Female bodybuilding is one of the toughest sports out there. It requires years of hard, consistent workouts and extreme diets. Not only is this physically demanding, often resulting in physical injury, but it can take a serious psychological toll as well. There are multiple champion female bodybuilders who retired because of breakdowns due to stress.
Female bodybuilders face all the same obstacles as the men — and more. Charles Gaines, author of Pumping Iron, has called these women a “new archetype” — something never before seen in any culture at any point in history. Because these women have been around for decades now, younger people will not remember what a shock they caused when they first came on to the scene. They were “something new under the sun.” Women with huge amounts of muscles and who were very attractive were nonetheless often accused of “looking like men.”
Many of these women faced critical opposition from family, boyfriends, and husbands, as well as the media and the general public. Some avoided wearing a bikini at the beach or pool because of how “freakish” people thought they looked. They often took pains to wear jackets or long-sleeved shirts when out in public. I remember stopping at a 7/11 in Los Angeles with Lenda Murray in the early 1980s. She was wearing a top that showed her arms and she turned to me and said, “I would never go around in public dressed like this back in Detroit.”
One very basic problem that faced the early female bodybuilders is how quickly the sport evolved. It takes a long time to fully develop a competition physique, and most competitors have only a few years of training under their belt. Plus, you need mesomorphic genetics to build really big muscles and many of the first women in the sport didn’t really have this kind of potential.
Most of the very first female bodybuilders saw the standards of the sport evolve so quickly that they were left behind in a very few years as women with more mesomorphic genetics and who had spent more years in the gym became the new normal.
Another problem facing women bodybuilders, especially in the earlier years, was the judging. Too often, officials would introduce subjective elements into their scoring that had nothing to do with the standards of bodybuilding, which meant many deserving winners were not given their due because they were considered too big, too muscular, too ripped or not “sexy” enough.
Another has been the lack of financial opportunity. Prize money for the women has been far less than for the men. Sponsorship money has been a lot less as well. Add money worries to all the rest, and it’s clear why female bodybuilding is such a tough sport.
There are many dozens of women bodybuilders who retired too soon. There are a few whose stories I know and can write about, and whose photos I have in my library. Below are a few outstanding examples.
Bill Dobbins is a legendary bodybuilding photographer and founding editor of FLEX magazine.
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Bill Dobbins
Rachel McLish
Rachel McLish was the right person at the right time when she won the first Ms. Olympia in 1980. The late Mike Mentzer looked at her and exclaimed “what a thoroughbred.”
But Rachel had only been training a few years and didn’t have the genetics or desire to develop really big muscles. So after winning the United States Championships, the Frank Zane Invitational, and the Ms. Olympia in 1980, and another Olympia title in 1982, Rachel entered two more shows with less success and called it quits.
If she had continued to be more visible in the sport, she probably would never have another major title, but she could have continued to contribute as a major spokesperson and role model for the sport.
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Bill Dobbins
Kike Elomaa
In 1981, Kike defeated Rachel McLish at the IFBB Ms. Olympia. Kike only competed only three more times, placing third at the 1982 IFBB Ms. Olympia and second at the 1983 IFBB Pro Worlds. She ended her career on stage after a fifth-place finish at the 1983 IFBB Ms. Olympia.
She had many outside interests, including being a successful pop singer and a member of the Finnish Parliament. Like Rachel, Kike did not seem to have the genetics or the desire to build the kind of muscle quickly becoming standard in pro bodybuilding for women.
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Bill Dobbins
Beate Dräbing
Beate Dräbing is the most successful female bodybuilder from Austria, and one of the most beautiful women in the sport. Beate was popular back home and even had McDonald’s as a sponsor. She ran a gym with her boyfriend and looked forward to competing as an IFBB pro.
But judging was more inconsistent back then than it is now, and in one contest Beate was placed low in an event where she clearly should have been in the top three. I tried to explain to her how such things happened, that it was nothing personal and that she would get the kind of recognition she deserved if she just remained patient. But unlike Iris Kyle, who did not let unfair treatment by the officials discourage her, Beate decided it was not worth the stress and the grief and she decided not to continue to compete. A major loss to the sport.
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Bill Dobbins
Erika Andersch
Erika competed in many sports in high school, where she became interested in bodybuilding. Erika won the 1988 New England Bodybuilding Championships. But her career in the sport was cut short when she was cast as Diamond in the TV show American Gladiators 1990 – 1993. She was later featured in a number of movies, but eventually retired in favor of motherhood, giving birth to two children.
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Bill Dobbins
Michelle Andrea
Michelle won the NPC USA Championships and then came to Los Angeles to do photos for Joe Weider. We did a studio shoot and then Michelle kept me company when I took the film to the lab to be develop, which took four hours. While that was being done, we went to Samy’s Camera, the largest chain of photo stores in LA.
Everywhere we went, Michelle was the center of attention. People couldn’t get enough of her beautiful face and fit body. Afterwards, Michelle disappeared from the sport fairly quickly. I don’t know why. But I consider this quite a loss to the world of bodybuilding.
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Bill Dobbins
Heather Armbrust
People often speculate that a given bodybuilder has the potential to be Ms. O or Mr. Olympia, and there is little doubt that Heather Armbrust, who placed second in the Ms. Olympia in 2000, certainly had every expectation of winning the title at some point — if she hadn’t unexpectedly retired from competition.
I never talked to Heather about this decision – as I’ve explained there are a myriad of problems and obstacles that women face in the sport. But in terms of the history of female bodybuilding, Heather’s early retirement represents a real loss.
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Bill Dobbins
Lesa Lewis
Lesa Lewis is one of my all-time favorites. The fullness and shape of her muscles has always reminded me of Ronnie Coleman. Her size, shape, and aesthetics are almost unique in the sport.
Lesa competed from 1992 to 2002, won the Jan Tana Classic in 1998 and placed 4th in the Ms. Olympia. Despite her remarkable potential, Lesa’s weakness involved contest dieting. She came into shows looking good, but not ripped to the degree the competitions required.
The bodybuilding competition diet involves a degree of extreme diet not everyone with a great physique is capable of. If Lesa mastered the level of dieting discipline needed, she might well have been more successful at the highest levels of the sport.
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Bill Dobbins
Nikki Fuller
Nikki Fuller is another big, beautiful pro bodybuilder who did well but never quite achieved the level of success she was capable of. Nikki won the NPC Nationals in 1990 and the Jan Tana in 1992.
A few years later she finished 7th in that contest and was no higher than 9th in the Olympia. Again, as great as her potential, Nikki onstage often did not hit the mark. After she retired from competition, Nikki managed to be cast in several national TV commercials.
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Bill Dobbins
Shelley Beattie
I first saw Shelley Beattie when she won the NPC USA in 1990. The first time I showed Joe Weider photos of Shelley, he soon after signed her to a contract. She was a very special bodybuilder.
However, Shelley had a hard life which came to a tragic end. Shelley had grown up as a mostly deaf girl in the foster care system, and this did not give her the emotional stability to easily deal with the pressures of being a pro bodybuilder. With her Weider contract on the line, she showed up at the Ms. International well out of shape. This did not please Joe Weider and her contract was not renewed.
Shelley’s last contest was a 7th place at the Ms. Olympia. Shelley unfortunately suffered from manic depression and took her own life in 2008.
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Bill Dobbins
Melissa Coates
Melissa is a Canadian bodybuilder who, when I met her in the mid-1990s, was almost the perfect aesthetic package. Her face reminded me of studio photos of 1930’s Hollywood movie stars. Her physique was balanced and symmetrical. She won the Jan Tana Classic in 1996.
Melissa showed up in Columbus one year way over-dieted, a very difficult achievement in pro bodybuilding. I’d seen Melissa in the gym earlier that week and I’d been afraid that would happen. If she had come off the diet a few days earlier, she probably would have won. However, the best she was able to do at the Ms. International was 6th.
If she had chosen to continue, Melissa might have well won more pro titles. But around 2000 she retired from bodybuilding competition to become a pro wrestler, a profession she is still involved with today.
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Bill Dobbins
Sharon Bruneau
Sharon Bruneau is a Canadian-Indian and a former fashion model. With long, lean model lines, it was difficult for Sharon to build the full, shapely mass of a Lenda Murray or Alina Popa. But fans found her physique to be extremely attractive and she was among the most popular of female bodybuilders — and she was often featured in magazines and on magazine covers.
Sharon herself was highly ambivalent about building a lot of muscle, a point of view she now rejects. In 1995 she was persuaded to enter the Fitness Olympia, but Sharon had neither the right kind of physique for fitness nor the performance skills. So she retired from competition, though she now says she quit too soon and should have stayed in the industry longer, regardless of competition, and taken advantage of her huge and passionate fan base.
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Bill Dobbins
Brigita Brezovac
Brigita is from Slovenia, a country so small, she explains, that their air force has no jets. A jet taking off would necessarily have to pass outside the country’s air space. At age 14, she had a boyfriend with a small gym at home. Inspired by Cory Everson and Anja Langer she decided to become a bodybuilder.
In 2010, the year of her pro debut, she won the IFBB bodybuilding Tampa Pro and Europa Battle of Champions. She qualified for her first Ms. Olympia that year, and placed tenth in it. In 2011, she won the Toronto Pro Super Show, came in third at the Tampa Pro, and attended her second Ms. Olympia, where she placed third. In 2012 and 2013, she placed within the top six at every Ms. International and Ms. Olympia competition she attended.
Brigita became an instant winner as a pro in large part because she had mastered the difficult are of dieting into superb competition shape. She was super ripped right from the beginning. But once women were excluded from the Arnold Weekend and the Olympia, Brigita retired in 2013. Now that Wings of Strength is here, perhaps she will return.
