The Washington Post shed’s a light on these sporting contest…..
Officials of bodybuilding’s two premier federations have been sexually exploiting female athletes for decades — pressuring them to pose for nude photographs, posting those photos to soft-core pornography sites, and, at times, manipulating contest results in favor of cooperative competitors, a Washington Post investigation has found.
For more than 15 years, J.M. Manion, whose father, Jim, has been running amateur and professional bodybuilding contests for decades, shot the photos and operated a network of paid soft-core pornography websites that at one point advertised “over 30,000 images” of competitors in the sport. A Post review of website archives identified more than 200 female athletes in photos ranging from casual bikini shots to graphic, sexual images, including those of nude women together in beds, bathtubs and showers. One of J.M.’s sites, Fitness Divas, bluntly stated: “Your Favorite Fitness Athletes …Naked!”…
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“I never consented to having my pictures put on a soft-porn site,” Gates said during an interview at her home in Indianapolis. Less than three years after winning the Olympia, Gates gave up the sport in disgust — and warns young women to stay away from the contests.
Interviews with dozens of competitors, judges, officials and others connected to the sport reveal the systematic exploitation of female athletes often rendered vulnerable by extreme dieting and workouts, lack of financial stability and a drive to win. The Post found that some women believed their scores depended on their willingness to pose for sexual photos or to please the sport’s leading judges, promoters and managers, almost all of whom are male…
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Bodybuilding is both a sport and an art form. Athletes sculpt their bodies through weight training and diet to compete in contests where they are judged on their muscular development after performing poses onstage. The sport has multiple categories based on weight classes and the degree of musculature, ranging from the most muscled (bodybuilding) to the lesser-built categories of figure and bikini. The latter two are for female athletes only.
Prize money is awarded to the top five winners in the pro contests. At the top of the game is the Olympia, with Mr. Olympia claiming a reported $675,000 last year, and Ms. Olympia just $60,000. Most of the hundreds of contests each year pay far less….
image…Three years after winning a prestigious Olympia title, bodybuilder Jenn Gates gave up the sport in disgust. (Marvin Joseph/The Washington Post)