Women's Bodybuilding Is Back In The Tampa Pro

 

It was announced that women's bodybuilding was being omitted from the Tampa pro. Fans were vexed and disappointed. Through the efforts of Jake Wood and Alina Popa it was added back to the contest. The IFBB appears to want to sabotage the division's growth. The Tampa pro takes place between July 31 to August 2. Athletes can now look forward to competing. This could have caused complications for some who do meticulous preparation. Travel, hotel accommodations, and other expenses are taken into consideration for athletes. Athletes  who changed there plans when cancellation was announced are in a more frustrating position. There still remains time to change plans. The Tampa pro is three months away. The unprofessional conduct directed at athletes should not be tolerated. Removing women's bodybuilding should not have happened to begin with. Women's bodybuilding has an improved status with the return of the Ms. Olympia. Other cases it seems more precarious. Alina Popa no longer competes, but has made a name for herself as a promoter. Popa should be thanked by all women competing in the Tampa pro. More promoters should make it possible that the women's open class bodybuilding class remains active.     

Dana Shemesh Is Coming Out Of Retirement

 

Dana Shemesh is coming out of retirement. The most notable Israeli bodybuilder will step on stage again, which she confirmed on her Twitter page. Dana will be heading to Romania to compete in the Olympia Masters. The contest will be held August 26th. Dana announced that she was retired from competition in 2020. Two years she was away, but did not stop training. Dana Shemesh will be the first Israeli woman to compete in the Olympia Masters. The reason she returned was due to her love of the sport. Dana has been active in bodybuilding and fitness since 2010. To her this is an pure enjoyment. Maybe the retirement in 2020 was not an actual one. It was more of a brief hiatus. Competitors going into retirement and then reappearing is not a rare occurrence. Lenda Murray returned to competition in 2002 and won another Ms. Olympia in 2003. Another incentive to return is the prize money. Winners can get up to $229,000. Dana Shemesh did not say that was a major motivator to return. The possibility of getting that reward could be athletes that push to get back on stage. So far, Dana Shemesh has not revealed much about her strategy for competition. Seeing as her experience is vast getting back on stage should be easy. Dana Shemesh has competed in fitness, physique, and bodybuilding. She never really retired in a sense, rather took a two year break.   

World Athletics Bans Transwomen From Competition

 

World Athletics has officially banned transwomen from competition. No category is provided for them and transwomen would not be allowed to compete in the men's category. Another ban has been issued to women with differences in sexual development. Women with SDS are not transwomen, so it is puzzling why they were included in the new policy. The argument is that both transwomen and women with SDS have an unfair athletic advantage. There are few transwomen active in sports and there is not enough data on their performance to say it is impossible for cisgender women to compete with them. Sexual reassignment surgery and hormone replacement does reduce testosterone levels. World Athletics intends to within a year address the issue of transwomen's inclusion. Sebastian Coe President of World Athletics admitted that there are no transwomen currently active in elite international competition. The assertion of protection of female athletes is dubious. Scientific data has shown that transwomen do not remain the same athletic performance, prior to transition. The question remains whether or not all physical advantages can be reduced. If bans can be applied to one group and can be done to others. Russia and Belarus are being excluded based on politics. Policing this new policy could revive sex testing. The argument of ensuring fairness is covering obvious discrimination. World Athletics could have avoided human rights violations and criticism by creating an open category. The formation of an open category would allow transwomen to compete and prevent discrimination against  LGBTQ athletes. The controversy will not go away with a ban. More protests and objections will be directed at World Athletics due to this decision.