both the IFBB European and IFBB World Amateur Championships, but she is a virtual unknown in the United States. In Kusar's case, the Ohioan boasts a very impressive career contest resume, but is little known outside our own borders, and not even a household name within them.
No matter, both women are glowing examples of the staying power lightweights can exert over a considerable number of actively competitive years.
In Kusar's case, she is a three-decade competitor (a noteworthy effort that qualifies her as a card-carrying member of the few who have reached this elusive stature) having entered contests in the 80's, 90's, and the first decade of the new millennium. Although she entered local events in her early days such as the 1989 NPC World Gym Classic where she captured the LW & Overall titles, most of Kusar's contest exploits have been at both the national and international levels.
Nationally, Kusar was impressive. She entered the NPC USA eight times, and at least once in each of the three decades she competed. In 2001 she won the USA lightweight title. Kusar also entered six NPC National Championships winning the LW class in 2004. As anyone can attest, winning your weight class at both the USA and Nationals is a rare feat indeed. But that was just the beginning. Kusar was, for lack of a better word, perfect, at the NPC Team Universe. She entered the contest five times, and on each occasion she won the LW class - including the inaugural Team U event in 1994 held in Chicago. Five entries, five victories.
Internationally Kusar also enjoyed solid success winning the lightweight class at the 1996 IFBB North American Championships. In 2001 Kusar won the gold medal at the World Games in Akita, Japan, a contest held every four years in an Olympic Games-style format for sports that are not included in the Olympic Games program. Kusar also competed in five IFBB World Amateur Championships winning the bronze medal for her third-place showing in 1998. No other American has entered the World Amateur contest more than twice.
In addition to her bodybuilding successes Kusar has also been a national class powerlifter in the 97 and 105-pound weight classes, and you'll find her listed in the ‘Outstanding Young Women of America'.
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| Pam Kusar |
Although Kusar is now retired from contest competitions and never pursued the road to the pro level, she easily qualifies as one of the most noteworthy amateur competitors ever to compete in the NPC......and never over a weight of 114 ½ pounds.
Purdjakova, on the other hand, has competed as both a lightweight and middleweight, and with the combination of the two, the successes she has enjoyed has made her one of the world's most accomplished amateurs in women's bodybuilding history.
A national champion in her native Slovakia, Purdjakova gained her highest level of fame at the international level beginning in 1997 when she won the IFBB European lightweight title. Since then, and on an annual basis, she has met the best amateur lightweight and middleweight competitors the world has to offer and been stunningly successful.
Over the past 12 years, Purdjakova has competed in two World Games (winning a LW gold medal in 2009), two IFBB European Championships (winning the LW class in 1997 and 2009) 12 years apart, and 10 IFBB World Amateur Championships. It is at the Worlds where Purdjakova has truly earned her legendary status. In 2007 and '08 she won LW gold medals. In 2000, ‘03, '04, '05, she was the MW World champion, and in 2002 and 2006 she added two silver medals. Virtually no other amateur competitor worldwide comes close. Meanwhile she has elected to remain amateur as a six-time World Amateur champion.
And to end this opus-lite with a trivia question..........Who was the smallest woman to win an NPC USA or NPC Nationals lightweight class?
Answer: Barbara Fletcher at 4-9, 93 pounds in winning the 2005 NPC USA lightweight class.
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| Barbara Fletcher |
Who says good things don't come in small packages!
The Demise of Women's Bodybuilding?
It was in the September 1995 issue of FLEX magazine (yes, 15 years ago) that Charles Peeples penned an excellent article called ‘Hold Your Hearses'. The subject of his story was about the supposed death of women's bodybuilding. As many of us who have been around bodybuilding since its earliest days are aware, this ongoing, drum beating, death knell is nothing new....in fact you begin to wonder if it wasn't brought over by the Pilgrims in the hold of the Mayflower. Each year brings us yet another notice about the inevitable death of bodybuilding for women, ad nauseam. Peeples' article was enlightening, and also defended the life of women's bodybuilding to the death.
So, in keeping with this salute to the lightweights, I decided to take a closer look at this purported demise as it relates to what are generally the smallest classes at the national level and two contests - the NPC USA, and NPC Nationals over the past 20 years, dating back to 1990.
First the NPC Nationals. In the decade (10 years) from 1990 to 1999 where a high of 24 entered in its biggest year, and a low of 12, the average number of women entering the National lightweight class was 17. Then, in the decade from 2000 to 2009 where the highest year for entries totaled 27 (in 2003) to a low of 10 (in 2004), the average number of women entering the lightweight class was 16. A drop of one competitor over 20 years would hardly seem like a sport taking its last breath.
As for the NPC USA, the results are even more pointed. Keeping in mind the USA has always had fewer entries than the Nationals the results are, nonetheless, interesting. From 1990 to 1999 where the highest number of LW entries at a given event was 15, and the lowest was only 4, the yearly average over that 10-year period was 10 entrants. Then from 2000 to 2009 where the highest number of entries was 16 and the lowest was 5, the average over this past decade was 10 per year - again, hardly a need to get out the tools for casket making. Literally, over the 20 years from 1990 to 2009 the average has remained the same.
In fact, from 1994 to 1997 the USA lightweight entries were 4 in 1994, 9 in '95, ‘4 in 96, and 5 in 97. You can imagine the field day the naysayers were having in that four-year stretch. In 1998 the LW entries bounced back up to 15.
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| Andrulla Blanchette, Sharon Marvel, Zuzana Korinkova |
While all the above only features one weight class at the two major contests held in the United States annually, similar results can be found in the remaining weight classes.
As for the argument that smaller events such as local, state and regional shows are notably down in the number of entries, it may well be true - although regional giants like the Emerald Cup, Southern States, Atlantic States and California's Orange County Muscle Classic all seem to be doing just fine. Competitors that are aspiring to the national level don't generally return to lesser events once they have achieved their primary goal.
So, as for the demise of women's bodybuilding, we're about to enter another decade, it might be best, at least for now, to just hold our hearses.
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