Hate to sound old and all, but I have been in this game for almost 20 years now….and I think new pro Victoria Larvie may be the youngest IFBB professional in history at age 17?
I did google frantically to see if anyone more reliable then myself confirmed this – to no avail. Either way, she is definitely one of the youngest ever, if not the youngest.
The 17 year old won the short class in fitness at the 2009 NPC JR Nationals held this past weekend in Illinois which qualified her for pro status.
Images via Musculardevelopment, click here for Victoria’s gallery from this show.
With the 2009 NPC Jr Nationals coming up this weekend, I thought I would take a look back at least year. Pictured below are the overall winners, photo by Roland Balik.
Sean Allan won the mens overall, the women’s overall bodybuilding winner was Amber Defrancesco with Heather Bayer winning the middleweights and Justine Dohring winning the lightheavies.
New Figure IFBB Pros
Sue Upson
Julie Kulla
Theresa Gillian
Catherine Holland
New Fitness IFBB Pros
Stefanie Irick
Melissa Frederick
Betsy McNaly-Harris
This year will be the first year the NPC Jr Nationals has the Bikini division.
The 2009 Optimum Nutrition NPC Jr. National Bodybuilding, Fitness, Figure and Bikini Championships will be held June 19-20 at the Hyatt Regency O’Hare Hotel in Rosemont (Chicago area), Illinois.
There are 4 weight classes for the Women’s Bodybuilding, 7 weight classes for Men’s Bodybuilding, 3 height classes for Fitness competitors, 6 height classes for Figure competitors and 6 height classes for Bikini. There will be three Fitness pro cards, four Figure pro cards and 4 Bikini pro cards awarded.
If you are in the area, check it out! Tickets range from $25 – $60
From Toronto, Canada fitness model Lyzabeth is of Venezuelan and Israeli descent. She’s 5′5″ and weighs around 115 lbs with 36-24-36 measurements. She says she began training in the gym with weights at the age of 12 after reading muscle magazines and wanting to look like Rachel McLish.
Click on the wallpaper below to access the full size wallpaper, then right click ’set as desktop background’.
On May 17th IFBB fitness pro Julie Lohre competed in a triathlon and she placed 30th out of over 100 women and 8th in her age class. A very impressive result no doubt, but even more impressive is that Julie did this for charity – all proceeds benefited Down’s Syndrome Research.
A quote of Julie’s about the triathlon from her blog
I have to say, the triathlon was truly one of the hardest things I have done, mostly because it is sooo different from how I usually train and compete. I have never been a huge fan of cardio and endurance training is super tough for me. With all my knee surgeries, including the newest one that is not quite healed, I did have to pace myself on the run (for me that meant cycles of sprint… pound… ouch!… walk… recover) but the biking and swimming were incredible.
This video easily ranks an 11 on the “1-10 hotness scale”. It’s a preview clip from the ‘Crazy for Cabo” DVD and it features Timea Majorova, Tina Rigdon, Sarah Orbanic, Ocean Bloom, Jennifer Elrod, Karen Zaremba, Julie Ann, Mai Tran, and Jennifer Joseph.
16 year old Ariel Khadr won the fitness class at the recently held NPC Atlantic States competition.
The 5 foot tall 115lb Ariel is a level 10 gymnast, fitness/figure competitor, and a 2nd degree black belt in TaeKwonDo. She has won numerous titles, such as Ms Jr Fitness International, and Miss Jr Fitness America. An all-round athlete, she competes at level 10 gymnastics both in state and out of state, and has won state, regional, and national titles and is also a 7-time qualifier and medalist in the Junior Olympic TaeKwonDo championships,
Image via RXmuscle.com, click here to watch their video of Ariel, click here to see Ariel’s modeling portfolio, or click ‘read more’ below to click through to see all female results
The 45 second prejudging routine at the 2004 Arnold Classic of Fitness Champions Adela Garcia and Kelly Ryan, who fell from grace a few years later.
Kelly plead to arson and battery with a deadly weapon resulting in significant bodily harm. She was then sentenced to two consecutive terms of 3-13 years in prison. With time served from the date of capture, she is eligible for parole release on 2011-12-23.
To download this clip in Quicktime format, right click ’save as’ here
Female bodybuilders and figure competitors are slowly hopping on board the latest internet craze; Twitter. Here’s a list of a few, if you want to be added just leave a comment and I will add you to the list:
One of the bigger amateur shows of the year, the NPC Pittsburgh attracts quite a large amount of competitors. Jennifer Harris [pictured below] won the middleweight and overall bodybuilding title, with South African IIze Meyer winning the heavyweight with Amy Palmer winning the lightweight. Andrea Watson won the overall of a huge figure lineup, with Jamie Baird winning the bikini and Sherri Daniel winning fitness.
Image via MD, click here for their full gallery of this event.
Shannon Meteraud made it two in a row by winning the Europa the week after winning the New York Pro and Nicole Wilkins Lee won the figure, with icon Monica Brant in third.
One of the most flexible fitness athletes to ever grace the stage has announced her retirement from competition. Veteran competitor Stacey Simons was known for her signature backbend move. The news comes from Isaac over at Hardbody.com, click here to read the full story and interview with Stacey.
And I have to say I am happy about that. Shannon is not only a great person, but it’s always great to see a forty something year old mom get onstage and kick ass!
The 2009 IFBB New York Pro is underway today and the prejudging over and finals due to start in a few hours. First callout was Myriam Capes, Tina Durkin, Shannon Meteraud, Bethany Wagner, Trish Warren and Nicole Dunkin [pictured below]
I noted that the Fort Lauderdale Pro Fitness and Figure Cup, which Shannon Dey and Kristin Nagrani plan to stage on October 10 at the Parker Playhouse in Fort Lauderdale, is not yet on the list. As Shannon had said several weeks ago that the show definitely would go on, I dashed off an e-mail note to her, and she sent an extremely affirmative reply.
“We have our sanction and everything and are good to go,” she reported.
In addition to the two pro events, the festivities will include an NPC national qualifier in bodybuilding, fitness and figure, and as October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, the ladies hope to make a donation to fight that disease from the proceeds.
