Pre-judging for the Ms. Olympia competition took place on the morning of Dec. 18, 2020, in Orlando, FL. Of the 16 bodybuilders competing in the contest, two of them are previous winners of the Ms. Olympia contest — 2005 Ms. Olympia champion Yaxeni Oriquen-Garcia and reigning 10-time Ms. Olympia champion Iris Kyle (2004, 2006-2014).
Kyle’s return to the Olympia made headlines back in July 2020 when it was announced following the announcement that the Ms. Olympia contest would return in 2020 — there was no Ms. Olympia from 2015-2019. Kyle is the only bodybuilder to win ten titles in any division at the Olympia.
However, Kyle was absent from the pre-judging. Rumors were floating around that Kyle was out due to being sick or for other personal reasons. However, President & Chief Olympia Officer Dan Solomon later confirmed to BarBend that Kyle had to withdraw from the Ms. Olympia contest due to illness (the specific details of the type of illness were not disclosed).
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Who Will Take The Crown?
With Kyle’s withdrawal from the contest, it is a guarantee that for the first time since 2005, someone other than Kyle will be crowned the Ms. Olympia champion. If the winner is anyone other than Oriquen-Garcia, they will be the 12th ever bodybuilder to claim the title in the competition’s history.
Here are the competitors still vying for that title:
- Irene Andersen — Sweden
- MayLa Ash — USA
- Reshanna Boswell — USA
- Kim Buck — USA
- Nicki Chartrand — Canada
- Asha Hadley — USA
- Theresa Ivancik — USA
- Monique Jones — USA
- Janeen Lankowski — USA
- Margie Martin — USA
- LaDawn McDay — USA
- Yaxeni Oriquen — Venezuela
- Andrea Shaw — USA
- Helle Trevino — USA
- Margita Zamolova — Czech Republic
In the morning’s pre-judging, Helle Trevino, Andrea Shaw, Margie Martin, and MayLa Ash were in the final callout group, which is usually the group that the judges view as the most competitive. You can check out BarBend’s full callout report for more information.
[Related: How is Bodybuilding Judged, Different Divisions, And Scoring]
We will update this article with any further details and specifics about Kyle’s condition as soon as they become available.
Feature image from Iris Kyle’s Instagram page: @iriskyle