Where You Finish at a Contest: The Great Unknown
Almost every competitor who has entered more than a handful of contests - be they bodybuilders, fitness competitors or figure contestants - can probably recall a final placement that didn't make much sense in one way or another. It comes with the territory. Many times those moments are chocked up to judging glitches that can occur at any level of event from local contests all the way to the Olympia stage. To be sure, the range of possibilities a contestant can experience from event to event is limitless and to some degree those dramatic swings in placings can occur simply by virtue of the physical variations of the collective contestants entered at any given contest.
Extremes in placings where contestants end up in the final tallies of a particular contest can also vary wildly from year to year as well as from contest to contest.
Those competitors noted here are a broad example of what many have encountered in the unpredictable world of judging the female physique and in total, they make a fascinating story.
Beginning at the Top
What better contest to begin an exploration of the examples of erratic placings than at the Ms. Olympia - a contest that is recognized as an event where the cream of physique athletes vie for the coveted Ms. O crowns.
In the mid-90's French competitor Marie Mahabir endured what anyone would consider a confusing span of three years. In 1993 she finished an unheralded 16th in a field of 32 contestants (the largest field ever at the Ms. O). Then, in a resounding turnaround, she bounced up to the fourth place spot at the Ms. O a year later. But in 1995, inexplicably, she plummeted to 13th place in a field of just 14 entrants. She never returned for a fourth try. And the roller coaster ride she took over those three years no doubt left her wondering what she had done so differently that warranted the wide fluctuation.
Later in the 90's Ukraine's Valentina Chepig
a also underwent a sobering stint of placings that covered two prestigious contests. First, she won the HW and overall titles at the 1997 IFBB World Amateur Championships – which in those days was an automatic qualification for the Ms. Olympia. So, in 1998 she entered her first Ms. O and was promptly greeted with a 12th-place finish. In 1999 she once again entered the Ms. O with high hopes after a strong third-place finish at the Jan Tana Classic to re-qualify. Again, she landed in the 12th spot. The new millennium brought Chepiga a major change in her contest fortunes. In 2000, after re-qualifying with a MW win at the Jan Tana Classic, she won the Ms. Olympia HW class. Her surge from 12th to first to this day is the biggest jump in upward placings in the history of the bodybuilding division at the Ms. O.
More recently, Heather Armbrust found that the fame of placings can be fleeting. An overall winner at the NPC USA in 2006, her first entry at the Ms. O in 2007 produced a very impressive fifth-place effort. But at the 2008 Ms. O she was met with a disconcerting 14th place finish. Bouncing back in strong fashion with the coming of 2009, she re-qualified for the Ms.O at the Ms. International where she earned a fourth-place 
finish. From there, she pressed Iris Kyle at the Ms. O with a breakthrough runner-up spot that pointed to a very bright future. Unfortunately, she dropped from the competitive scene and has not competed since. Coincidentally, Denise Rutkowski encountered a very similar ending to her competitive career when, in 1993 she won the overall NPC USA title, followed quickly by a pro debut victory at the Jan Tana Classic. From there, Rutkowski zoomed to second place at the '93 Ms. O defeating the likes of Laura Creavalle, Kim Chizevsky, Yolanda Hughes and Diana Dennis to name a few. Rutkowski, like Armbrust never returned to the competitive stage after her whirlwind entrance to the pro ranks.
Collectively, perhaps the most stunning examples of turnarounds can be traced to the 1999 Ms. International. Fresh from her overall victory at the 1998 NPC USA, Iris Kyle was making her pro debut at the Ms. I. The field included 19 contestants, and Iris Kyle found herself bounced into the 15th-place spot. The fiercely- competitive Kyle took the placement as a wake-up call, and as all followers of women's bodybuilding are now acutely aware, she is busy preparing to re-write the record books having won seven Ms. Olympia crowns to go with six Ms. International titles.
Equally startling from the results of the '99 Ms. International focuses on the placers at the bottom of the 19-contestant field. The 18th-place finisher was Yaxeni Oriquen, with the final placing position going to Cathy Lefrancois. Both of these competitors have been dogged in their perseverance and love of competing over the years, so four years later at the 2003 Ms. I they provided the unprecedented accomplishment of winning their respective weight classes and posing down for the overall. Imagine, two last place finisher at a pro contest, rising to the victory stand four years later - a classic example of a last-to-first performance! Truly unique.
Major swings in competitive fortunes have also occurred at the amateur level and two of the most notable examples revolve around two women who have moved on to the pro level. In 2003 Emery Miller began the year with a victory in the lightweight class at the NPC USA. Pressing on to the NPC Nationals that year, the bottom fell out of her plans to continue her winning ways when she landed 12th among the lightweights. But a year later Miller was back on top when she posted a middleweight class victory at the 
2004 NPC Nationals to qualify for the pro ranks.
Similarly, Lisette Acevedo rose skyward in the course of a year when she was buried in the light-heavyweight shuffle at the 2008 NPC Nationals finishing a forgettable 14th. But in 2009 Acevedo dropped down to the middleweight category and edged out a hard-earned victory to qualify for pro status. 14th to 1st in one year , at the Nationals yet – not bad!
Dramatic swings have also taken place in Fitness competitions. Canadian dynamo Myriam Capes was the 2006 Canadian National Fitness champion. After she qualified for the 2007 Ms. Olympia with a runner-up finish at the Spanish Pro Grand Prix, her Ms. O debut caught her by surprise as she landed 18th in a field of 19. But Capes has shown strong resilience since then placing sixth at the 2009 Ms. O, fourth in 2010 and third in 2011. Climbing the ladder from 18th to 3rd at the Ms. Olympia is no easy feat, just ask Myriam 
Capes.
Russian Oksana Grishina also encountered a rocky start as a pro. After winning IFBB European and World Amateur Fitness titles in 2005 and 2006 respectively, Grishina made her pro debut at the 2007 Europa Super Show where she finished an inexplicable 16th. Shortly thereafter, Grishina entered the All-Star Pro Classic and placed third to qualify for the 2007 Fitness Olympia where she placed seventh. Now one of the most popular competitors in the pro ranks over the past four years, Grishina has placed fifth at the 2010 and 2011 Ms. O contests and is widely recognized as the sport's most underrated performer.
If you assume that today's biggest name stars are overnight successes, then Adela Garcia is a poster girl for perseverance. In 1996 Garcia placed a distant 12th at the NPC National Fitness Championships. Three years later she rose to the top of the NPC Fitness ranks winning the 1999 overall NPC National crown. Making her pro debut at the Ms. International in 2000, Garcia finished in the top ten with a workman-like eighth-place final tally. Two years later Garcia won her first pro event taking the 2002 New York Pro title. And of course since then, Garcia has become the most successful competitor in Fitness with six Ms. 
Olympia titles, and four Ms. International crowns. Those unprecedented accomplishments as a pro are a long way from her 12th -place finish as amateur 15 years ago.
More common to radical changes in placements from contest to contest exist in the newer Figure division. As judges struggle with their efforts to normalize the criteria of these events, the wide variations are somewhat common, but also confusing for contestants who also struggle with how to prepare for a given event.
The most notable of all of these radical contest results rests with Michelle Flake – a competitor who can be considered somewhat of a pioneer in Figure competitions. Competing in the 2004 NPC Junior Nationals, Flake placed 20th in her height class along with 30 other contestants. The argument in her case could have easily been explained away as simply getting lost in the size of a division that included 50 women. But her qualities were, nonetheless, striking. How striking? A year later Michelle Flake entered the 2005 NPC USA Figure Championships (it was the first time the Figure division was contested at the USA). Not only did Flake win her height class, she won the overall. 20th in her class at the Junior Nationals one year, overall champion at the USA the next! Turning pro, Flake entered the Ms. Olympia in 2006. It was a rude awakening as she found herself tied for 18th place in field of 21 contestants. Undaunted she pressed on and in 2007 she won both the Sacramento Pro Figure Championships and Kentucky Pro Figure contest before leaving the competitive Figure scene. Her roller coaster ride was a true adventure going from 20th to 1st to 18th to 1st again.
With the coming of the new Physique division there will no doubt be dozens upon dozens of examples of competitors who are making the transition from Figure to Physique. Most will have familiar stories of being hammered into submission in the Figure division for being deemed too muscular. These tales will not be unique. But even as the new Physique division takes hold, examples will surface that should put competitors on alert that virtually anything can happen and to not become discouraged.
A good example of the volatility with the Physique Division can already be seen in the person of Tracy Bodnar. Clearly too muscular for the Figure division in her past competitive efforts, Bodnar wisely made the switch to Physique this year. She quickly became one of the first women to enter the inaugural Physique division contested at the NPC Junior USA in May. She placed 14th in her class with the assumption that she was still too muscular. Four months later Bodnar entered the IFBB North American Championships and won her class earning pro status as a Physique division competitor.
A final thought for those competitors who might be impatient about making their way to the pro division, you might consider the competitive histories of Cory Everson and Lenda Murray.
Cory Everson only competed six times as a pro and she won six Ms. Olympia titles. But getting there was the trick. She began bodybuilding in 1980 competing in numerous contests along the way. Among them was an 11th-place finish at the AFWB American Championships in 1981, she claimed 5th at the same event in 1982 , and 8th in 1983. In 1984 she finally won the NPC Nationals to reach the pro ranks. Cory Everson won six Ms. Olympia titles in her Hall of Fame career, but it took her four tries to win the National title at the amateur level.
L
enda Murray also struggled to reach the pro level. In 1985 Murray was 4th HW at the NPC Michigan. In 1986 she placed 3rd. In 1987 she placed 3rd again. Murray finally won the HW class at the 1988 Michigan contest to set the stage for her to win the 1989 NPC Junior National overall title and IFBB North American overall crown to earn her pro status. Lenda Murray won eight Ms. Olympia crowns over her distinguished competitive career, but it took her four tries to win her class at the NPC Michigan.
All the above was best summed up by a veteran bodybuilder years ago when she fell short of winning a prestigious contest – one which she was favored to win and didn't. Her short, but to the point, summation was, “Hell, it's all a crap shoot. You just never know what to expect. Somehow, that's the fun of it. It's the great unknown.”
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