Actresses From Michigan

"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."

"The Ms. International is always down to Iris Kyle and Yaxeni, thanks to everyone else for showing up, hey it makes the stage look nice."

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

"There are two women who I could see giving her a run for money at the title, Iris Kyle and Dayana Cadeau. Iris Kyle is a past Ms. Olympia Champion and defeated Lenda Murray in 2004. She came up a bit short to Yaxeni as the runner-up last year. We saw he defeat Yaxeni and Dayana Cadeau at the 2006 Ms. International for that title. Dayana Cadeau and Iris Kyle were the only two women last year to give a preview at the press conference."

"As always, Iris Kyle will be in tip-top shape to defend her championship."

"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."

"Can the formidable Iris Kyle be taken down this year? It might be possible."

"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."

"Iris Kyle is creeping up on Lenda Murray's record with her seventh Ms. Olympia title. Kyle admitted to coming in a bit less ripped this year but that didn't change the results as she again bested the top female bodybuilders in the world to earn another Sandow and further cement her place in the history books."

"Back to women's bodybuilding, Yaxeni Oriquen took second again to Iris. The two were friendly on stage even as they continue to battle each other for titles."

"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."

"Best Quads: Iris Kyle"

"Finally Iris Kyle wrapped up the posing round with a performance that was very animated and showed off her muscle groups well. She definitely looked quite impressive."

"As a result of this contest, Iris Kyle says she is quitting. If she follows through on this, than the "guidelines" will have driven two excellent bodybuilders out of the sport - Kim and Iris - along with forcing women to compete looking small and in a kind of contest that is about big, hard and defined."

"Iris Kyle Iris Kyle had impressive quad development."

"In fact, I don't think I've talked to anyone who saw the show who didn't think Iris should have defeated Vickie, rather than the other way around."

"On stage next to Iris, the excellence of Vickie's upper body - especially her arms - was obvious. But she had no legs compared to Iris, and the difference was sufficient that it seems obvious the judges were simply wrong - and perhaps motivated by political considerations."

"There was also the fact that, despite having totally ignored Iris Kyle last year, after her superb showing at the Ms. International the judges might be more inclined to place her as she truly deserved."

"And Iris Kyle was as magnificent as we have come to expect - hard, cut, symmetrical, with a waist nearly as small as that of Juliette Bergmann."

"Anyway, this back-and-forth seesawing between Iris and Vickie continued through the contest until, when the final scores were announced, it turned out they had tied - with Iris winning by virtue of the IFBB tie-breaking rule (she had more first place votes). Actually, this was a near thing. Vickie Gates at her absolute best is indeed a worthy opponent for Iris Kyle. But Vickie wasn't at her absolute best and hasn't been for a couple of years. So what we nearly had is one more instance (last year's Ms. Olympia, the 2001 Ms. International) where Iris Kyle received unfair treatment from the judges."

"It is a truism in sports that, all things being equal, the bigger competitor tends to beat the smaller one. Looking at the size difference between Juliette Bergmann and Iris Kyle on stage during the posedown for the overall, it seemed this might well be the case. Juliette looked suprisingly competitive against her larger opponent, but Iris was much more muscular and, as mentioned above, had a waist nearly as small as her Dutch challenger."

"In the heavyweight class Iris Kyle earned top honors beating out Vickie Gates. The victory was more than deserved though, as Kyle has been looking impressive in many of her recent shows and probably should have won the Arnold title over Gates as well. The only injustice was how the judges awarded the overall and Ms. Olympia title to Bergmann, while it seemed to many that Kyle was clearly the superior bodybuilder."

"Vicky Gates beat Iris Kyle in the heavweight class, although many felt strongly that Iris was not given her due. However, since Iris had been totally ignored at the Ms. Olympia a few months earlier, never even compared with the top three when she might have been in contention to win the class, it was at least apparent that the judges were paying her some attention."

"Furthermore, for the first time Iris Kyle was actually a little off. Not a lot, but she was clearly not as crisp as in the past."

"Third may have been the most surprising, based on historical data, but Vickie Gates deservedly finished in that position, with Iris Kyle coming in just off her usually spot on diet."

"Given Iris’ overall lack of popularity and poor promotion, she probably could have done nothing to beat an in-shape if somewhat too lean Lenda at the 2003 Ms. Olympia."

"Watching Iris Kyle posing beside her, it was evident that Iris has no significant physique weaknesses, and her legs – particularly the calves – were much better than were Lenda’s. Of course, what Iris doesn’t have is Lenda’s overall appeal and charisma, and since she all but refuses to do photos for magazine publicity (asking some photographers, but not getting, for as much as $1500 for a basic editorial shoot). Iris has a reputation for keeping much to herself and has certainly not become a favorite of the judges, the media or the audience. Of course, what is not her fault is that Iris suffered somewhat from the continued lack of understanding on the part of the judges as to what round one is supposed to be about. She got no first place votes in the first round and several judges placed her 3rd. She did get better scores in round two – compulsory poses – with some first place votes and only one 3rd (no doubt scored by a judge in need of Lasik surgery)."

"Iris, on the other hand, used her time on stage to do mostly variations of the compulsory poses, which everyone had already seen. After a short while posing center stage, she walked all the way over to stage left and began posing for the audience on that side of the theater. Then she walked all the way back across the stage to pose for the audience stage right. Unfortunately, there are no judges at the sides of theater and the judges are scoring the contest. Ignoring the judges this way, her performance seemed calculated to demonstrate a lack of respect for them, a deliberate snub - and that is certainly no way to try to earn higher scores in a bodybuilding contest. Iris could have been scored worse in round three, but ended up with seconds and a third. This suggests to me that the judges were more forbearing than they might have been and didn’t take the implications of Iris’ performance personally. Maybe they just don’t expect that much of her so are hard to disappoint."

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

"The heavyweight class was impressive, and when the lineup emerged on stage, it was evident that it would be a shootout between Murray and Iris Kyle."

"As with the Olympia, even if you think Iris should have placed second the contest should have been closer. It is apparent she is the victim of political judging – at least to some degree. It is true she asks for it in many ways – in the sense of avoiding publicity and being so withdrawn at contests that the judges (not necessarily the other bodybuilders) feel they are being disrespected. But it is clear that, no matter how good Lenda Murray or Yaxeni Oriquen are (and they are very good indeed), the IFBB judges simply don’t WANT Iris to win anything if they can avoid it."

"Oriquen was sharp, but with athletes like Lenda Murray and Iris Kyle in very sharp condition, Oriquen would have to be pleased with her third place finish."

"Murray had fielded a question during the press conference about how she felt about winning last year, although Iris Kyle may have had better body parts on an individual basis, and her response focused on the total package, which IFBB Chairman Wayne Demillia seconded. That must have been the case again this year, as Kyle pushed Murray in each individual bodypart, but on the whole, Murray's package was once again crowned the best in women's bodybuilding, and that made it eight for her."

"But in a highly competitive heavyweight class, there was so much depth that it was hard for them to stand out, especially with the incredible Iris Kyle taking the Arnold stage."

"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."

"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."

"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."

"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 Kyle has always been known as a less than adequate poser. In this year’s contest she was not particularly good but at least adequate. She still hit mostly compulsory poses, her routine lacked creativity and it was too short, but she did stay in front of the judges most of the time instead of disappearing off to the sides of the stage. Iris needs to work on developing a more interesting and creative routine, something that focuses on the aesthetic quality of her physique."

"Iris Kyle didn’t win this one and it isn’t because she doesn’t have an outstanding physique. Iris needs to learn something from the career of Kim Chizevsky."

"Still, what Iris needs to start working harder on what they call “overall appearance.”"

"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."

"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."

"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."

"For Female Bodybuilding Iris Kyle did bring a smaller frame but still well conditioned body."

"As the reigning champion, the Venezuelan will be hoping to defend her title this year against some very strong competition, including Iris, who will be wanting some redemption."

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

"Oriquen improved on her Olympia shape, but Kyle was also razor sharp, as she was in Vegas, but the results for her were the same. While Oriquen is a worthy champion, Kyle seems to continually get ripped off by the judges. She has probably not received three titles by no fault of her own, and it has to be frustrating. Many purists would agree that Kyle is one of the best bodybuilder's bodybuilder."