COUNTDOWN TO TAMPA: TINA CHANDLER
The competitive season is well underway now and one of the major events on the women's calendar - The Tampa Pro - is fast approaching. So, with that in mind I thought it was time to catch up with one of the front runners, Tina Chandler, and find out a little bit more about this relative newcomer and her meteoric rise to pro status...
It's mid-1983 in Kansas City, Missouri and a young, wide-eyed, blonde girl is applying her last applications of tan and oil. Waiting patiently amid the mist of PAM cooking spray, she watches the solemn gaze of the others backstage. She twitches her thumbs, taps her feet, nervously awaiting the expeditors call. "5 minutes! You all have 5 minutes"! The resounding boom of the expeditor's voice echoed throughout the hall, decimating the wave of silence. Reaching beside her, she grabs a dumbbell. The hard uncomfortable knurling wakes up her hands. She curls, raises and presses; contracting the granite-hard musculature of her shoulders and arms. Squeezing every rep, every second, her thick rope-like veins push through her almost non-existent layer of skin.
Before you read this article, take a look at the pictures...What does the guy in the picture have in common with the woman?
The answer....they are the SAME person! Yes, Christina Foxx used to be a typical all-American bodybuilding guy with a successful business, a marriage and a couple of kids. Then one day he made a decision that would change his life forever.....
But where did it all start and when did Christina finally come to terms with who she really was inside?
“My father was a bodybuilder in the early 50’s. In those days they had no real facilities and had to work out with weights they made themselves from empty cans and cement.” Nora Girones
Now, although Nora knew nothing about her father’s background in bodybuilding until she actually began to compete herself, you have to wonder whether the ‘bodybuilding gene’ was dormant in her system just awaiting an encounter with a gym to be activated. I mean as Nora herself points out it was a definite case of ‘love at first sight’ when she walked through the gym door. From that point onwards there was no holding her back and having made the switch from figure to bodybuilding a few years ago she appears to be making quite a name for herself on the scene.
Some of you out there reading this who are old enough to remember will recall the classic song recorded best by Elvis Presley, ‘If I can Dream’ (those of you unfamiliar with it would do well to check out his rendition on the 60’s NBC TV special). That song contains the potent message that if you can dream then maybe, just maybe, those dreams can come true.
For newly instated Pro, Gina Quinn, life has currently taken on a somewhat surreal quality. From regular wife and mother to one of bodybuilding’s elite athletes. She is certainly proof of the concept that if you really put your mind to something and make it your goal to achieve it…stuff happens!
Or to put it more eloquently…dreams do come true!
However way back in those early days when weight training was still a somewhat unusual diversion from her daily schedule, Gina was not always sold on the new body that was beginning to come out of its shell, but I will let Gina fill you in on the details beginning with just how she got involved in
the sport in the first place….
"Life is full of fun fulfilled adventurous avenues some of us tend to locate our niche others take a lifetime wondering when will it happen all to find out later that it doesn't.. We need to keep life as simple as repeating our own name... That's the game I play.... I'm a smooth sailing symbol of pride, dignity and mobility a definite leader with a desire to be the center of attention. I'm very proud of who I am graceful, creative dramatic, determined, extremely generous, enthusiastic and forever direct on all levels..." --Iris Kyle, 6x Ms Olympia
When you run your eyes over her contest history there can be no doubt that Bonnie Pappas has had a pretty impressive track record so far and with her recent 4th placing in the Heavyweights and 2nd placing in the 35+ Masters at the North American Championships it is certain that even greater things lie ahead. However, at this point in time not a lot has been written about this rising star. Well I am about to change that as once again RX Muscle gets up close and personal with your favorite athletes from the bodybuilding world....
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