Page 164 - Muscle & Fitness (December 2019)

FLEX_WINGS OF STRENGTH

WHEN THE MS. OLYMPIA
From the was discontinued after the 2014
Olympia, it was the end of an era
for women’s bodybuilding, and
Ashes a painful reminder that women
were seen as second-rate in the
sport. For many female compet-
itors, their options were slim—
Women’s open bodybuilding makes a comeback change their training to become
at Olympia 2020 thanks to Wings of Strength. a women’s physique competitor
or accept that they no longer had

a home at the biggest bodybuild-
ing event in the world.
It hit especially hard for eight-
time Ms. Olympia winner Lenda
Murray. “I really felt for the wom-
en who were currently compet-
ing,” she says. “I wondered, ‘How
would I feel if I were the current
champion or up-and-coming and
now there’s suddenly no space
for women’s bodybuilding?’ That
would be really challenging.”

RISING PHOENIX
But one person believed that
women still deserved a place
on the main stage, and he was
determined to bring the women’s
open category back to the
Olympia. Wings of Strength
co-founder Jake Wood discov-
ered his love for bodybuilding
after a chance encounter with
Stacey Bentley at the gym when

he was 16. “It was a paradigm
shift for me,” he says. “I didn’t re-
alize that women could do that,
and I thought it was beautiful.”
As an adult, Wood linked up
with renowned bodybuilding
promoter and judge Tim Gardner
to create several pro shows, but
he saw that female bodybuild-
ers weren’t getting the same
level of support as their male
counterparts. “It was a travesty
that women’s bodybuilding was
falling apart,” Wood says.
In an effort to right this wrong,
he created Wings of Strength, a
bodybuilding promotion geared
toward women that hosts the R O B E RT R E I F F
biggest female bodybuilding

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