2020 Olympia Womens Physique Contest Report

by Ramandeep Kaur Monday, December 21, 2020

Olympia Contest Coverage Sponsored by BODYPRO Gym

Women’s Physique is a division that has such a beautiful balance of muscularity, grace, and elegance. The ideal physique is one that is more muscular than a Figure competitor, but not as developed as Women’s Bodybuilding. Judges are looking for broad shoulders, wide lats that taper down into a slim waist, on down to nicely developed legs.

For the past two years, Shanique Grant has been the absolute embodiment of the Women’s Physique division. She has brought the ideal x-factor type physique, with just the right muscularity, excellent conditioning, and a beautiful overall presentation. In what would be just one of numerous surprise results, ended up seeing Shanique finish as the runner-up this year. While she brought the same amazing shape and development as she has in year’s past, it was her conditioning that appeared to be just slightly off. Had Grant come in at the same level of conditioning that we expected, we’d likely have seen her hold on to the championship title.

We knew that Sarah Villegas was gunning hard for the top spot this year. After making huge improvements from her 10^th place finish in 2018, to a runner-up title at last year’s Olympia, we knew she would be giving Shanique a run for her money this weekend. Villegas did not disappoint, bringing in a perfect level of conditioning, along with great muscularity and overall physique. Once we saw these top two ladies compared side by side, there was little doubt that we would be seeing a changing of the guard. In only her 3^rd year as an IFBB Pro, the crowd roared when they heard the glorious announcement from Bob Cicherillo, that Sarah Villegas was the new Women’s Physique Olympia Champion.

A young and rising star that we have been keeping our eyes on for the past few years, is Natalia Abraham Coelho. The 24-year-old Coelho is a 5x Olympian, plus a 2x Women's Physique International (Arnold Classic) Champion. After 2 appearances on the Olympia stage in Figure, we really saw Natalia shine when she made the switch to Women’s Physique in 2018. After winning her second Arnold Classic earlier this year, we knew Natalia would be right in the mix for the top spot at this year’s Olympia. Coelho seems to be getting better every time she steps on stage. There is no doubt we will continue to see her shine in this industry for a long time to come.

Barbara Menage shook things up this year, bringing an outstanding physique, plus a posing routine that was breathtaking. Our original thoughts did not predict we’d see Menage finish in the top 5, but she ended up walking away with an amazing 4^th place finish, above a few others that were expected to be up there. We remember watching Barbara take home 3^rd place at the 2017 Toronto Pro SuperShow, with a very impressive physique. Since then, we can see that Menage has been putting in some serious work, bringing incredible improvements to this weekend’s Olympia stage.

We expected to see Daniely (Dany) Castilho finish within the top 4, but she ended up finishing in 6^th place. This made room for Ivie Rhein to fight her way into a top 5 finish. After finishing in 15^th place last year, in her Olympia debut, Ivie has moved on to have an outstanding 2020 competition season. Rhein finished 2^nd place at the 2020 Omaha Pro, then went on to win the title at the 2020 Tampa Pro. She continued to ride that wave of success, to skyrocket into 5^th place in this year’s Olympia.

We were looking for Canadian Tanya Chartrand to have a great showing on stage this weekend. After earning her Olympia qualification by winning the 2020 Optimum Classic Pro, Tanya brought her best physique to date. While we hoped to see Tanya finishing top 10 this year, she unfortunately finished in the third callout.

Fellow Canadian Victoria Myslik was making her Olympia debut. Victoria had an impressive IFBB Pro debut season, placing 3rd at the 2019 Pittsburgh Pro Masters, then winning the 2019 Ben Weider Natural Pro Show. Myslik ended up in 16^th place at the 2020 Olympia, but we look to see her continue to grow and improve in the years ahead.