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Issue #21

Contents

Editorial
by Juan Carlos Lopez

2006 Olympia Photos and Results

2006 Olympia Review
by Kaisa Piippo and Juan Carlos Lopez

2006 Olympia Expo Photos and Review by Kaisa Piippo and Juan Carlos Lopez

2006 Canadian FBB Nats Photos and Results

2006 Canadian FBB Nats Review
by Juan Carlos Lopez

2006 IFBB Atlantic City Pro Report
by Aleksey Kash

Ask Misty Green
by Misty Green

20 Question with Cover Model IFBB Pro Figure Monica Brant

Video Interview with IFBB Figure Pro Monica Brant

Pictorials: Monica Brant, Mindi O'Brien, DJ Wallis, Julie Palmer, Dena Westerfield

Not just Another Barbie
by Barb Guerra

Video Interview with IFBB Pro Figure Jennifer Searles

Video Interview with IFBB Pro Figure Jessica Paxson

Interview with IFBB Pro Inga Neveraus-
kaite
by Kaisa Piippo

Video Interview with IFBB Pro Fitness Adela Garcia

 

Olympia Expo and the VIP events by Kaisa Piippo

Press Conference

Thursday the 28th of September was the first official day of the Olympia 2006. The event is filled with so much more than just the competitions that we decided there should definitely be an article about all the fun. So, after Wednesday’s slow start to the trip the events started finally rolling by on Thursday with the official Press Conference at 1pm, Meet the Olympians at 7pm and continued until Sunday, the 1st of October ending to a Superstar Seminar at 11am which was held in the Orleans Mardi Gras Ballroom.

Press Conference

The Press Conference was held at the Orleans Hotel Showroom which was a much bigger venue than the one they had last year. Still, it was packed with fans who wanted to hear what the Olympians thought about the upcoming show. The girls were called out and the audience could ask questions from them. Figure pro Valerie Waugaman said she was going to take figure posing into a new level with her creative quarter turns (this was later seen when the competition took place, but it seemed like the audience and judges weren’t sure what to think about it). I asked a couple of questions from Monica and Mindi. The girls seemed cheerful and joked a lot, for example about each other’s hairstyles… the female bodybuilders took part in the conversations as well and the audience got a little piece of what they would see on the stage when Iris Kyle dropped her pants to show off the most amazing glutes in the women’s bodybuilding – ever? Wow!

Later the same evening the Orleans Arena’s Concourse was filled up with fans and competitors, whose excitement for the upcoming show started finally building up. The first hour of the event was for the VIP and press only. It was really nice to talk to the girls with no hurry. I did video interviews for most of the two hours of the event and got some great coverage. This was the moment when I realized why these girls were pros – because that’s what they were, from inside out. Every single one of them had earned their place at the pro ranks with no doubt. When the event opened for the public the concourse was suddenly bulging with fans who formed long lines throughout the concourse. Everyone wanted that photo with Monica, Ronnie, Jay and so on. The buzz was on!

The Olympia Expo in Las Vegas Convention Center welcomed hundreds of information hungry and sample thirsty visitors on Friday the 29th of September.  The two day exhibition consisted of hundreds of vendors from all over the States that had come to showcase their best products, knowledge and make them better well-known. The companies ran from the biggest nutrition and supplement companies like EAS to the smallest ones I had never heard of, but which still had something interesting to offer to the public – like for example the sugar free protein cookies for the little cookie monsters living inside all of us (especially girls). Every visitor was sure to find at least something interesting and a booth worth stopping for.

Competitors could really benefit from many vendors’ offerings: competition suits, competition color, training clothes, you name it. For once you wouldn’t need to go online and order everything just to notice the suit didn’t fit or the competition color wasn’t the right kind for your skin. It was really nice to be able to talk to the people behind these products. Many of them really are interested in knowing who use their products and it’s a great way for them to get feedback also. The expo isn’t only a place for networking for the visitors, but also the vendors. It’s definitely a chance you should’t walk past. Who knows, the booth you just passed might actually be interested in sponsoring you if you just go and talk to them!

The expo had different kind of events going on from hour to hour. The fitness, figure and women’s bodybuilding prejudging took a good amount of time of Friday but there were also other events going on at the same time. Battle of the Biceps took place at the stage on Saturday, as well as Martial arts are becoming more and more important and people are going crazy over the sport – so the expo had lots of MMA happenings going on most of the time. There were autograph sessions with the UFC stars like Matt Hughes and Georges St. Pierre, Six Star’s Sport Martial Arts Tournament and so on. The fans were at the UFC booths and the lines for autographs were almost the same as with many fitness and bodybuilding stars! What a surprise… wonder how long it will take for the expo to become officially the “Olympia and UFC expo”?

Heather Green

The model search was another event that took place on Saturday from 12:30pm thru 2:00pm. The reason we covered this portion of the show was due to some competitors from the NPC having taken part of the event. The judging was merely by their looks given the results. There were three rounds,swimsuit, sports outfit and a question/answer. The questions weren't really rehearsed and it seemed that they were just any questions that came up to mind to the MC. The IFBB and other organizations clearly have rules about what elements are important in a physique such as symmetry, conditioning and stage presence. Now being on stage competing it is all about the physique, their personality does not matter. For this model search they did care about personality hence the questions. But one thing they really didn't cover is a very important factor, how good of a model is the model? Ideally a group of photographers should have done shoots with the models and graded them with their ability to pose, reliability, and different looks. This is

Jamie Eason

the key factor that promoters should look into. From the top 6 models, HardFitness worked with Heather Green and given her skills as a model it would be hard for anyone to surpass her. Heather also presents a very strong physique and balance at NPC shows. The winner of the show was Jamie Eason who had the look judges wanted and seemed to be one of the popular choices from the audience.

When it comes to samples, it was easy to get many weeks worth of fat burners, energy drinks and protein powders and bars just by walking around the expo with your bag open. There were many products that basically took the sports nutrition into a new era. The protein bar samples looked so good that it would have been easy to fall for those little treats if I hadn’t been one week out of my competition. The yummiest thing ever must have been the protein pudding product line that a couple of supplement brands had launched. The pudding could also be made into a frozen treat (or ice cream). Delicious! We also have to give some credit to the girls working at the booths – the expo gave tons of eye candy to the visitors also.

When the expo and the finals were over there was still time for a little more fun: Superstar Seminar on Sunday morning. The Orleans Hotel’s Mardi Gras Ballroom was almost filled up with fans who wanted to celebrate the victory with the new champions. All of the winners were there: Jay, Iris, Jenny and Adela. Many of the top 15 men's finalists were there also, except for Ronnie. The audience got to talk to the Olympians and asked lots of questions from them. After the seminar it was time for photos with every fan’s own camera and buying autographed photos from the newly made champions. It sure was a great weekend: not only for the fans but surely for the Olympians, since all of them beat their defending champions.
Tracie Soder
Stephanie Franco
Kelly Dobbins
Lisa Bickels
Jenna Meadows
Lisa Balash
Raynayle Ferrel
Melanie Parachou
Crystal Matthews
Kim Farnell
Natalie McGee
Shawn Renee Zimmerman
Michelle Combs
Marika Johansson
Teresa Ruybal
Vanessa Espinoza
Stephanie Rupp
Jodi Tiahrt
Kristen Frisch
Lisa Ray
Patricia Mikula
Berta Bobowski
Aneta Tataca
Maggie Broman
Mandy Jackson
Brandy Pearsall
Christiana Marie Brevik
Ana Maria
Consi Shirlaw
Nancy Munoz

 

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About the Author...


Kaisa Piippo

I am an enthusiastic and goal-oriented 23 year old future figure competitor from Finland. Currently I'm getting ready for my first figure competition in April 2006 in Finland. I have been training for the competition for nearly two years. While preparing for my first show I have been living in hot and sunny Arizona. Since it's hard for a foreigner to get a permission to work in the States, I have been studying the fitness industry and lifestyle 24/7. It doesn't always take the competition experience to learn about the sport because being around it teaches a lot too! By all the knowledge I've gathered I now feel confident on stepping on the stage and learning some more about fitness, this time by experiencing the competition excitement myself.

So how to learn fitness in theory? For most of my knowledge I can thank Pakkotoisto.com, energetic NPC fitness athlete Katie Madden and of course the ever informative Hard Fitness!

 
 
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