A week or so ago I gave in to a bad impulse and replied to a group e-mail discussion among some of my male colleagues at IRON MAN regarding a recent TV segment Bryant Gumbel had done on women’s bodybuilding. The conversation was not long, but it hit all the usual high points. The basic theme was, we started with Rachel McLish, and this is what we got? Not that they didn’t have a point—and the group included people who have photographed Rachel—but you know how it is. Sometimes guys just don’t know how they sound.

My pique took off in a number of directions, not all of which I shared. For one thing, why have all the Bryant Gumbels and all the lesser-known groups who have broadcast segments on bodybuilding over the past, say, five or six years, chosen to feature women’s bodybuilding rather than men’s? For that matter, when was the last time anyone on network broadcast or cable-TV did a feature on men’s bodybuilding? Perhaps I wasn’t so far off when I suggested that the host had picked the interviewee my colleagues were discussing because he wanted to evoke a certain response.

Also, I had just come back from Las Vegas and the USA Championships full of encouragement that a change was in the wind at last, and the whole conversation seemed so 2009 (1999, 1989…). How could they not know that the big story was that the two female flexers who turned pro in Vegas had been figure competitors just a year or so ago? That there is, in fact, a quiet effort going on in the judging panels of NPC women’s bodybuilding competitions to “fix it”—though I think we can all agree that there’s no going back to a point where the McLish physique would the standard for a bodybuilder. (Business is too brisk in figure and bikini for starters.) The McLish physique as the standard for figure might be a more realistic goal.

Not to go all Steve Wennerstrom on the history or get sidetracked into the discussion of how we got where we are, but there have always been women who pushed the bounds of acceptable femininity. Even Rachel competed against Kay Baxter and Bev Francis back in the day. The point is to focus on where things can go from here. The NPC seems to be concentrating on sending women bodybuilders to the pros who have good lines and shapes and are not ripped like Jay Cutler on a dry day. A stroll through the USA photo gallery and a shot of the class winners—and pro card recipients—bears that out. At every opportunity the judges chose shape over condition—in the pick of Sarah Hayes for heavyweight and overall honors, in the pick of light-heavyweight winner Jennifer Scarpetta for the second pro card over middleweight victor Mona Murray and lightweight champ Claire O’Connell, a veteran flexer who finally put it all together in a way she never had before and who had a lot of sentiment in the hall running in her favor.

See my morning-after-the-USA interview with Hayes to get to know this delightful new physique star.

As mentioned above, the new pros are both former figure competitors who got tired of being “too muscular.” It’s a trend many of us would like to see continue, but what will happen to all the less ripped ladies when they get to a pro stage? Lonnie Teper asked that question when he joined me on the post–USA women’s wrap-up video for bodybuilding, figure and bikini. My answer: They’ll have to wait till old guard pros start retiring. From a look at the actual Ms. Olympia lineup—not just the list of who’s qualified—that time could be closer than most folks expect. With Betty Pariso retired, Lisa Aukland passing on the show and a couple others reportedly out as well, there is room for some of the newer pros who have excelled—like, say Zoa Lindsey, Brigita Brezovac and Sheila Bleck—to make their marks.

As to any “new Rachels” who may have come out of the big Vegas pro qualifier, I’ll leave it to readers to determine whether USA Figure Overall champ Courtney West—like Ms. McLish, a Texan—fills that bill.

Photos (from top):

Sarah Hayes, USA Heavyweight and Overall champ.

Middleweight winner and new pro Jennifer Scarpetta.

Me interviewing Hayes on the morning after.

Courtney West was tops in the figure lineup.

My first reaction as the results of the IFBB Europa Super Show pro competition started coming last evening: L.T. must be plotzing. Cedric McMillian, the bodybuilder my IRON MAN colleague had picked to do well at this show—in his pro debut—and then possibly do some damage at the Mr. Olympia, had taken fourth. Don’t take it too hard, Coach. No swami could have predicted that Essa Ibrahim Hassan Obaid, Mark Alvisi and Bill Wilmore would come in beyond sliced any more than he or she could have predicted the outcome of the Super Show women’s competitions. Any of them. Fitness, figure and bikini were on the program, and all three contests produced first-time winners.

Biggest surprise—bikini. Okay, I admit I assumed this would be an Olympia-preview mashup between late-spring bikini sensation Nathalia Melo and the jewel of July, Ali Rosen, both of whom, incidentally, are members of the growing-by-leaps-and-bounds Florida bikini brigade. Amanda Latona, who had been laying low since her third-place finish at the Musclecontest event in March, was a good bet for third.

Wrong, wrong, wrong—not about Rosen, who is on a roll and got second, but definitely about Latona, who did a divide-and-conquer on her competition and pulled off the win. Also about Melo, who had to settle for third.

What’s that about? From the photos, I can see it: The competition was very tough, and Nathalia wasn’t as round and curvy from the front as she was from the rear. One instant message I received from the press pit last night was that the results were “strange.” As I wasn’t there—a real disadvantage when you’re handicapping a bikini contest—I can only wonder what my friend meant by that.

As for Amanda, who I recently learned is originally from my hometown, Pittsburgh, there’s only one thing to say: Younz looked great, girl!

Rounding out the top five were Bianca Binno, fourth, and Jennifer Dietrick.

Bit of a shock—figure. Don’t know why I didn’t see Terri Turner’s win in the Super Show Figure event coming. Not that she didn’t look good—and hasn’t all season. Second at the New York Pro, third at the Europa Show of Champions in Connecticut last month, she was kind of due for her firsts win, but those patterns don’t seem to be holding this season. Except when they do.

The judges turned in a perfect score for Turner, with Alicia Harris looking fine and finishing second and Teresa Anthony leapfrogging from 11th at the Jacksonville Pro two weeks ago to land in third. I thought fourth-placer Monica Mark-Escalante looked swell, with her tiny V-tape set off to advantage, although she appeared a little softer than Harris and Anthony. The conditioning of the top women did vary somewhat, but no one looked sloppy

As the top three were previously qualified for the Figure O (Harris was second in Jacksonville, and Anthony took third at the post-Olympia ’09 Kentucky Pro), Monica got the sliding qualification; so it’s all good.

Josie Zamora finished fifth, with a couple of already–Olympia–bound competitors, Gina Trochiano and Phoenix Pro winner Mindi Smith earning the sixth and seventh spots, respectively.

A little surprising—fitness. Bethany Wagner’s first ever pro win at the Super Show Fitness competition wasn’t a shock. The high school science teacher and gymnastics and track coach from New Jersey is always a presence—in the physique round as well as the routines—and she was more than due. But so was Myriam Capes, who’s always tops in the routines and has really worked to her streamline her physique. Shannon Meteraud looked fabulous at the judging—balanced, with just enough muscle and conditioning and no bodyparts sticking out. As I knew her routine would be good enough, I though maybe Shannon would take it. Once again I was wrong.

A win in the physique round and a tie with Shannon in the routines gave Bethany a five-point advantage in the final tabulations. Capes and Meteraud were tied for the runner-up spot, but the panel broke the tie in favor of Myriam, who was number one in the the routines, and Shannon got the third spot. Not bad for a gal who was one of the original fitness competitors back in the day.

Regiane Da Silva took fourth, and Alison Ethier rounded out the top five.

Also looking good—and not just good for someone who hadn’t been onstage in three years (or competed in fitness in six), but really good—was Alti Bautista. In fact, she looked good enough to take second in the body round and sixth overall. Kinda makes you wonder how far this shapely competitor might have gone if she’d taken to the stage more often over the years.

Photos (from top): Amanda Latona, Terri Turner and Bethany Wagner.

As the Europa Super Show, including five IFBB pro competitions, gets going today in Dallas, folks who haven’t seen promoter Betty Pariso since her fifth-place finish at the Ms. International competition last March are in for a bit of a surprise. The 54 1/2-year-old veteran top flexer has hung up her posing suit, at least as far as bodybuilding is concerned, and is downscaling her 160-to-170-pound physique for civilian life. As in she’s not training. At all.

Can you say transformation in progress?

The  5’6” Texan, who has been competing since 1988 and turned pro in ’96, sported some major female muscle in her career and kept audiences howling with her takeoffs of the top male pros’ posing styles. Now, she says, she on her way back to where she came from, bodywise, with maybe a stop in figure competition. (Yes, you read that right.) As she told photographer Reg Bradford in an exclusive interview for Pump & Circumstance online, “I am a competitor; I don’t see myself sitting around.”

Not that there’s much chance of that. Betty and Ed Pariso operate several business, and staged three big bodybuilding and fitness weekends this year—and she’s also the athletes rep for women’s bodybuilding.

When Reg saw the new Betty at the Battle of Champions in Hartford, Connecticut, a few weeks ago, he had a multitude of questions. The following are some highlights of her answers, including why she decided to stop competing, her thoughts on changing women’s bodybuilding and the amazing journey she’s going through.

Pariso competed five times over the past year and qualified for the ’10 Ms, Olympia three times. Why quit before the big show? Her answer was simple. “I realized I just didn’t want to,” she said. After after her post-Ms. International break, she and Ed did a lot of talking—and decided that it was time for something different. She hasn’t touched a weight since early March.

“I never got into the sport to be as big as I had to become to compete at the level that I’m at,” she admitted. “I think most of the women feel that way, but there’s nothing we can change.”

As the athletes rep she has always tried to champion the points of view of all the bodybuilders. “Every time people say, well, just start picking other people, [I say] is that fair? Is that fair to the person who really is the best at the top? Do you just tell everybody, okay, we’re going to stop the sport for two years and wait till everybody changes and then we’ll start all over again?

“In my opinion that’s some of the reason that the divisions are being added. We had women’s bodybuilding and then fitness. Now you’ve got bikini, you’ve got figure. Because there is no real easy way to make that change.

“People want to compete and they want to train hard and excel and be the biggest and best, and there is a part of me that thinks they should be able to do that,” she said. “It’s difficult to go to the gym and say, I can’t train as hard; I can’t excel here. That’s something that I have already struggled with a little bit.”

Is she serious about competing in figure?

“I’m toying with the idea; I’m not sure; I am a competitor; I have to have a challenge. I don’t see myself sitting around. ”

What about sitting back on her laurels and concentrating on promoting shows and running her other businesses? That’s just not her, Betty explained. “Plus, I’ve always need that motivation of something that I’m preparing for, not just that I kinda want to get in good shape.”

Some people think she’s crazy, she acknowledged with a chuckle. Still, she said, “I’ve been an athlete all my life. So I would like to maybe try figure.”

To those who would say, There’s no way Betty Pariso can do figure, her answer is another chuckle.

“That’s what they told me when I tried to bodybuild,” she said. “I was a model at the time, did some fashion stuff. The girl said, ‘You need to stay in the fitness.’ Of course, she didn’t know that I couldn’t do a flip if I had to.

“That was all the motivation I needed. That pushed a button for  me—I’ll show you.”

But can she really get small enough? “I took my body the other way,” she said. “I was always 120 pounds, so to get to 140 pounds, which was my goal as a bodybuilder, was a lot of work—and then I had to go up to 170, and still people were saying, ‘She could use more size onstage.’”

Betty was down to 144 pounds, she continued. “The first time that I reached up and touched my shoulder—I think I was in the shower—and it was like a foreign person, it almost made me jump. I thought, Whose shoulder is that?”

Though it was exciting and scary at first, Pariso seems  to be enjoying her evolution, “When I look in the mirror, I don’t know me,” she said. “I’ve had to buy new clothes. I ordered a jacket off the Internet and it fit, and Ed said, ‘You look so nice in that.’

“And I got here, and I had so many compliments on how I looked. It was overwhelming. It was very reaffirming; it made me feel wonderful.”

If she does step on a figure stage, it’ll be strictly for fun. “There’s no agenda,” she said. “I have nothing to prove.” Plus, she added “There’s no [worrying about] getting last place—which it’ll probably be. But to think that maybe I could represent another group of women in my age, still doing something, not just sitting back and saying, I’m too old.”

She summed it up  this way: “I don’t feel 54, so why do I have to act 54?”

And who could argue with that?

Photos: Betty Pariso at the Europa Battle of Champions in July (top) and onstage at the —’09 Ms. Olympia.

The ladies came out for Dexter Jackson last weekend, with 18 bikini contestants and a whopping 35 figure contender hitting the stage at his Jacksonville (Florida) Pro. That’s a particularly encouraging response in the bikini division, where the past couple of shows, the Europa Battle of Champions in Connecticut and the Pro Bodybuilding Weekly event in Tampa, also in Florida, attracted only 11 and 10, entrants, respectively. Maybe it was the date—a week before the popular Super Show and late enough in the season that they no longer have all the time in the world to qualify for the Olympia. Maybe it was the former Mr. O’s seductive smile. Whatever it was, they flocked to Jacksonville to get it—and more than a few gals who had t he goods had to go home empty-handed.

I have to admit, I didn’t see Candice Keene’s second-in-a-row victory coming. Not with the highly hyped pro debut of ’09 National Overall champ Ava Cowan on the bill, plus a talent-deep lineup that included Alicia Harris (always a contender as far as I’m concerned), Gennifer Strobo and bikini’s shapely Stacy Thompson making her first foray into figure.

Fagedaboudit said the judges, who decided that Candy was dandy, granting her the win. The 28-year-old from Orlando, Florida, who turned pro at only her second show, the ’08 Nationals, has taken a season or so to find the balanced bod that would bring success on the next level. As of summer 2010, she has definitely nailed it. Her victory in Jacksonville should provide some hefty momentum for the 5’5” Keene if she goes into the Europa Super Show this coming weekend, where she’d face ’10 Phoenix Pro winner Mindi Smith and a lineup of 37. (Candice has said she’d be onstage at the Dallas event, but as of this morning her name wasn’t on the competitor list.)

Harris was second and Strobo took third at this top-three Olympia qualifier, leaving Cowan to languish in fourth and Thompson to round out the top five. Alicia and Ava are also headed to the Super Show, which is the last qualifier in before the Figure O on September 24. What are the odds that Ms. Cowan, who was reportedly not at her polished best in Jacksonville, makes the necessary improvements to earn an invite this weekend?

The Jacksonville Pro Bikini event was all Alison Rosen. The very recently crowned USA champ, who’s also from Orlando, wasted no time laying claim to the title of latest pro bikini sensation. Ali beat a smoking-hot lineup that included Jessica Putnam, the ’09 Jacksonville Pro Figure winner, in her bikini debut and Jaime Baird, who looked wonderful, again, but once again missed out on the top spot. They ended up just a point apart, in second and third, respectively, with Jessica Jessie landing in fourth and Dina Al-Sabah, in her second bikini show, moving up to fifth.

Rosen is headed for the Super Show Bikini competition, where she’ll pit her fabulous curves against the year’s very first new bikini sensation, Nathalia Melo. Now, there’s a matchup that could have a serious impact on my Olympia predictions.

Find the complete figure and bikini results from the Jacksonville Pro below.

Photos: Candice Keene (top) and Ali Rosen.

’1o Jacksonville Pro Figure
1) Candice Keene*
2) Alicia Harris*
3) Gennifer Strobo
4) Ava Cowan
5) Stacey Thompson
6) Josie Zamora
7) Katherynne Ramirez
8) Candice John
9) Ann Pratt
10) Lavonda Ezell
11) Teresa Anthony
12) Holly Beck
13) Kathleen Tesori
14) Elisha Archibold
15) Susanne Bock
16) Tivisay Briceno
16) Sue Upson
18) Taylor Condren
18) Kimmy Trowbridge
19) Vivian Alejandra
19) Nicole Coleman
19) Michelle Craven
19) Brandie Gardner
19) Jennifer Hernandez
19) Catherine Howard
19) Sara Hurrle
19) Ines Jimenez
19) Danielle Kifer
19) Petra Mertl
19) Jennifer Migliacci
19) Joanne Murphy
19) Emily Nicholson
19) Mikaila Soto
19) Rosalind Vanterpool
19) Christina Vargas
*Qualifies for the ’10 Figure Olympia

’10 Jacksonville Pro Bikini
1) Alison Rosen*
2) Jessica Putnam*
3) Jaime Baird*
4) Jessica Jessie
5) Dina AlSabah
6) Alea Suarez
7) Vanessa Campbell
8) Diana Fields
9) Juliana Danieli
10) Kat Holmes
11) Bianca Binno
12) Khang Nguyen
13) Michelle Adams
14) Janet Harding
15) Safiya Johnson
16) Dayna Maleton
17) Sonya Vecchiarelli
18) Amanda Marinell
*Qualifies for the ’10 Bikini Olympia

I’ve been LMAO ever since I got back from the USA and discovered that the little blog entry I wrote on Thursday night—regarding crazy magazine deadlines, dead laptops and that I’d be Tweeting from Roland Balik‘s iPhone during the big NPC weekend in Vegas—never got posted. Talk about not knowing which way is up. (I could have sworn….)

The Tweeting experiment met with mixed success (the iPhone keyboard is a slippery little thing); however, we did manage a few comments. They appear in a window on this page.

Please note: The first one was sent very early Saturday morning—after the long men’s and bikini judging—from the 24-hour cafe at Terrible’s Hotel & Casino as a bleary-eyed Roland and I awaited the $15 steak special and a stiff drink. As that is not a pretty picture, we did not take one. :)

At the opposite end of the evening, I had taken my first photo of the weekend. That shot—of sisters and fellow bikini hopefuls Tamara and Summer White—appears here.

More later (the IRON MAN deadline is almost over). In the meantime, check out Roland’s USA photos.

Update: The results Europa Battle of Champions, in Connecticut, started coming in just as I was finishing up this entry:

Women’s bodybuilding top three: 1) Brigita Brezovac, 2) Helen Bouchard, 3) Cathy LeFrancois.

Figure top three: 1) Candice Keene, 2) Terri Turner, 3) Gina Trochiana.

Bikini top three: 1) Dianna Dahlgren, 2) Jessica Jessie, 3) Diana Fields.

————————–

I hate being on deadline when things are happening—the excuse for not having recorded my sentiments regarding the IFBB Pro Bodybuilding Weekly events last weekend. Not that the world ended or anything, just that the developments down there in Tampa, Florida, were mighty interesting.

In the PBW Bikini event Team Universe sensation Nicole Nagrani continued her winning ways, trouncing the competition in her pro debut and leaving Jaime Baird to land in second again (she was runner-up at the Europa Show of Champions last spring and third at the Pittsburgh Pro). Third place in the lineup of 10 went to another hot new pro who got her card two weeks ago at the T.U., Vanessa Campbell, with all three earning invites to the Bikini Olympia in September.

Diana Fields in fourth and Kat Holmes rounded out the top five.

What’s so interesting about those developments? For one thing it sets up a showdown for the O with the season’s earlier sensation, Nathalia Melo. Those (like me) who were thinking Melo’s future as the first Big O bikini champ was assured may want to think again.

Also noteworthy for the return to competition of figure star Dina Al-Sabah, who managed sixth and should have no trouble getting into the swing of her division if she keeps going.

Interesting as all that was, it didn’t hold a candle to the drama in the PBW Women’s Bodybuilding battle, where another auspicious pro debut upset a greater expectation than that it was Jaime Baird’s time to move into the winner’s. The expectation was that New York Pro champ Cathy LeFrancois would be the big winner in what turned out to be a 28-woman lineup. The reality is, she got hustled, tussled and outmuscled by newcomer Brigita Brezovak, a Slovenian flexer who finished second at the World Championships in 2009 (above photo courtesy of rxmuscle.com.) Also by one-time middleweight champ Tina Chandler, who added some size and sizzle to her symmetry to surprise pretty much everyone by taking second. That left LeFrancois in third.

It looked like a great call to this far-off observer. Brezovak is the real deal—long, full muscles and plenty of ‘em; structure and proportion to die for and outstanding separation. She had more than enough of everything to challenge for the top spot, and the judges didn’t hesitate.

Their choice of Chandler for the runner-up Olympia qualification was also a good call. Much has been made of the fact that Tina has put on eight pounds of muscle since she turned pro at the ’07 NPC Nationals, but I thought it was her excellent conditioning that pushed her past LeFrancois in Tampa. More definition than perhaps she’s ever achieved gave the extra muscle maximum pop. She and Cathy were tied after the judging, but by evening the panel had made up its mind.

Helen Bouchard finished fourth, with Nicole Ball landing in the top five. Both those ladies were on their game, so you can imagine how deep the talent was in that big lineup.

As I write this, Brigita and Cathy are flexing it out with 18 others at the Europa Battle of Champions in Hartford, Connecticut; so we’ll see if this history repeats itself. [As you've undoubtedly noted above, it did].

A couple other items that did not escape my notice this week:

• Tracey Greenwood retired from competition. According to a press release from Fitness Management Group, the 41-year-old Delaware diva, who finished third at the Fitness Olympia last year and has been as high as second, has been dealing with lingering injuries and felt it was time to move on. Not that she’ll be far from our view—or our hearts. A college professor in her day job, Greenwood promotes three NPC shows and over the past year or so has slipped into a key expediter role at many big NPC and IFBB events.

• Davana Medina pulled out of the Battle of Champions Pro Bikini event. No reason was given (nor does she owe us one). The bottom line: We may see the first Fitness O champ on a pro bikini stage later this year, or we may not.

A couple of weeks ago, when I was writing the then-breaking item about Davana’s return to competition, I couldn’t help comparing it to a breaking news item of a few weeks before that: Monica Brant’s jumping from the IFBB (after all these years) to join Paul Dilett’s upstart Canadian World Bodybuilding and Fitness Federation. That item I did not get to blog about in a timely manner, as it occurred during the worst of last month’s deadline. Still, it was a pretty big story (I laughed…I cried…), and I didn’t mean to overlook it Now I read on the Web site that broke the story that everything that’s been said about Brant’s decision has already been said; so I guess I’ll keep my naughty thoughts to myself—at least until I talk with Mo.

Photos (from top): Brigita Brezovac (courtesy of Rxmuscle.com), Tracey Greenwood and Monica Brant.