These pictures were taken by Tre, and here's what he says:
I met this young Amazon at a track meet in the spring of '99 - she was competing in the pole vault and also the shot put (I think). I was greatly impressed by the size of her arms and legs and really wanted to get a flexing shot of her. However, it was a big meet and I have to admit that I was a bit shy about approaching her and getting her to flex in front of everyone.
FistMan and Oriole were with me that day and they were ready to go, but couldn't get me to leave because I wanted so badly to meet this woman! Well, after about half an hour (or more), they went to the car to wait for me...and shortly thereafter, I mustered up the courage to make the approach.
I told her who I was and what I wanted and she was all-too-excited to show off those huge guns of hers for my camera (back when I still had the Golden Lens). Because there wasn't time to do an interview then, I got her contact info and followed up later.
It was through subsequent conversations that I learned she was 5-1 (or 5-2) and weighed 140-145...with 15-1/2 inch arms (which had been as big as 16) and quads in the 26-27 inch range. She had already benched 245 in the past year and her squat and deadlift numbers were off the charts when she was just 16 years old. She's also a very good grappler (BJJ) and had won a state title in that discipline as well. I cannot recall whether she ever competed in powerlifting.
Psycho that I am (or rather, used to be), I talked her into giving bodybuilding a try and she got really excited about the training. I'd get progress reports twice a week and she was right on schedule to compete late in the summer. But when it came time to go into the fourth week of dieting, there were lots of struggles and that's when I realized firsthand that there needed to be someplace for women to display *awesome* physiques without having to get ripped to shreds by nearly killing themselves with carb-depletion and dehydration just to have their hard work appreciated.
The result - she decided not to compete and we didn't speak for several months. But now that large and strong muscles are "in vogue"...
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