2014 Olympia

[kevin1]

You know what the funny thing is?  Even other female bodybuilders do not root for Iris Kyle!  Perhaps it's jealousy, or perhaps they have more inside information than us fbb fans have.  It seems the consensus is that Iris has done very little to help contribute to the sport of female bodybuilding; rather it was all about Iris.  Yes, Iris always come in great shape.  But to me, Alina has it all:  great shape, symmetry, warm personality, gorgeous looks, and many female bodybuilders admire her.  She's the kind of girl to really inspire other women to take up bodybuilding.  I'm still trying to find ONE female bodybuilder who's inspired by Iris Kyle...

And about her having the most awards ever of any Olympian, keep in mind awards do not tell the whole story, especially when it comes down to judges' decisions.  Take boxing for example, and how many atrocious decisions have been made due to politics.  It seems bodybuilding is not that far off. 

Anyway, the comments by other fbbs are very revealing:

Lenda Murray: Thank God. I'm sick of seeing her face. Dry personalty and she's done jack $!%÷ for the women. Tired of the iris Kyle show..nobody's buying tickets.

Kat Wildkat: Alina is not an IFBB puppet. That's why she didn't win. .. The physique speak clearly as to the true champion.

Melody Spetko: Never said any hate towards Iris... Do I think she is a poor rep?.. yes.. but that is cause she doesn't or didn't do anything EVER in her career for the sport... Not one time... She was asked a number of times to help... But NO.. Iris is about Iris... That is my beef with her... And that is the beef most the Fbb's have with her...

Oana Hreapca: that s how i saw to..big injustice....

Wendy McCready Totally agree Ifbb Pro Melody Spetko I too thought Alina had this & our sport would take a new fresh turn & be revived. Alina is someone who in my opinion represents us as the ideal figurehead we can all look up to & be proud to call her our champion. Thanks Mel for all updates x

Theresa Ivancik: Agreed Alina represents female bodybuilding!! I don't know what Iris is?!?

Anyway, Alina has to win next year!  Let the reign of Alina begin!  Until she wins too much, of course ;-P

Could you post some links to these quotes? These are inflammatory bombshells and should be substantiated. Thanks in advance.

[sanuk808]

You know what the funny thing is?  Even other female bodybuilders do not root for Iris Kyle!  Perhaps it's jealousy, or perhaps they have more inside information than us fbb fans have.  It seems the consensus is that Iris has done very little to help contribute to the sport of female bodybuilding; rather it was all about Iris.  Yes, Iris always come in great shape.  But to me, Alina has it all:  great shape, symmetry, warm personality, gorgeous looks, and many female bodybuilders admire her.  She's the kind of girl to really inspire other women to take up bodybuilding.  I'm still trying to find ONE female bodybuilder who's inspired by Iris Kyle...

And about her having the most awards ever of any Olympian, keep in mind awards do not tell the whole story, especially when it comes down to judges' decisions.  Take boxing for example, and how many atrocious decisions have been made due to politics.  It seems bodybuilding is not that far off. 

Anyway, the comments by other fbbs are very revealing:

Lenda Murray: Thank God. I'm sick of seeing her face. Dry personalty and she's done jack $!%÷ for the women. Tired of the iris Kyle show..nobody's buying tickets.

Kat Wildkat: Alina is not an IFBB puppet. That's why she didn't win. .. The physique speak clearly as to the true champion.

Melody Spetko: Never said any hate towards Iris... Do I think she is a poor rep?.. yes.. but that is cause she doesn't or didn't do anything EVER in her career for the sport... Not one time... She was asked a number of times to help... But NO.. Iris is about Iris... That is my beef with her... And that is the beef most the Fbb's have with her...

Oana Hreapca: that s how i saw to..big injustice....

Wendy McCready Totally agree Ifbb Pro Melody Spetko I too thought Alina had this & our sport would take a new fresh turn & be revived. Alina is someone who in my opinion represents us as the ideal figurehead we can all look up to & be proud to call her our champion. Thanks Mel for all updates x

Theresa Ivancik: Agreed Alina represents female bodybuilding!! I don't know what Iris is?!?

Anyway, Alina has to win next year!  Let the reign of Alina begin!  Until she wins too much, of course ;-P

Could you post some links to these quotes? These are inflammatory bombshells and should be substantiated. Thanks in advance.

It's all on the social network.  Melody's page specifically.  Melody is very active on there and very outspoken, candid, and very importantly, interactive with other female bodybuilders. 

I've continued to think about why Iris doesn't get much respect from well known female bodybuilders, and why Alina, on the opposite end, is very revered.  At first I thought maybe it was jealousy of Iris and, quite frankly, I'm sure that plays a significant part.  But considering the comments from other fbbs, and the fact they are voicing it on a medium where many other female bodybuilders can see as well, it is as if they truly, sincerely endorse, revere and, above all, RESPECT Alina Popa and choose her as THE ambassador/rep of female bodybuilding.  Even though they all compete against each other, they are all coming together to unite behind Alina as their de facto leader. 

It's as if they're saying, "I don't care if I don't win, I just want Alina to take first place."  And I'm with them.  Quite honestly, I think the retirement of Iris Kyle is one of the best things to happen in female bodybuilding in a long time.  We shall see what happens next year.  At least there will be a NEW Ms. Olympia, and there is actually SOME suspense as to who will win lol.

I've also found maybe three female bodybuilders who seem to sincerely respect Iris Kyle, and they are Vera Mikulcova, Eulalia Santos, and Sherry Smith (evidence taken from Iris Kyle's page).  Maybe Helle Nielsen too.  Rene Marven seems partial too.  But, wow, just to compare the thoughts from other fbbs between Alina and Iris is just very, very revealing.  I'm sure the fbbs respect Iris's physique (I do too, actually).  But they surely don't seem to care for her character, or what she has done to help female bodybuilding.

[sanuk808]

Found some more pro-Alina comments:

Aleesha Young: A pic is worth a million words Alina completely dominated and is so much better for the sport

Megan Jennifer Abshire: Oh that's bull shit! Wonder why Fbb is going down hill with iris up there! Blah ! I been disappointed I didn't go this year cause of this! Alina is the champ ! In everyone eyes!

Lisa Cross: I didn't even think it was close this year very disappointed. I have not seen one positive comment about this result.

Even a well known photographer chimed in:  "Alina all the way,i hate politics"  Tom Millard



Still trying to find a comment where an fbb says Iris is good for the sport.  This could take a while....


By the way, everyone NEEDS TO STOP saying this is the last Ms. Olympia.  When Debbie Bramwell asked Melody if it was the last, she replied:  "Trust me... Wings and I would know about this.... As it stands we are doing more shows in 2015.. Don't believe everything you read... This is what hurts us..the gossip..."

[fredzeppelin]

** with the smuggest, "I told you so" expression on my face ** And where are the Iris apologists now?

[fredzeppelin]

One more thing. I'm not so crazy about the fact that because people LIKE Alina Popa more they think she is deserving of first place.
"Liking" has nothing to do with a result in sport. Lance Armstrong is by all accounts a jerk in real life, and is not liked by his peers.
Does that mean we should strip him of all his Tour de France titles? Ted Williams was notorious for being rude to fans and being an
all around jerk. So should we omit him from discussions about greatest baseball players of all time?  Alina should have won this past
Ms O based on her superior physique. PERIOD. Her "warm personality", her popularity among her peers and the public, her generous
donations to charities, whatever, have nothing to do with it. 

[charliepanayi]

One more thing. I'm not so crazy about the fact that because people LIKE Alina Popa more they think she is deserving of first place.
"Liking" has nothing to do with a result in sport. Lance Armstrong is by all accounts a jerk in real life, and is not liked by his peers.
Does that mean we should strip him of all his Tour de France titles? Ted Williams was notorious for being rude to fans and being an
all around jerk. So should we omit him from discussions about greatest baseball players of all time?  Alina should have won this past
Ms O based on her superior physique. PERIOD. Her "warm personality", her popularity among her peers and the public, her generous
donations to charities, whatever, have nothing to do with it.

Last I checked, Lance Armstrong was stripped of his Tour de France titles because of his admitted drug use, nothing to do with his personality.

[fredzeppelin]

My point is you may not like "jerk star athletes" like Barry Bonds, Jeff Gordon, Ted Williams and, according to a large
segment of the fbb community, Iris Kyle, but just because they are jerks and you don't like them doesn't take away
from their athletic accomplishments.

[kevin1]

My point is you may not like "jerk star athletes" like Barry Bonds, Jeff Gordon, Ted Williams and, according to a large
segment of the fbb community, Iris Kyle, but just because they are jerks and you don't like them doesn't take away
from their athletic accomplishments.

Wow! Iris Kyle is not only an undeserving champion who but now she's a jerk. Might be time for you to get some fresh air.
 

[Sar-Net]

There is another thought on the Dynasty Theory that mite have already been mentioned but I think deserves further mention and that is the Dynasty Theory mite actually be a way to discourage competitors as with no chance to win many will just skip the contests.   

Now many of you will go, "what does the IFBB and Weider group gain by discouraging competitors?".  Think about it for a moment, with fewer contestants, their chosen competitors get more time in the lime light and therefor are better at selling product.  And think about it from another stand point, fewer competitors mean fewer people who could sell products for other companies.   Now those are I couple of Ideas I thought of, they may have entirely different stupid ideas why they do things.

[papadoc1981]

My point is you may not like "jerk star athletes" like Barry Bonds, Jeff Gordon, Ted Williams and, according to a large
segment of the fbb community, Iris Kyle, but just because they are jerks and you don't like them doesn't take away
from their athletic accomplishments.

I would have to agree with this.  Unfortunately in today's social media climate many people need to like your personality, your religious beliefs, your opinion on politics, etc.  And only then will they appreciate your accomplishments.

[the_arbitrage]

You know what the funny thing is?  Even other female bodybuilders do not root for Iris Kyle!  Perhaps it's jealousy, or perhaps they have more inside information than us fbb fans have.  It seems the consensus is that Iris has done very little to help contribute to the sport of female bodybuilding; rather it was all about Iris.  Yes, Iris always come in great shape.  But to me, Alina has it all:  great shape, symmetry, warm personality, gorgeous looks, and many female bodybuilders admire her.  She's the kind of girl to really inspire other women to take up bodybuilding.  I'm still trying to find ONE female bodybuilder who's inspired by Iris Kyle...

And about her having the most awards ever of any Olympian, keep in mind awards do not tell the whole story, especially when it comes down to judges' decisions.  Take boxing for example, and how many atrocious decisions have been made due to politics.  It seems bodybuilding is not that far off. 

Anyway, the comments by other fbbs are very revealing:

Lenda Murray: Thank God. I'm sick of seeing her face. Dry personalty and she's done jack $!%÷ for the women. Tired of the iris Kyle show..nobody's buying tickets.

Kat Wildkat: Alina is not an IFBB puppet. That's why she didn't win. .. The physique speak clearly as to the true champion.

Melody Spetko: Never said any hate towards Iris... Do I think she is a poor rep?.. yes.. but that is cause she doesn't or didn't do anything EVER in her career for the sport... Not one time... She was asked a number of times to help... But NO.. Iris is about Iris... That is my beef with her... And that is the beef most the Fbb's have with her...

Oana Hreapca: that s how i saw to..big injustice....

Wendy McCready Totally agree Ifbb Pro Melody Spetko I too thought Alina had this & our sport would take a new fresh turn & be revived. Alina is someone who in my opinion represents us as the ideal figurehead we can all look up to & be proud to call her our champion. Thanks Mel for all updates x

Theresa Ivancik: Agreed Alina represents female bodybuilding!! I don't know what Iris is?!?

Anyway, Alina has to win next year!  Let the reign of Alina begin!  Until she wins too much, of course ;-P

I'd say this^ pretty much says everything. And it's not that this is necessarily the last year for the O, it's just that having Iris in that position again only stands to accelerate the process, which in many ways is even worse. Why? Well, let's break it down..

To a large degree that position = "the ambassador" who sets and represents the standard for that given division. While Iris' conditioning is solid unfortunately she's also literally a mainstream sponsor and network repellent. The vast majority of females will simply never look at her and aspire to that level. Basically, Iris turns-off more women to running out to purchase supps or embark on the hardcore training it takes to attain that level, while with Alina that's much less the case.  Motives for keeping Iris in that position? Likely the same objective that's already been in place for over a decade...to continue dwindling down the numbers in that division. Point blank, WBB is currently structured to consume itself, and it's a double edged sword. They don't want it but they don't want anyone else having it either. If they just dropped it then it will move into the extreme niche and likely take longer to fade..whereas if they keep it then they can control it and phase it out more rapidly.

As far as just starting-up another federation that could come close to competing with the IFBB wouldn't happen overnight even under the best scenario. And again with the current structure it would still be pigeonholed into the extreme fbb niche which is  very limited. Without being able to attract large #s of females like the 1000's flowing into the other divisions WBB will continue to stagnate and decline. So that's why the mainstream market is needed, BUT at the same time WBB is prohibitively un-friendly in that market, therein lies the dilemma. 

On top of that, WBB is becoming increasingly vulnerable. With the large market media now having a growing vested interest in the other 4 new divisions WBB is becoming an even greater liability they don't want any part of. Remember how much the Bryant Gumbel piece exposed which already had a huge negative impact, and they could have a literal field day with similar attacks at this point.

Other aspects to consider: 

*The majority of current pro level fbbs left are 35+ and getting close to retirement, it's almost a "masters division" as it is now.

*The primary feeder division (ammy fbb) has already been eliminated.

*It takes a good half decade or more to attain that level of development. 

*Of those left who can are funneling into the other divisions which are becoming more and more viable.

The incentives that were once there are now gone. When the WBB division was the only game in town a greater number of women could be attracted to getting into it. Also back then it wasn't really known how things would progress or what the negative fallout would be. At this point there are too many better options with more benefits/rewards and far less sacrifice, health risks and expenses.

Bottom line is that the markets dictate everything. Under the current format/structure the IFBB really had no other choice...however, there's also no question Iris has been an accelerant over the past decade. Problem is they still don't have the formula and neither does the extreme niche...or it would have already been utilized. Does that mean it can't ever happen? Absolutely not. Things can be turned around and we've developed a formula that will work 100%. The R&D has already been done...but, like I said before it will take some other things getting established first.

[Timmon]

** with the smuggest, "I told you so" expression on my face ** And where are the Iris apologists now?

It's yesterday's news. Iris won, most people are starting to live with it, just like they live with every Ms O decision. Iris is retired, and the rest is history.
Yaxini is no longer a threat to the top athletes.
Roll on next year. More important, how are the IFBB going to encourage new blood, like Alana Shipp, to rejuvinate the line up? Apart from Alana, not a particularly interesting Ms O FBB contest this year.

By the way, anyone actually notice there was a great WPP line up? DLB was defeated! Year 2 of WPP Ms O was good.
Many congrats to  Juliana Malacarne, your new winner, up from 7th last year!

[fredzeppelin]

Juliana Malarcane is a well deserved winner of WP. Beautiful woman.

[FemFlexUSA]

The thing I have to wonder is what - exactly - did they want Iris to *do* for the sport?

We ( = the 'rest of us', including fans, other competitors, media, judges, etc) spend so much time trying to make physique athletes do what we want them to do and to become what we want. I'm a fan, photographer, and video producer and having physique models pose for my camera is how I earn my living. So, I often direct them on how to pose instead of just letting them do what they want when the camera is rolling. Sure there are plenty of women who want to flex for us fans. But more often than not, I believe we're the ones making those requests in person.

I've been a bodybuilding fan for decades and have never seen anyone - male or female - who truly carried the banner for the sport OUTSIDE of the sport and its culture. Iris is very quiet. If there's been a significant amount of self-promotion on her part, I've never seen it.  Does she even have a Facebook account?

I love Alina and she was robbed this time around. I hope she'll get her just reward a year from now as long as she's ready, but I can't hate on Iris for accepting a gift that was handed to her.  Any criticism for that decision should be heaped solely upon the judges, not the athletes.

[the_arbitrage]

Without question the heat that Iris has been getting is unwarranted, it's not her fault or any of the other athletes for that matter. In fact, there's been a lot of misplaced anger and finger pointing going on for years now with this entire situation. Who's to blame? Many are saying the judges and the IFBB which I'd say is partially true, but even they are still extremely limited by the guidelines and how things are structured. Unfortunately, Iris is also highly limited by her own standard in terms of what she can do outside the sport, and on the inside her reluctance to participate due to the sexual/stigmatized associations is also understandable. 

At the end of the day, in order to succeed and thrive outside in the mainstream arena WBB must first be structured in a way to make that feasible. The same thing applies to the hardcore niche where currently even all the photo/video sites are still geared towards the niche market exclusively. While that's great for the hardcore fans the average John and Jane Q public still aren't being attracted to it or purchasing any memberships. That's a huge demographic audience that's not being tapped into or influenced in a positive way to promote WBB growth outside that market. Not only would that turn things back around in terms of growing numbers but also how the women are viewed at that level, which then in-turn also puts the fans of WBB in a much more positive light. It's all interconnected.