2009 Miss America Pageant Showcases Muscle

Muscle babes: Miss Oregon Danijela Krstic (left) and Miss California Jackie Geist flex their pecs during the swimsuit segment.

This year's Miss American Pageant featured many contestants who demonstrated a healthier, more muscular version of the female ideal.

January 24, 2009

Jackie Geist is the Californian entrant for the brush with perfection that is the Miss America pageant.

She loves visiting Disneyland, adores Keith Urban's music and lists her favourite food as cheesecake.

But looking at the 22-year-old's toned physique - complete with impeccable six-pack - TV viewers will soon be left to wonder exactly when the last time was that she touched any.

For the business student with a talent for ballet has clearly been spending every waking moment since she decided to enter the competition working on her body - just like all her equally muscly rivals.

The Miss America pageant 2009 was one of the fiercest fought events in history, contested almost exclusively by Amazonian gym buddies with seriously sculpted figures.

The swimsuit segment of the show in the heats at the Planet Hollywood resort in Las Vegas confirmed that a new breed of female athletes are going for glory, a far cry from the very natural looking girls-next-door who have competed down the 80 years of the competition's history.

Indeed, Barbara Jo Walker, won top prize for Tennessee in 1947, was the very epitome of the average-looking American.

As well as their sports bodies, entrants are expected to have other talents and they sang, danced, performed gymnastics, played the piano and violin with varying degrees of success.

This year, viewers will be able to take part in the voting.

The public's four  favourites will be named along with 11 other finalists on Saturday.

'America's going to have a much greater impact than they've ever had before,' said Brent Zackey, vice president for production and development at TLC.

'We thought it would be great to really make the whole scheme of the reality show about America getting to know these women and letting them focus in on the women they would vote in to the finals.'

Pictured:  Miss Mississipi Chrstine Kozlowski and Miss North Carolina Amanda Lauren Watson

The change is just the latest in the continuing search for a new audience for a venerable institution.

After years of sinking ratings, ABC dropped the pageant in 2005, forcing it to uproot from the Atlantic City Boardwalk in New Jersey to the Las Vegas Strip.

The pageant also moved to cable television, where only a fraction of the revenue and viewers were waiting.

Without a network television contract, the amount of scholarship money awarded plummeted.

In 2007, the Miss America Organization distributed $445,000 in scholarships, less than half the total four years earlier, according to the nonprofit's federal tax returns.

This year's winner takes a $50,000 scholarship along with a year of travel and public appearances.

Source:  Mail Online