FigureRX Contest Preview: 2008 Arnold Amateur Fitness
FigureRX Online Magazine Volume 3
February 8, 2008
Official 2008 Arnold Amateur Fitness Preview
The first thing that we noticed when preparing our preview coverage for the Arnold Amateur Fitness competition is the large number of talented Canadian athletes. There are only four, but as a percentage of the participation that's pretty high. We decided to select
Meghan McCurdy from Alberta as our spotlight athlete, and we also have to acknowledge fitness ambassadors from Canada and everything that they are doing for the sport, including
Mindi O'Brien,
Sandra Wickham,
Stephanie Worsfold, and
Myriam Capes. Fitness is strong north of the border and athletes are definitely taking advantage of opportunities to compete outside of the country, both the amateurs here and the professionals at Worlds.
Our FigureRX Spotlight Athlete Meghan McCurdy has decided not to compete in this event. We look forward to seeing and featuring her at Canadian Fitness Nationals. We will include a spotlight athlete for this event in our contest report.
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Short Class Preview
Participation at this show is heavily concentrated in the short class, which is actually unusual. At the major national fitness shows last year, the distribution was pretty even. But we're thinking of this show more as a chance to see some great athletes with terrific routines for the first time. Some of them we would actually consider to be famous, in that we have known of them for many years. This seems to have become a popular show for entry into the NPC from other federations, and that's a great thing. We're pleased to have all of these athletes aboard, especially our friends from Canada who are some of the best at the amateur level in North America. At
FigureRX we have not seen very many of these athletes perform their routines before so we are definitely not making a statement as to how the placings may go!!
We know that we really like
Sylvia Tremblay for multiple reasons! Not only is she Quebecois, and beautiful, but she's also one of the best posing suit makers in the country having developed a very strong reputation and following in that area. Sylvia has been competing for almost a decade, with numerous first place finishes in Fitness Canada and Fitness America. We think she has a classic pro-type physique and not only are we excited to see her test herself here but we'd be thrilled to see her competing in the CBBF later in the year. Sylvia did not start practicing gymnastics for a routine until she was 31 years old and, remarkably, her contest weight (116 lbs) and her off-season weight are only four pounds apart.
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NPC Fitness Arnold Syvia Tremblay Sherbrooke Quebec Canada
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NPC Fitness Arnold Valerie Brown-Stephens Jefferson Georgia
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NPC Fitness Arnold Allison Ethier Sherbrooke Quebec Canada
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NPC Fitness Arnold Lishia Dean Greensboro North Carolina
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NPC Fitness Arnold Megan Tennant Phoenix Arizona
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NPC Fitness Arnold Loana Muttoni Brazil Sonia Wagner St. Sanit Louis Missouri Tammy Moore McKinney Texas Vanessa Wick Medina Ohio
Medium Class Preview
The
Medium Class has four competitors, and we're particularly looking forward to seeing Quebecois athlete
Chantal Dicaire. Chantal placed second in the tall class at Canadian Fitness Nationals last year, but she won the award for having the best routine. She is a former competitive gymnast who has been on stage doing fitness since 1999 when she won a national qualifier in Quebec. Among her long competitive history is an overall fitness title at the FAME Halloween Mayhem in Hamilton, Ontario in 2005 (we just thought that was a cool name for a show).
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NPC Fitness Arnold Chantal Dicaire Gatineau Quebec Canada
Never-say-die Gladiator contestant
Venus Ramos will be competing at the Amateur after deciding to sit out the Ironman, in a string of many stage appearances this year. We actually happened to see one of her medical commercials during the wee hours last night!
Betsy Harris is a beautiful blonde personal trainer in downtown Chicago (sounds a lot like Beth!!) who competed at Nationals in November and works with
Jenn Hendershott and
Lishia Dean at the Phat Camp Unit. You can see her routine from Nationals by going
here. North Carolinian
Meredith Miller is a bit of a mystery to us, but we hear that she has a strong background as a professional cyclist.
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NPC Fitness Arnold Betsy Harris Chicago Illinois Venus Ramos Huntington Beach California
Tall Class Preview
The only athlete listed in the
Tall Class (last minute additions are possible) was
Sheri McCall-Vucick from Pennsylvania, but she will not be competing. Since it looks like her next show will be Fitness Universe in June, and not the NPC/IFBB, we thought we'd still share a little bit about her .... Sheri has an extensive background in fitness modeling and competing in fitness competitions when they used to have them on ESPN. In fact, she won the entire Fitness Universe Pageant in 2003. Sheri's combination of beauty, physique, and routine is strong and we hope she will eventually test herself in the NPC. At the Arnold you can meet her working the booth for Axis Labs.
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NPC Fitness Arnold Sheri McCall-Vucick Bridgeville Pennsylvania
