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FEMALE
BODYBUILDING
Claudia Wilbourn: featuring 2006 Joe Weider's
bodybuilding Hall of Fame inductee
GROUND BREAKER
Born in the early 1950s, Claudia Wilbourn became a women's
bodybuilding pioneer as the fledgling sport started coming into its
own in the late '70s. Indeed, among those who competed in or were
fans of male physique competitions at that time, she was known as
the female bodybuilder--an anomaly, a rarely-before-seen entity--as
she entered into an activity formerly dominated by men.
STUDYING HARD
Enjoying what some have called "the hollow security of college," she
hunkered down in classes for seven years, studying art. (She
specialized in sculpture using steel and fiber.) After graduating,
Wilbourn took an extended trip to Europe, returned to California and
joined a gym, where she trained six days per week. Perhaps sick of
class after all those years of college, at one point she swore off
group exercise sessions because she felt working out was a very
private, almost meditative, endeavor in search of the self.
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INAUGURATION DAYS
Wilbourn has a place as a plebe in the early stages of modern
bodybuilding--only a handful of ladies were a part of the core crew
who began and remained during the gestation and delivery of the
infant sport. Her competitive appearances all happened in one of
three cities, half of those in Los Angeles. Five of the six contests
she entered were inaugural events.
THE TRANSFORMER
Weighing 110 pounds, Wilbourn began heavy training in 1971--several
years before the advent of modern female bodybuilding competitions.
Female bodybuilding was not even part of the iron sport's
terminology when she started pumping iron, or "playing around with
weights," as she phrased it. But Wilbourn would later report, "Yet
bodybuilding has changed everything. It has been much more than a
sport to me. A metamorphosis has literally taken place, both
physically and mentally."
GETTING IT OFF HER CHEST
While weighing only 120, Wilbourn could bench around 185, or more
than one-and-a-half times her bodyweight.
FIRST RATE
The inaugural Women's World Championships, at the Embassy Auditorium
in Los Angeles, were held June 16, 1979, in conjunction with the AAU
Jr. Mr. America. This was the debut contest for the women who placed
first through fourth, a group that included two Hall of Famers in
addition to Wilbourn: winner Lisa Lyon [FLEX Hall of Fame, July
2000] and fourth-place finisher Stacey Bentley [FLEX Hall of Fame,
August 2005]. They all appeared as ambassadors for bodybuilding at,
appropriately, the Embassy in Los Angeles. Wilbourn, who came in
second, was quoted in Al Thomas and Steve Wennerstrom's book The
Female Physique Athlete: A History to Date 1977-1983 about the
event: "I placed second and thoroughly enjoyed myself," she said.
"It was such a thrill to pose to a cheering crowd, to have my
efforts appreciated."
NOT MRS. ROBINSON
Wilbourn's second contest foray was the inaugural Robby Robinson
Classic at the Embassy Auditorium on August 25, 1979. Bentley swept
the Best Legs and Best Poser awards on her way to top honors, while
Wilbourn was reportedly reduced to tears after not making the top
five (she took sixth).
THE LYON'S SHARE
On April 8, 1980, Lyon's United States Women's Bodybuilding
Championships were held in Atlantic City, New Jersey, in connection
with the inaugural World Invitational Couples Bodybuilding
Championships at Boardwalk Regency Hotel & Casino. Thirty women took
to the stage to battle for the crown, as 29-year-old Wilbourn took
third and future Ms. Olympia Rachel McLish, in her first contest,
emerged Victorious.
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