Female bodybuilders describe widespread sexual exploitationBy DESMOND BUTLER, AMY BRITTAIN AND ALICE LI
Officials of bodybuilding’s two premier federations have been sexually exploiting female athletes for decades — pressuring them to pose for nude photographs, posting those photos to soft-core pornography sites, and, at times, manipulating contest results in favor of cooperative competitors, a Washington Post investigation has found.
For more than 15 years, J.M. Manion, whose father, Jim, has been running amateur and professional bodybuilding contests for decades, shot the photos and operated a network of paid soft-core pornography websites that at one point advertised “over 30,000 images” of competitors in the sport. A Post review of website archives identified more than 200 female athletes in photos ranging from casual bikini shots to graphic, sexual images, including those of nude women together in beds, bathtubs and showers. One of J.M.'s sites, Fitness Divas, bluntly stated: “Your Favorite Fitness Athletes …Naked!”
Jenn Gates, who won the figure category at the prestigious Olympia contest in 2008, graced the covers of fitness magazines and earned enough sponsorship money to quit her nursing job. Her manager, J.M., asked her to take off her bikini top and bottom for photos. Gates refused, and was surprised recently to learn from Post reporters that her swimsuit photos had been featured alongside nude female competitors on one of J.M.’s pornography sites.
“I never consented to having my pictures put on a soft-porn site,” Gates said during an interview at her home in Indianapolis. Less than three years after winning the Olympia, Gates gave up the sport in disgust — and warns young women to stay away from the contests.
Interviews with dozens of competitors, judges, officials and others connected to the sport reveal the systematic exploitation of female athletes often rendered vulnerable by extreme dieting and workouts, lack of financial stability and a drive to win. The Post found that some women believed their scores depended on their willingness to pose for sexual photos or to please the sport’s leading judges, promoters and managers, almost all of whom are male.
J.M. did not respond to questions The Post emailed him about the allegations. Rob Rosetti, a prominent trainer who sometimes attended the photo shoots for J.M.’s pornography websites, said the women had consented.
“In the very few photo shoots I was asked to attend, I witnessed no athlete being forced, pressured, persuaded, intimidated or coerced into posing nude by J.M. or any other individual assisting in the photo shoot,” Rosetti texted The Post.
“It was done completely on the athlete’s own free will,” he said.
Mandy Henderson, a former sheriff’s deputy in Santa Clara County, Calif., detailed in an interview how the pressure was exerted on women.
She agreed to nude photography with the expectation of winning a pro card, which allows athletes to move from amateur competitions to the professional league. A pro card can mean more money, sponsorships, and the chance to compete in the headlining competitions: the Arnold Classic and the Olympia.
At an amateur contest in 2009, she placed fourth and was surprised that it was taking so long for her to earn her pro card. When she asked why, she said, a prominent judge told her: “Because you didn’t come to my room last night.”
Another athlete, who was at a shoot attended by Rosetti, described a “humiliating” experience in which J.M. told her to undress and enter a shower with two naked women to pose for photographs — even though she’d previously told Rosetti she didn’t want to pose nude, said the woman, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation. “I cannot tell you how terrible of an experience it was.”
Aly Garcia, a bikini competitor, said she refused to do the nude photos, and had to fend off advances from judges and promoters as gently as she could to keep her career alive.
She abandoned the sport in 2017 when she concluded that she would never get a top win if she didn’t have sex with the power brokers. “This is the only way I’m going to hit my goal?” she thought. “Guess I’m not going to hit my goal.”
The leading amateur and professional federations are run by Jim Manion, J.M.’s father, a 78-year-old ex-bodybuilder, from his offices in Pittsburgh. Jim Manion presides over the amateur National Physique Committee (NPC) and the International Federation of Bodybuilding and Fitness Pro League, known as the IFBB Pro League.
In response to a detailed query from The Post sent to Jim Manion, the two organizations issued a statement through Hammond Strategies, a crisis communications firm, but did not respond directly to any of the questions.
“As part of our efforts to grow the sport we have expanded events and opportunities for all competitors, grown prize purses for female athletes, and improved communications for our competitors to raise any concerns they may have with an event or their experience,” the statement said. “We address all concerns raised with the utmost care, concern, and timeliness.”
The statement said that more than half of registered competitors are women and that many shows feature all-female judging panels.
At bodybuilding’s biggest competitions, J.M. can be found front and center, his baseball cap worn backward as he snaps pictures of muscled competitors onstage. J.M. was a teenager when his father took the helm of bodybuilding’s newly created amateur organization. In 1977, with the release of the film “Pumping Iron,” starring Schwarzenegger, bodybuilding exploded onto the public consciousness and spawned a fitness boom in the 1980s.
Bodybuilding is both a sport and an art form. Athletes sculpt their bodies through weight training and diet to compete in contests where they are judged on their muscular development after performing poses onstage. The sport has multiple categories based on weight classes and the degree of musculature, ranging from the most muscled (bodybuilding) to the lesser-built categories of figure and bikini. The latter two are for female athletes only.
Prize money is awarded to the top five winners in the pro contests. At the top of the game is the Olympia, with Mr. Olympia claiming a reported $675,000 last year, and Ms. Olympia just $60,000. Most of the hundreds of contests each year pay far less.
J.M., who runs the sport’s online news operation, also oversaw a management company that directed the careers of the top female competitors, including Gates. He served as a gateway to endorsement deals, magazine covers and other financially promising opportunities and could shut down income potential or competitive success if an athlete crossed him, numerous competitors said.
Two former officials told The Post that they witnessed other officials either inflating scorecards in favor of competitors managed by J.M. or trying to.
Steve O’Brien, who served as a judge and district chairman of the NPC for Northern California, recounted two incidents when he said John Tuman, a judge, changed scores, once after O’Brien observed him discussing the placings with Jim and J.M. Manion.
Jim Rockell, who was once the head judge of the Olympia and a close associate of Jim Manion’s before a falling out, said that Tuman once chided him at an event about his placings and suggested he make changes.
“Tuman leans over to me and says, ‘You know that girl that you got in fourth or fifth place? That’s one of J.M.’s girls,’ ” Rockell recalled. He said he did not change his scores.
O’Brien and Rockell said that some years ago, Tuman was suspended as a judge after his then-fiancee provided evidence that Tuman had affairs with contestants while he was judging. Several athletes also complained to officials about Tuman’s behavior, they said. Months later, Jim Manion called O’Brien to discuss reinstating Tuman, which O’Brien resisted. But Manion overruled him.
“Jim’s remedy was: ‘I’m not going have him judge women,” O’Brien said. “Well, that didn’t last very long.”
Soon, Tuman was back to judging all kinds of contests across the country, O’Brien said….
https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/interactive/2022/women-bodybuilding-ifbb-pro-porn/
