[AlexG]

Source: Ruth Silverman’s Blog @ Ironman.com

As the Europa Super Show, including five IFBB pro competitions, gets going today in Dallas, folks who haven’t seen promoter Betty Pariso since her fifth-place finish at the Ms. International competition last March are in for a bit of a surprise. The 54 1/2-year-old veteran top flexer has hung up her posing suit, at least as far as bodybuilding is concerned, and is downscaling her 160-to-170-pound physique for civilian life. As in she’s not training. At all.

Can you say transformation in progress?

The 5’6” Texan, who has been competing since 1988 and turned pro in ’96, sported some major female muscle in her career and kept audiences howling with her takeoffs of the top male pros’ posing styles. Now, she says, she on her way back to where she came from, bodywise, with maybe a stop in figure competition. (Yes, you read that right.) As she told photographer Reg Bradford in an exclusive interview for Pump & Circumstance online, “I am a competitor; I don’t see myself sitting around.”

Not that there’s much chance of that. Betty and Ed Pariso operate several business, and staged three big bodybuilding and fitness weekends this year—and she’s also the athletes rep for women’s bodybuilding.

When Reg saw the new Betty at the Battle of Champions in Hartford, Connecticut, a few weeks ago, he had a multitude of questions. The following are some highlights of her answers, including why she decided to stop competing, her thoughts on changing women’s bodybuilding and the amazing journey she’s going through.

Pariso competed five times over the past year and qualified for the ’10 Ms, Olympia three times. Why quit before the big show? Her answer was simple. “I realized I just didn’t want to,” she said. After after her post-Ms. International break, she and Ed did a lot of talking—and decided that it was time for something different. She hasn’t touched a weight since early March.

“I never got into the sport to be as big as I had to become to compete at the level that I’m at,” she admitted. “I think most of the women feel that way, but there’s nothing we can change.”

As the athletes rep she has always tried to champion the points of view of all the bodybuilders. “Every time people say, well, just start picking other people, is that fair? Is that fair to the person who really is the best at the top? Do you just tell everybody, okay, we’re going to stop the sport for two years and wait till everybody changes and then we’ll start all over again?

“In my opinion that’s some of the reason that the divisions are being added. We had women’s bodybuilding and then fitness. Now you’ve got bikini, you’ve got figure. Because there is no real easy way to make that change.

“People want to compete and they want to train hard and excel and be the biggest and best, and there is a part of me that thinks they should be able to do that,” she said. “It’s difficult to go to the gym and say, I can’t train as hard; I can’t excel here. That’s something that I have already struggled with a little bit.”

Is she serious about competing in figure?

“I’m toying with the idea; I’m not sure; I am a competitor; I have to have a challenge. I don’t see myself sitting around. ”

What about sitting back on her laurels and concentrating on promoting shows and running her other businesses? That’s just not her, Betty explained. “Plus, I’ve always need that motivation of something that I’m preparing for, not just that I kinda want to get in good shape.”

Some people think she’s crazy, she acknowledged with a chuckle. Still, she said, “I’ve been an athlete all my life. So I would like to maybe try figure.”

To those who would say, There’s no way Betty Pariso can do figure, her answer is another chuckle.

“That’s what they told me when I tried to bodybuild,” she said. “I was a model at the time, did some fashion stuff. The girl said, ‘You need to stay in the fitness.’ Of course, she didn’t know that I couldn’t do a flip if I had to.

“That was all the motivation I needed. That pushed a button for me—I’ll show you.”

But can she really get small enough? “I took my body the other way,” she said. “I was always 120 pounds, so to get to 140 pounds, which was my goal as a bodybuilder, was a lot of work—and then I had to go up to 170, and still people were saying, ‘She could use more size onstage.’”

Betty was down to 144 pounds, she continued. “The first time that I reached up and touched my shoulder—I think I was in the shower—and it was like a foreign person, it almost made me jump. I thought, Whose shoulder is that?”

Though it was exciting and scary at first, Pariso seems to be enjoying her evolution, “When I look in the mirror, I don’t know me,” she said. “I’ve had to buy new clothes. I ordered a jacket off the Internet and it fit, and Ed said, ‘You look so nice in that.’

“And I got here, and I had so many compliments on how I looked. It was overwhelming. It was very reaffirming; it made me feel wonderful.”

If she does step on a figure stage, it’ll be strictly for fun. “There’s no agenda,” she said. “I have nothing to prove.” Plus, she added “There’s no [worrying about] getting last place—which it’ll probably be. But to think that maybe I could represent another group of women in my age, still doing something, not just sitting back and saying, I’m too old.”

She summed it up this way: “I don’t feel 54, so why do I have to act 54?”

And who could argue with that?

“I like a good story well told. That is the reason I am sometimes forced to tell them myself.”
~ Mark Twain / Samuel Clemens (1907)

[GWHH]

well, knew that was coming, but still a bit sad, at least stay strong betty P!

[BlackKusanagi]

Baww. Well it was bound to happen. I just hope she enjoys herself.

[Robert McNay]

Twenty-two years in a competitive athletic profession is a damn good run, she deserves have a normal life, finally. I can’t fault her in anyway and wish her all the best. Thanks Betty.

[GWHH]

all good things must come to an end. good luck. Betty P

[khuddle]

Well, hopefully this will begin clearing the way for young
and fresh new talent to make their way up the ranks
of female bodybuilding. Sorry if this sounds harsh, but for the sport
to thrive, it needs to get rid of some of the old timers. Hopefully,
Yaxeni, Dayana, Annie R, and some of the other senior citizens of the
sport will follow Betty’s example and fade gracefully into the shadows.

[BodybyBane]

khuddle wrote:

Well, hopefully this will begin clearing the way for young
and fresh new talent to make their way up the ranks
of female bodybuilding. Sorry if this sounds harsh, but for the sport
to thrive, it needs to get rid of some of the old timers. Hopefully,
Yaxeni, Dayana, Annie R, and some of the other senior citizens of the
sport will follow Betty’s example and fade gracefully into the shadows.

Screw that.
Yaz,Tazz,Annie R.,Dayana Cadeau etc., are the only 1s keeping the sport alive.
The youngsters aren’t being held back from greatest by these other ladies.
Cindy Phillips was on the way to greatness with nowhere near as many wins as Nadia Nari.
Yet she quit anyway.
Just saying

[khuddle]

If I head to a show it isnt because I want to see the Dayana’s, the Annie R’s, the Yaxeni’s of the world creaking on stage. I go to see Nicole Ball, Tina Chandler, Sarah Hayes, and other fresh, promising young talent, as do most other fans. You are not going to attract an audience with the old timers — the sport is all about health, youth and beauty. The old legends, as great as they once were (and I’m not just saying that Yaxeni for example is a huge figure in the sport) are irrelevant now and need to get out of the way — its time for them to head to the retirement home and get started on their shuffleboard game.

[TC2]

The only reason the old timers are still there is because the new folks have no INCENTIVE to even consider entering the sport. How much was 3rd place in a tourney, like 400 dollars? 3,000 for first place?

There is little to no pay out in these sports and it also requires an unhealthy diet in order to slim down a build as much muscle mass as possible. I could just imagine how the conversation goes.

Girl: I want to get into bodybuilding competitions.
FBB: Don’t bother.
Girl: Why not?
FBB: Because you won’t make any money off of it and have to go on crazy diets to look good on stage.
Girl: I can handle the diet, but is the money really that bad?
FBB: Unless you think 3,000 dollars is good money.
Girl: Wow, screw that! The boys get way more!

and so on, and so on. I’m not sure why the old timers are still doing the sport, but it’s clearly not for the money.

[AlexG]

Lisa Aukland has also announced her retirement from competitive FBBing.

http://forums.rxmuscle.com/showthread.php?p=1143760

http://www.musculardevelopment.com/news/breaking-news/2616-lisa-aukland-retires-.html

“I like a good story well told. That is the reason I am sometimes forced to tell them myself.”
~ Mark Twain / Samuel Clemens (1907)

[Author]

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