November 1, 2005

Another New Champion – But of What?

Over the summer, I was talking to a woman who claimed to be a "professional" figure competitor – it seems that she and some 99 other women were given "pro cards" from a contest they entered some time back. Another guy I met at another show claimed to be a recent "world champion," crowned at an event where two, or maybe three countries were represented. And yet another gentleman I saw in a local gym became a "national" champion, a distinction he received at a competition held in my city that featured just a handful of competitors, most of whom came from no further than 50 clicks away. Are these titles even credible? These days, frankly, it’s hard to decide, but if you ask me, no.

There are so many organizations and so many events popping up that even someone who is involved in the industry, like me, can’t keep up with what’s going on. For example, as I write this article, I look at the next three weekends and in my area there are six competitions being run by five different organizations. They’ll all crown champions under many title names, and these people will then all claim to be something or other when they go back to their gym. Some may get prizes, including cash, while others will just get trophies. All, though, will likely hope for some sort of glory that their newly claimed win should, but won't necessarily, include.

In order to win a title, a real title, and have people respect it, the organization providing that title must have legitimacy and credibility. Now, I’m sure that not everyone will agree on which organizations are credible and which are not, but I’m sure most people will agree on a few things.

For a title to have any status, it can’t be given to just anyone. For example, giving out a hundred or so "pro cards" in an event dilutes the value of every one of those cards. Perhaps there are some worthy competitors in there, but are there one hundred? I doubt it. So, the three, four, or five who may have really deserved pro status are brought down by the 95 or so who don’t. In Canada, the Canadian BodyBuilding Federation (CBBF) is often criticized for giving too few "pro cards" to their athletes – at their national figure championships this year they gave just one, and that was to the "overall" champion (i.e., the champion selected from among the weight-class winners). If you ask me, one is far better than one hundred, and is quite a bit more credible. That winner can actually brag that she won something.

If a competition is claimed to be national or world level, it had better have that kind of scope. Having a world-level event where there are one or two countries competing doesn’t make it global. Last year, I attended the IFBB World Men’s BodyBuilding Championships in Moscow, Russia. The IFBB claims to have over 170 member countries. While all those countries aren’t necessarily represented at each event, I’d guess that about 60 were in Russia, and in all there were about 300 competitors. That seems more like a world-level event compared to what’s basically a local-level show where the competitors come from a couple of countries, at most.

Likewise, a national-level event should include a good cross-section of a country’s athletes, not just a dozen or so competitors from my hometown and a couple more from here and there. Too many so-called "national-level" events are just like that. On the other hand, the CBBF’s Canadian BodyBuilding Championships in September and their CBBF National World Qualifier in July boasted competitors from every province, not to mention that every province also has its own organization that is recognized by the CBBF and must be responsible to ensure the competitors qualified legitimately.

And, finally, if something is claimed to be a professional event, then we had better see cash prizes. If they’re giving just trophies, well, you can get them at any ol’ local level event held in some high school gymnasium. If it’s claimed to be professional, then it had better be professional.

With this article, I don’t intend to take anything away from the accomplishment of competitors who have competed in so-called professional-, national-, or world-level shows that might be anything but. For any competitor, any competition is a rigorous process and it takes tremendous effort to participate. If he or she happens to win an event, any event, that’s something to be proud of.

The real point of this article is to bring to light a problem we’re facing in this sport with so many organizations awarding so many titles, and so many competitors receiving them and claiming to be national- or world-level champions, or perhaps professionals. It more or less diminishes the value of them all.

Finally, this isn’t meant to be a ringing endorsement of just the organizations I mentioned – they aren’t the only ones putting on credible shows. But still, while the CBBF and IFBB might not be the only ones, they can be singled-out as examples of organizations that run credible shows where the winners can truly claim to be the champions of the titles they receive. How many others can?

...Doug Schneider, Publisher
das@seriousaboutmuscle.com

Doug Schneider is the publisher and chief photographer for SeriousAboutMuscle.com, BodyBuildingLive.com, and SeriousAboutFitness.com.