Iris Kyle

"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."

"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)."

"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."

"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)."

"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."

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

"Yaxeni Oriquen beat Iris Kyle for the heavyweight title. Certainly, she looked like a champion in the finals. But Yaxeni had not looked as good in prejudging. Her color was off, for one thing. Iris, on the other hand, was just about perfect. The question is not whether Yaxeni should have won. Rather, it is how can Iris look so good at the Ms. Olympia and the Show of Strength events and (apparently) not get a single first place vote in any round? How is it all the judges in both shows feel she shouldn’t win even a round, much less the contest?"

"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 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."

"Interestingly, a fan asked bodybuilder Iris Kyle to comment on how women should go about getting sponsorship in bodybuilding. But she was asking the totally wrong competitor, since one major key to promoting careers and getting sponsors interested is good publicity and exposure in the magazine – and as will be made clearer in the report below Iris is among the worst when it comes to promotion and publicity of all the top female bodybuilders."

"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."

"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."

"There is no doubt that, on a purely technical basis, Iris Kyle is the best female bodybuilder in the sport today. Her physique is virtually flawless, no body parts missing, especially impressive in the area of hamstrings and calves and with only rare exceptions in great shape contest after contest. I remember seeing Iris win the Orange Country Championships years ago and she was a skinny kid compared to the hard and sculpted female bodybuilders we see on stage these days. The fact that Iris has not been able to beat Lenda Murray at the Ms. Olympia is not because her physique is in any way lacking. It has to do with uninspired presentation, a free posing routine composed mostly of compulsory poses the judges have already seen, nothing in the routine that comes across as stylish or dramatic, a tendency to pose to members of the audience off to the side of the stage instead of to the judges (who are scoring the contest at the time) and a consistent lack of publicity that comes in large part of avoiding photo sessions or setting up conditions that make having photos taken impossible. It's a shame you can be that good at bodybuilding and that poor at developing a career. Fortunately, although the IFBB have had a history of overlooking Iris, she is now getting the recognition she has earned and there was no doubt who should win the heavyweight class at the Ms. International. Since Lenda was not in Columbus, Iris' sleek, sculpted and physique was clearly deserving of victory."

"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."

"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."

"The real controversy - and perhaps the greatest injustice in the contest - involved Iris Kyle. Iris was big, hard and cut. She looked as if she would have given Chizevsky at her best a good run for the title. How did she look next to Valentina? As far as I can recall, we never saw her compared to Valenina. Only 7 women in the class, but no comparisons between Chepiga and Kyle? This was OBVIOUSLY the infamous "guidelines" at work. It wouldn't be the first time."

"Now, it is not certain that Iris should have beaten Valentina for the title. But it is clear that they were the two best competitors on the stage, and the outcome of the class should have been determined by a series of careful comparisonsof these two outstanding bodybuilders. The fact that it didn't - that Iris was overlooked and ignored - just shows this was not a real bodybuilding contest, that the "guidelines" are inappropriate and detrimental to the development of female bodybuilding, and that using these rules they might as well have put a sign on Iris that said, "Don't vote for her, she's too big and hard.""

"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."

"Iris Kyle and Oriquen also were standouts in the round, along with the ever-popular Lesa Lewis."

"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."

"Iris Kyle looked fantastic, and seemed like a likely challenger to Gates' title. However, it seems like the boxing mantra held true as Kyle seemed to be the better of the two, but as they say in boxing, if you can't knock out the champ, then the champ will always take a close fight... Is that fair? It wouldn't seem so, especially since the overall winner also gets an additional $10,000 in prize money, which many would say that Kyle might have deserved."

"Iris Kyle - can this amazing bodybuilder ever get a break? Iris Kyle may be the best pure bodybuilder, but she can not seem to take 1st at a major show. Hopefully her luck witll turn around, as she is the most deserving non-champion competing of late."

"Iris Kyle again proved to be one of the best competitors in the field, but took second, although many would agree that she deserved to win the title."

"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."

"How the judges treat the round system was also apparent in the difference in the scores received by Iris Kyle round by round. None of the judges gave her first place in round one but 9 out of 10 had her first in the second round."

"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."

"This is not to say that it is clear and definitive that Iris Kyle deserved the overall or that Juliette only won because her colleagues were the ones doing the judging."

"Taking the overall and the Ms. Olympia title seemed to be the proof that something wasn't quite right, as Iris Kyle, winner of the heavyweight class, seemed to be the favorite of everyone else but the judges, and was visibly upset when the title was announced."

"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."

"A lot of bodybuilding fans were expecting this to be Iris Kyle's year. After being ignored and overlook for several years - in part due to the infamous "guidelines" she had won the heavyweight Ms. Olympia last fall in Las Vegas and in the opinion of many (but, of course, not the the opinion of all) should have taken the overall. In addition, nobody could remember Iris coming into a contest in the past few years in anything but her best shape. So it seemed unlikely she would "beat herself" in the contest. Many were expecting yet another showdown between Iris and Vicky Gates. Certainly, if Vicky could bring up her legs a bit more and achieve the kind of hardness and definition Iris has become famous for, it might be quite a battle."

"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."

"But Iris Kyle, last year’s heavyweight winner had improved over the past year. Comparing body parts, it was obvious that her legs were fuller than Lenda’s – especially the back of the leg. From certain angles Lenda’s legs seemed thin – and her cavles almost non-existent – while Iris had full glutes and hamstrings as good as anyone in the contest and excellent calves."

"In short, although Lenda was still the incredible Lenda Murray we have all admired in the past, in comparison to Iris it was kind of a toss-up."

"It looked closer to me than that. Iris actually got some 3rd place votes which I found shocking. Iris should have been no worse than a close second on anyone’s scoresheet."

"On a technical basis, body part for body part, Iris is the best in the sport at this point. But her presentation is not on the same level as that of Lenda. She also lacks the super-aesthetic genetic symmetry we see in Lenda. Lenda, in that sense, is like a Flex Wheeler. Iris also suffers from lack of or actually bad publicity. She refuses to shoot for photographers without being paid a large fee. So the photographers don’t shoot her, she doesn’t get in magazines and doesn’t’ have a lot of photos to sell. Between contest she largely disappears and doesn’t seem very social or communicative at contests. These things shouldn’t play a huge role in judging bodybuilding but they have some effect. After all, Iris won the heavyweights last year, so the judges don’t hate her. But I doubt many of them look forward to having an overall Ms. Olympia who is so uncommunicative and practically invisible between contests."

"But in answer to the question that many bodybuilding fans have Emailed me – yes, Iris had better legs than Lenda and much superior calves and no, you are not an idiot if you think Iris should have won."

"However, the proof that this can be done is Iris Kyle, who was not nearly what she is now when she qualified to be a pro."

"The heavyweight class was all about Yaxeni Enrique vs. Iris Kyle. Yaxeni is bigger but Iris has almost no faults – and her glutes/hamstrings/calves are probably the best in the sport. These two were obviously the ones competing for the class title."

"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."