Alina Popa

[Iron Maiden]

[Old Surehand]

[h666666]

I love Alina. She's a fantastic bodybuilder, one of the best in the world. She was known for her incredible biceps, delts, pecs, and forearms, and at her peak, she had glutes like nobody else. She was ripped and symmetrical, and didn't really have any glaring weakness. Combine that with an incredibly sweet personality and a gorgeous face – no wonder everyone loves Alina, and she deservedly hovered around the pinnacles of the sport. I wish women's bodybuilding didn't go through this near-death experience a few years ago, with the cancellation of the Ms. Olympia, and Wings of Strength having to step in to pretty much single-handedly save the sport from extinction. Women's bodybuilding became sexist and political in the process, no longer rewarding the best bodybuilder, but rather advocating some dubious mass appeal, and hand-picking favorites who ostensibly walk some fine line of being muscular but not offensively so, whatever that means. This is unfortunate since mass appeal is a lost cause: women with one third of the muscle mass of a pro bodybuilder already have zero shot at it, and this offensive, confusing demand that women bodybuilders should be "muscular but not too muscular" has already failed to accomplish anything over the past few decades, apart from an impossible mixed message that literally penalizes athletes for being too good at their sport.

It has been clear for a few years that Wings of Strength saw Alina as their perfect champion. They handed out a special invite to her while barring Iris Kyle, the most successful bodybuilder of all time (male or female), from competing at the Rising Phoenix – something she very clearly would have been entitled to, based on the rules and regulations in effect. Wings of Strength have started to penalize muscle mass and definition, almost forcing Aleesha Young to quit, and just now, outrageously robbing both Margie V. Martin and Helle Nielsen of the top placements they would have deserved by any bodybuilding standard, not to mention the ridiculously low placings awarded to greats such as Jay Fuchs and Virginia Sanchez, the latter clearly showing up in the best shape of her life.

Alina was not the best bodybuilder on that stage. She was also, by far, not the best bodybuilder she has been in her career. She was handed a huge gift, which she had to accept beforehand, by agreeing to play by the new rules, and radically changing her looks, and willingly diminishing her own performance as a bodybuilder.

I can't blame Alina for going along with this. I'm happy for her, and I do not for a second want to take away anything from her. On the other hand, I find it very sad and unfortunate that she was pushed to the top without actually earning it. Ironically, she could have reached the top herself based on her own talent and dedication – it was just not meant to me.

And I'm incredibly mad at Wings of Strength: they now own female bodybuilding at the IFBB, and they are pushing an agenda I find extremely harmful and demeaning.

All of this is incredibly unfair to all their athletes, including Alina herself, but much more so for the likes of those that I already mentioned. It''s also bad for the fans since what we love is female muscle at its best, and if it does not get rewarded, it will disappear. Alina is a mere shadow of herself now, and if the other greats want to have a shot at winning, they will also have to follow suit, and scale down.

I think it's time to start a new federation for women bodybuilders, one that does not actually hate bodybuilding or female muscle, but embraces it. We already have bikini, fitness, and physique, for the fans of athletes who don't want to get too muscular. Bodybuilding means nothing is too muscular. Trying to scale it down, hoping for some elusive mass acceptance, is not going to work; all it will accomplish is to alienate the fans.

I want to see Alina win a top bodybuilding contest for being the best bodybuilder on stage. We didn't see it this year, and with these people and attitudes in place, we won't be seeing it any time soon. This bullshit needs to stop.

[crabdone]

IMO this assessment is slightly exaggerated and inaccurate in spots. First off WoS pushes big. They sponsor fbb just because of that!  They sponsor some of the biggest ladies to compete. The huge Nataliya Kuzetsova is competing in Romania because of WoS sponsorship.  They include a most muscular prize in the rising Phoenix. Hell they sponsor all the prizes.
Getting to Alina.  She had not downsized except for her calves which was due to an injury.  She’s just not quite as chiseled as say when she got second at the Olympia.  Helle and Margie were off. Much more noticeably than Alina by far Alina has some of the best stage presence as well as Sheila has.  Powerful regal and graceful on stage.  Thirdly, I don’t think WoS has anything at all to do with the judging.  You can say it all too want but they don’t.  That’s my two cents.

[shank]

The whole business is like figure skating.  The judges decide it's somebody's turn, and all they have to is not fall down and break something and they're world champion.   Gymnastics, diving, amateur boxing, every judgement sport works that way to some extent.   That's why the contest results have never meant anything to me.   Alina looked good, that's is what it is. 

Among the top three and sometimes the top 10, there is often nothing you can point to specifically that you can say made this one better than the other.   Ask the judges why they ruled the way they did, it's always some nebulous bullshit answer about having some special magical quality that they really couldn't quite put their finger on but it was evident that X was the best, Y was the second best and so on. 

They need to drop the contest pretense altogether and just have a show.  If you still feel you need to have a winner, have a battle of the bands style  cheer-o-meter.   It will be every bit as legit a result as having a handful of full of shit and themselves judges in front of the stage.       

[h666666]

Well, they keep telling the women to downsize; they pushed Iris out; and Nataliya is concerned about how they will place her, she told me in chats that she will probably be too big for them – I wonder where she gets that idea from…

Margie and Helle were both sharper than Alina. And Alina is way smaller than before, you are in denial if you can't see that:

[taoschild]

h6666 - I believe you have a fair interpretation of the results.  She wasn't best on the stage that night - still, that said, she has consistently underplaced in the past and perhaps she deserved the chance to finally take the top rung in view of that.

[steroidfreak]

I hope she comes back

[TinMuscle]

Well, they keep telling the women to downsize; they pushed Iris out; and Nataliya is concerned about how they will place her, she told me in chats that she will probably be too big for them – I wonder where she gets that idea from…

Margie and Helle were both sharper than Alina. And Alina is way smaller than before, you are in denial if you can't see that:

I've never once seen WOS ask women to downsize.  Where does this come from?  They keep sponsoring the big girls.  In fact WOS gave Aleesha a special invite to the Rising Phoenix after she was given a poor placing in Omaha. Then WOS gave her the most muscular award.  Margie and Helle were not sharper than Alina, they both knew they were soft. Helle even said she was trying something different this time. Also Iris was qualified for the 2015 Rising Phoenix and chose not to compete.  Then when she saw Margie get the 50K in 2015 she asked to come to the 2016 Rising Phoenix and was given a special invite.

[TinMuscle]

True, Alina was a little bit lighter by I think 3 pounds?  She knew she was going in front of head judge Sandy Williamson this time in 2018.  Sandy likes to see tighter packages.  In the 2014 pic she was going in front of head judge Steve Weinberger. Steve like to see bigger and is less concerned about shape.  Your photos only show that Alina is a smart woman who knows what judges she needs to please. 

[TinMuscle]

IMO this assessment is slightly exaggerated and inaccurate in spots. First off WoS pushes big. They sponsor fbb just because of that!  They sponsor some of the biggest ladies to compete. The huge Nataliya Kuzetsova is competing in Romania because of WoS sponsorship.  They include a most muscular prize in the rising Phoenix. Hell they sponsor all the prizes.
Getting to Alina.  She had not downsized except for her calves which was due to an injury.  She’s just not quite as chiseled as say when she got second at the Olympia.  Helle and Margie were off. Much more noticeably than Alina by far Alina has some of the best stage presence as well as Sheila has.  Powerful regal and graceful on stage.  Thirdly, I don’t think WoS has anything at all to do with the judging.  You can say it all too want but they don’t.  That’s my two cents.

You have a very valuable two cents.  Helle and Margie were definitely off as was Sheila.  Alina ruled the stage and won by 6 points in the end. 

[h666666]

Well, they keep telling the women to downsize; they pushed Iris out; and Nataliya is concerned about how they will place her, she told me in chats that she will probably be too big for them – I wonder where she gets that idea from…

Margie and Helle were both sharper than Alina. And Alina is way smaller than before, you are in denial if you can't see that:

I've never once seen WOS ask women to downsize.  Where does this come from?  They keep sponsoring the big girls.  In fact WOS gave Aleesha a special invite to the Rising Phoenix after she was given a poor placing in Omaha.

I'll find the quotes and links for you… But meanwhile, why was Aleesha overlooked in the first place?

Then WOS gave her the most muscular award.

It's more like a consolation prize at this point.

Margie and Helle were not sharper than Alina, they both knew they were soft.

I just checked the comparison shots once again. From the front, Margie looked sharper and bigger. From the back, she was just bigger, and equally sharp; both athletes were a bit off (which, by the way, is the new "sharp" apparently).

Also Iris was qualified for the 2015 Rising Phoenix and chose not to compete.  Then when she saw Margie get the 50K in 2015 she asked to come to the 2016 Rising Phoenix and was given a special invite.

Yeah, that's not what happened. As a MsO winner, Iris can enter any IFBB show whenever she wants to. However, WoS kept coming up with weird conditions, and the IFBB had to actually intervene and tell the promoters what they needed to do. Yet still more weird conditions and general disrespect followed, so at that point, Iris decided not to take any crap from them any more, and refused to jump through any more hoops.

It's clear that WoS have always wanted Alina to be their champion. They were already giving her a special invite in the past – I guess it was even the same year Iris was having her troubles, so there are some easy comparisons to make right there.

Iris doesn't need a special invite.

[necro2080]

Guys, WOS can't just say who wins. Yes, they are the ones putting the money, but it still is an IFBB/NPC sanctioned contest, wich means NPC judges and NPC judging criteria. So if you consider that, and look at the judging policy of the NPC you will see the pattern, that's all.
If we keep bitching about results and not support these ladies and the contests we won't be having them anymore, and then everybody will be crying about how they killed the sport.
Let's just please enjoy what we have.

[shibbo]

[Old Surehand]