bodybuilders

"Iris was smaller and hard but not as dense and she looked different from Yaxeni so it is complicated to tell the message the judges were after."

"By that, we mean a lot of the incumbents treated us to a repeat performance of awesomeness; like Iris Kyle and Adela Garcia continuing their reigns as Ms. Olympia and Ms. Fitness Olympia, respectively."

"Also in the mix was Dayana Cadeau, diminutive compared to Yaxeni and Iris (although her physique is so full and shapely that physique magazines frequently reject her photos because she looks "too big)."

"Iris has learned to look more attractive and glamorous."

"Iris Kyle, on the other hand, was better than Las Vegas and not only physically hard, defined and chiseled but obviously making an effort to improve her overall appearance as well. Iris has always presented herself looking more plain and severe than necessary and this has given her problems with the judges and made her less popular with the fans. But the fact that she is close friends with Dayana Cadeau has taught her a few things about hair, make-up and general appearance. In fact, quite a few people mentioned during the weekend that if you caught a quick glimpse of Iris out of the corner of your eye you might think you were looking at Dayana."

"Iris Kyle once again proved unstoppable bringing an incredibly crisp, cut physique with so many lines that even a tremendously improved Debi Laszewski and former Ms Olympia Yaxeni Oriquen couldn't overcome the reigning Ms Olympia."

"She's never placed out of the top 5 in any of her pro shows and I don't look for her to here. She always shows up in shape and will give Yaxeni a run for her money again. If Yaxeni is off, Iris will prevail."

"Iris Kyle's muscles easily won her the title. When I got all of the news, I went for my pillow."

"With Yaxeni Oriquen the reigning Ms. Olympia competing at the Ms. International and with a previous Ms. Olympia, Iris Kyle both competing, you knew it was going to be a shootout and this time around, the often overlooked Iris Kyle was crowned the 2006 Ms. International in Columbus, OH."

"Kyle looked unbeatable from the rear, as usual. And her new hairstyle looks great. (Don’t want to sound like a sissy, but it does count for something with the women.) She did come in what was described as “a little under the weather” by MD’s Shawn Ray and it showed when she was on the side during the second call-outs. Kyle was being attended to by the show personnel and appeared to be dehydrating. Just goes to show you what a great champion she is."

"She is likely to win this year, but will be pursued closely by the second best female bodybuilder in the world: Iris Kyle. A competitive bodybuilder for over 12 years, Iris Kyle has the experience necessary to take out a title as prestigious as the Olympia, if she can put it all together. Indeed, her record as an Olympia competitor is an impressive one: a heavyweight class win in 2001, second to Lenda Murray in 2002 and 2003, and winner in 2004. Smaller in size compared to Yaxeni, Iris will be relying on her great aesthetics and ripped conditioning if she hopes to win."

"As expected, top three favourites Iris Kyle and Dayana Cadeau dominated the field to land first and second respectively. Both Iris and Dayana appeared to be at their career bests, with amazing amounts of definition and round, full muscle to be seen everywhere."

"I believe Iris Kyle will be very prepared. She is very competitive and would like to capture a 2nd Olympia crown for herself."

"All 3 are big girls and seemed to be decimating the decree of 20% muscularity reduction."

"2004 overall Ms. Olympia Iris Kyle is now truly back in the winner's circle after her great showing on the weekend. Bringing to the stage her best package ever, Iris presented the perfect combination of mass, cuts and shape to secure yet another win to position herself as the best women's bodybuilder in the world. Not an inch on her body was underdeveloped, and her legs (especially the hamstring/glute tie ins) were truly spectacular. Her magnificently peaked biceps would also have to be the best in the business. In the end, her physique was clearly ahead of the competition and she deserved her win."

"Perhaps an argument could be made for the third count, but the judges were awarding on physical development and gave Iris the nod."

"However, history will show that eventual winner, Iris Kyle, is now the new benchmark to which all professional-female-bodybuilders can aspire."

"The burning question: Could Iris Kyle be beaten? The answer: A resounding no. Ms. Kyle swept the competition at tonight's Olympia finals, leaving the others in her dust. Yaxeni Oriquen-Garcia put up a fight, but when it comes down to width and quad separation, there is no beating Iris. She is the champion, now, and, perhaps, until she decides to hang up her trunks."

"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!"

"Iris Kyle is the obvious one to watch and one to beat in this year's showcase. She managed to walk away with both titles last year of Ms. International and Ms. Olympia so she is definitely queen of the throne. She is a veteran competitor making her defeat, very difficult."

"After all the competitors were on stage and had done their mandatories one thing was clear: Iris Kyle would win no matter what. Iris Kyle came back better than last year, better conditioned and with a yet smaller waist. Her conditioning was so sharp it made others like Yaxeni Oriquen look smooth and even some of the men on stage that night would look watery compared to her."

"Vickie Gates looked tremendous, and others in fine shape were Iris Kyle, Tazzie Colomb, and Laura Creavalle."

"Using strict bodybuilding rules rather than the new IFBB guidelines, many thought Iris was the class of the show - but she was subsequently disqualified for failing the diuretic test."

"But it is also true that Iris Kyle looked fantastic by traditional and accepted - meaning REAL - bodybuilding standards and would have won the contest if it had been using actual bodybuilding rules."

"Amy Pazzo was probably the hardest, and Iris Kyle looked awesome."

"Iris Kyle really looked great, and got called out early and often. She definitely seemed to have the edge over Vickie Gates and recent pro Denise Hoshor."

"Let me first give props to Iris Kyle in her upset of 8 time Ms. Olympia Lenda Murray. It's not easy beating a legend, but you did it. Looks like Iris might just start her own streak of Ms. O titles."

"But judges seem to want that Iris longer shape with her full detail."

"Hard. Dry. Glutes. Conditioned. Symmetrical. Balanced. Thick. Dense. Glutes. Proportionate. Perfection. There's a reason this girl is the reigning champ."

"Iris Kyle has been unrivaled since bursting onto the bodybuilding stage in 1999. If she can win the Ms. Olympia again in 2011, she'll have a Sandow for every day of the week. The 2011 Ms. Olympia will be one for the history books and by history I don't mean it being history. There's talk of the Ms. Olympia contest going away with the beginning of Women's Physique, however that has no merit to this point. The history I am speaking of is when Iris Kyle takes the stage to defend her title once again."

"Standing in her way, however, is the seemingly unstoppable seven-time champion Iris Kyle."

"The favorite to win. Beautiful lines from top to bottom with great conditioning, size and symmetry. W-I-D-E from behind; probably unbeatable. Even her back has vascularity. 1st callout: kept in the middle."

"There is also the fact that many in the IFBB and at AMI/Weider , which promotes the Olympia weekend, are unhappy with Iris Kyle having won the Ms. Olympia title in 2004. Iris Kyle and Lenda Murray during prejudging of the 2004 Ms. Olympia. Many feel that Iris' victory helped trigger the "demotion" of IFBB pro female bodybuilding. Even though there has been no real attempt to market any female bodybuilders to the general public (or even to feature them in Muscle & Fitness or Flex Magazines) the feeling seems to be that Iris is not somebody who can be used to promote the sport to a mass audience."

"Bodybuilding was game over once Iris Kyle stepped on stage, her conditioning and balance is unreal probably even better than 202 men."

"In the beginning, the focus of the competition was on Iris Kyle for obvious reasons. Iris won the Ms. Olympia title the past two years and was the reigning champions. But the fact is you keep hearing from the IFBB and AMI/Weider alike that they don’t believe she is not the kind of champion that promotes the growth and popularity of female bodybuilding. Never mind that the Weider magazines themselves seem to be doing nothing to promote that growth themselves. But it is certainly a fact that Iris, like 4-time Ms. Olympia Kim Chizevsky, does not have the kind of “cover model” looks that made somebody like Cory Everson so popular with the magazines and the industry."

"As usual, the heavyweight beat the lightweight for the overall title. As soon as Iris and Dayana hit the stage the judges began marking and turning in their scoresheets. It wasn't just size: standing next to Iris you could see some of Dayana's proportional problems as well – not major enough to cause her to lose her class but small things made more obvious when standing next to the complete and bigger physique of Iris Kyle - particularly the difference in legs."

"One name comes to mind when you think Ms. Olympia - Iris Kyle. Ok, so you may also think Lenda Murray, Kim Chizevsky and Cory Everson?but when you think RECENT Ms. Olympia, you SHOULD be thinking Iris Kyle. This woman is the Ronnie Coleman of female bodybuilding. NOBODY packs more square inches of muscle on their frame than Iris (except maybe Kevin English, but we're talking women here). Iris has won this show the last three years running, and brings and tighter and tighter package every time. The judges know what to expect from her: A fine balance of shape, conditioning, size, conditioning, symmetry and conditioning."

"The women took the stage at the Arnold Expo today for their pre-judging and by the looks of it Iris is here to keep her title. Her conditioning was spot on. She has such an incredible symmetry and full muscle bellies. She is one of those competitors' who has no glaring weaknesses. Her glutes were striated and her hamstrings were very detailed."

"For bodybuilding Iris Kyle changed her hair and made her look a bit different perhaps more feminine but still her body speaks for itself and took the show."

"Over the past few years the heavyweight division has been a battle between Lenda Murray, super-symmetrical, a great poser and 8-time Ms. Olympia winner and Iris Kyle, lacking in such extreme aesthetics and presentation skills, but possessing a complete physique – and especially outstanding legs and calves. Iris has been grossly overlooked in the past. One year she wasn't even compared with the top three in her class. But in 2003 she looked like she had the edge in the physique department. Unfortunately for Iris, although Lenda was somewhat lacking in leg development, her conditioning was superb and her posing routine was one of the best EVER in women's bodybuilding. Iris made her own chances worse by a posing routine that consisted mainly of a few compulsory poses and was directed too often to audience members at the side of the theater rather than the judges. But 2004 was to be Iris' year. She was in her usual excellent shape (she's only missed once in her pro career as far as I recall) and while her posing routine was not particularly dynamic it at least looked as if she were trying."

"the female Ronnie Coleman."

"The scores later revealed that Iris had won three out of the four rounds, and only been behind by a single point in the round in which Lenda came out on top. Iris Kyle has been a superior bodybuilder for a long time and was bound to win this title eventually, as long as the judging was accurate and honest. The question remains as to what she is going to do now. Iris has avoided publicity in the past, demanding photographers pay her for editorial shoots where nobody else (including Lenda) was getting a fee for doing pictures and not been very outgoing to other competitors, bodybuilding officials or the press. Let's hope this victory convinces Iris to come out of her shell to some degree and to work at promoting herself and women's bodybuilding."

"And there is one more very important point to consider with regard to Iris Kyle's future. Her age is just 30. As Lenda Murray (an 8-time Ms. Olympia winner) leaves the sport this year - she is 42. Should Kyle decide to compete for another dozen years, the mind boggles at what she may accomplish."

"My first impression was that all of the Ms. Olympia competitors were in excellent shape, that Iris might have been slightly off from last year, that Yaxeni looked the best I’d ever seen her, and that Dayana Cadeau had the most sensuous and sensual lines in female bodybuilding but perhaps could have come in just a pound or two lighter. Iris was hard and definined, in really excellent shape(I’ve only seen her miss it once over the years) but I thought she looked a little too ripped but depleted or dehydrated compared to how she looked in recent Ms. Olympias. Unfortunately, when competition is close this kind of "drained" look can work against you. This is just a thought, but sometimes bodybuilders continue to diet too long and try to lose too much water before a show and this might have been Iris’ situation."

"Iris "I'm the best bodybuilder in the world" Kyle. What more can be said? She's unbeatable. I knew it before I got to Vegas, I thought it this morning when I saw her at prejudging, and I'll still be thinking it on the plane ride home. Pick a body part, and Iris will go head-to-head with any other competitor on stage, and come out on top. No two ways about it. This woman works HARD, and it pays off. She doesn't rely on past wins or laurels to help carry her through from show to show. No, she REproves herself each time; showing the audience and the judges why she deserved the three Olympia titles she already has, and why she deserves to have more come to her."

"But tonight was Iris Kyle's night. She brought what we have come to expect from the champion. She was muscular, lean and had unparalleled symmetry. She took the title and now the record holder with 5 Ms International titles."

"Regarding the whole Iris Kyle controversy: first of all, I feel really bad for her and understand how she must feel right now, so no comment about all this."

"At this point, on a purely physical basis, it would be hard for anyone to beat Iris."

"Iris is in a league of her own and is damn near unbeatable. That's not to say she is though. Last year she was out of the top six due to a few suspicious lumps and bumps on her physique. She took care of the problem before the 2008 Olympia and showed why she'll go down in history as one of the best female bodybuilders ever. It's doubtful anyone will match her conditioning and look for her to leave Columbus with top honors once again."

"Iris Kyle clearly and decisively beat Dayana Cadeau in the overall. The primary reason was body size - good big athlete beating a good smaller one and all that. Dayana weighed 123 lbs while Iris weighed in at 156 lbs. Seen on stage by herself or in photos, Dayana seems huge. Next to Iris she looked diminutive. The comparison between the two physiques also demonstrated the degree to which Dayana was some 5 pounds under her ideal contest weight (5 lbs being a lot when yo are dealing with such a relatively small body)."