Archive for March 9th, 2009

Invincible Iris Nails Her 4th Ms International!
by John Romano

The story of Iris Kyle is evolving into an epic as shocking and amazing as the physique that’s writing it. The woman that amassed five Ms. Olympia titles came back tonight to redeem her dismal seventh place finish at last year’s Ms International to round off her competitive career thus far with her fourth Ms. I win. That means that tonight Iris tied Yaxeni Oriquen’s unprecedented four Ms. International victories and is closing in on Lenda Murray’s long string of eight Ms. Olympia titles. At the rate Iris is going, three short years from now Iris Kyle could be revered as the most decorated bodybuilder – male or female – in the world. This is a distinction that will probably be uniquely hers for many, many, years into the future.

Watching Iris win tonight – again – was far from ho-hum. She brought yet another new look, complete with new hair, that seemed to defy reality. At 160 pounds she seems a bit slighter that years past, but her conditioning and muscle maturity gave her the appearance of stone. Iris is the closest thing we will ever see to a human statue. She has no weak points, no flaws, not detractions. She just keeps showing up better and better. And tonight she showed up so good that there was little question that the battles would start from second on down.
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2009 Arnold Classic Men’s Finals Wrap-up
by John Romano

To say that the talent at this year’s Arnold classic was deep is an understatement. If the Olympia was a battle; this Arnold was a full-fledged war on the order of something Alexander the Great would have waged. The top six this year was so strong that you could have shuffled the order and no one could have complained.

The talk leading into the show mostly surrounded Victor Martinez and if, or how much, the knee injury that side-lined him at the Olympia had subverted a repeat victory at the Arnold this year. Then, the second favorite going into the show – Kai Greene – began adding drama to the equation with reports surfacing about his condition, his health, or if he would pull out of the show. In fact, this drama perpetuated right on up to the day of the show with FlexOnline.com reporting that Kai had been scratched.
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