Olympia Expo and the VIP events by Kaisa Piippo

Press Conference

Thursday the 28th of September was the first official day of the Olympia 2006. The event is filled with so much more than just the competitions that we decided there should definitely be an article about all the fun. So, after Wednesday’s slow start to the trip the events started finally rolling by on Thursday with the official Press Conference at 1pm, Meet the Olympians at 7pm and continued until Sunday, the 1st of October ending to a Superstar Seminar at 11am which was held in the Orleans Mardi Gras Ballroom.

Press Conference

The Press Conference was held at the Orleans Hotel Showroom which was a much bigger venue than the one they had last year. Still, it was packed with fans who wanted to hear what the Olympians thought about the upcoming show. The girls were called out and the audience could ask questions from them. Figure pro Valerie Waugaman said she was going to take figure posing into a new level with her creative quarter turns (this was later seen when the competition took place, but it seemed like the audience and judges weren’t sure what to think about it). I asked a couple of questions from Monica and Mindi. The girls seemed cheerful and joked a lot, for example about each other’s hairstyles… the female bodybuilders took part in the conversations as well and the audience got a little piece of what they would see on the stage when Iris Kyle dropped her pants to show off the most amazing glutes in the women’s bodybuilding – ever? Wow!

Later the same evening the Orleans Arena’s Concourse was filled up with fans and competitors, whose excitement for the upcoming show started finally building up. The first hour of the event was for the VIP and press only. It was really nice to talk to the girls with no hurry. I did video interviews for most of the two hours of the event and got some great coverage. This was the moment when I realized why these girls were pros – because that’s what they were, from inside out. Every single one of them had earned their place at the pro ranks with no doubt. When the event opened for the public the concourse was suddenly bulging with fans who formed long lines throughout the concourse. Everyone wanted that photo with Monica, Ronnie, Jay and so on. The buzz was on!

The Olympia Expo in Las Vegas Convention Center welcomed hundreds of information hungry and sample thirsty visitors on Friday the 29th of September.  The two day exhibition consisted of hundreds of vendors from all over the States that had come to showcase their best products, knowledge and make them better well-known. The companies ran from the biggest nutrition and supplement companies like EAS to the smallest ones I had never heard of, but which still had something interesting to offer to the public – like for example the sugar free protein cookies for the little cookie monsters living inside all of us (especially girls). Every visitor was sure to find at least something interesting and a booth worth stopping for.

Competitors could really benefit from many vendors’ offerings: competition suits, competition color, training clothes, you name it. For once you wouldn’t need to go online and order everything just to notice the suit didn’t fit or the competition color wasn’t the right kind for your skin. It was really nice to be able to talk to the people behind these products. Many of them really are interested in knowing who use their products and it’s a great way for them to get feedback also. The expo isn’t only a place for networking for the visitors, but also the vendors. It’s definitely a chance you should’t walk past. Who knows, the booth you just passed might actually be interested in sponsoring you if you just go and talk to them!

The expo had different kind of events going on from hour to hour. The fitness, figure and women’s bodybuilding prejudging took a good amount of time of Friday but there were also other events going on at the same time. Battle of the Biceps took place at the stage on Saturday, as well as Martial arts are becoming more and more important and people are going crazy over the sport – so the expo had lots of MMA happenings going on most of the time. There were autograph sessions with the UFC stars like Matt Hughes and Georges St. Pierre, Six Star’s Sport Martial Arts Tournament and so on. The fans were at the UFC booths and the lines for autographs were almost the same as with many fitness and bodybuilding stars! What a surprise… wonder how long it will take for the expo to become officially the “Olympia and UFC expo”?

Heather Green

The model search was another event that took place on Saturday from 12:30pm thru 2:00pm. The reason we covered this portion of the show was due to some competitors from the NPC having taken part of the event. The judging was merely by their looks given the results. There were three rounds,swimsuit, sports outfit and a question/answer. The questions weren't really rehearsed and it seemed that they were just any questions that came up to mind to the MC. The IFBB and other organizations clearly have rules about what elements are important in a physique such as symmetry, conditioning and stage presence. Now being on stage competing it is all about the physique, their personality does not matter. For this model search they did care about personality hence the questions. But one thing they really didn't cover is a very important factor, how good of a model is the model? Ideally a group of photographers should have done shoots with the models and graded them with their ability to pose, reliability, and different looks. This is

Jamie Eason

the key factor that promoters should look into. From the top 6 models, HardFitness worked with Heather Green and given her skills as a model it would be hard for anyone to surpass her. Heather also presents a very strong physique and balance at NPC shows. The winner of the show was Jamie Eason who had the look judges wanted and seemed to be one of the popular choices from the audience.

When it comes to samples, it was easy to get many weeks worth of fat burners, energy drinks and protein powders and bars just by walking around the expo with your bag open. There were many products that basically took the sports nutrition into a new era. The protein bar samples looked so good that it would have been easy to fall for those little treats if I hadn’t been one week out of my competition. The yummiest thing ever must have been the protein pudding product line that a couple of supplement brands had launched. The pudding could also be made into a frozen treat (or ice cream). Delicious! We also have to give some credit to the girls working at the booths – the expo gave tons of eye candy to the visitors also.

Tracie Soder	Stephanie Franco	Kelly Dobbins	Lisa Bickels	Jenna Meadows
Lisa Balash	Raynayle Ferrel	Melanie Parachou	Crystal Matthews	Kim Farnell
Natalie McGee	Shawn Renee Zimmerman	Michelle Combs	Marika Johansson	Teresa Ruybal
Vanessa Espinoza	Stephanie Rupp	Jodi Tiahrt	Kristen Frisch	Lisa Ray
Patricia Mikula	Berta Bobowski	Aneta Tataca	Maggie Broman	Mandy Jackson
Brandy Pearsall	Christiana Marie Brevik	Ana Maria	Consi Shirlaw	Nancy Munoz

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