Amid the growing pageantry of her sport, Vancouver's Linda Cusmano is gunning for professional status as a fitness bodybuilder after 15 years on the amateur circuit.
Motivated by a fierce competitive instinct that helped her overcome childhood illness, Cusmano expects nothing short of perfection. At this weekend's B.C. Amateur Bodybuilding Association championships, which sends the top five finishers to nationals, the 40-year-old Sicilian-Canadian has a singular goal. She wants the win: "First and overall."
If she wins best overall, Cusmano will gain lifetime entry to the national championships, which are sanctioned by the International Federation of Bodybuilding and Fitness. A win at nationals this October in Quebec will deliver Cusmano her ultimate prize: professional status.
"You're competing with the best. That's the top. A lot of the women end up getting good work," said Cusmano, noting the commercial spin-offs, marketing perks and better earning potential, as well as the immense sense of accomplishment.
In 2009, she placed sixth at nationals, just missing the automatic return ticket. But in 2010, she didn't compete because of a debilitating stomach infection, one of multiple aliments she's overcome since she was a girl.
"I was trapped in a body that wasn't fit although I really wanted to be," said Cusmano, who dropped out of gymnastics and martial arts because of chronic bronchial asthma and brittle joints. The ventilation drugs she used to keep her lungs functioning "destroyed my back and bones although they gave me a life and let me actually exercise."
Physical activity was always her passion, even when she was shackled still and sedentary, she said.
"I've always had something in me where I wanted to excel and be really outstanding in some way."
The same catabolic steroids that allowed her body to function also work against Cusmano and her chosen field of excellence that demands she build body mass, develop stamina and gain strength. Unlike anabolic steroids, which mimic testosterone and which are banned on the natural bodybuilding circuit, catabolic steroids break down body tissue.
"It's corrosive," she said. "It doesn't do anything for me. It will actually atrophy you versus give you muscle. It's something that goes against what I do. Can you imagine what I'd look like if I didn't have to take this?"
Competing in the fitness category-a stage competition that rewards athletic coordination and strength moves such as push-up handstands and straddle holds while competitors are simultaneously judged on style, personality and their sparkly apparel-Cusmano finds fault with the many new categories crowding the industry of women's bodybuilding.
In the mid-1990s, a fitness category, where Cusmano displays her aerobic routine and cut, hourglass, X-shape frame, was introduced to the world of monstrous muscularity that still champions a body of lean sinew and ropey strength. A rush of women's categories now flesh out the industry. With names like bikini, physique, figure and model fit, Cusmano doesn't necessarily believe the pageantry and diversity improve the sport.
"There are so many categories of women in heels, you don't know what the hell the difference is," she said.
Dawn Alison, the athlete rep at the B.C. championships this year and the province's best overall heavyweight bodybuilder in 2008, says the physical demands of all categories are immense.
"I've been involved in the sport of bodybuilding for over 25 years and I don't care what you call it-bikini, figure, fitness-it's all bodybuilding," she wrote the Courier, emphasizing her point with capital letters. "Any of these categories requires you to build your body. Some people just naturally have a gift or the genetics for one category or another and then some have the passion [and] desire to create something with their body."
In the B.C. and Canadian amateur federations, Cusmano said the distinction is becoming more rigid and women are not allowed to compete in multiple categories. Each division is designed to reward a different physique, with a sliding scale of muscularity that rewards traces of femininity. "They've gotten so androgynous," she said.
Cusmano, a non-meat eater just "a bit more than five-foot-two," describes herself as voluptuous when she's not dropping weight before competition. She works as a personal trainer and counts clients who, like her, are motivated by results.
"I love to see people achieve new heights-a new muscle popping out that they've never seen before.
"A lot of people really enjoy taking themselves to their limits."
Twitter: @MHStewart
