The winner of the 2015 Michelob Ultra Guam National Fitness Championships and International Invitational was 53-year-old competitor Jaime Rodriguez. The biggest shock, however, was a competitor nearly four decades his junior.
The 14-year-old gymnast, Ava Ramos, wowed the crowd with an acrobatic posing routine during Saturday’s show at the LeoPalace Resort in Guam.
Ramos, a high school freshman, has a gymnastics background and a history of fulfilling her dreams.
“I really wanted to milk a cow,” Ramos said backstage after the morning prejudging. “I did that in 2013 in Texas during Christmas break.”
Competing in the physique show was more than just another item on Ramos’ bucket list, though.
“She’s doing it for a tribute to Flo,” Ava’s mother, Anh, said.
Florencia Burke, a beloved champion bodybuilder, died earlier this year at 48. Burke, Anh Ramos and trainer Steve Oshiro were all very close, so Ava Ramos grew up around the sport and around Flo.
Burke’s life was an inspiration to the young competitor, and when she passed away Ava Ramos knew she had to pay homage. Ramos had already begun weight training to supplement her gymnastics, but she raised her dedication after February.
“I really didn’t think I would enter a serious competition like this,” Ava Ramos said. “I had to do it for Miss Flo.”
Oshiro said he’s never trained a physique competitor as young as Ramos, or even someone close. There was previously a youth division at the nationals, but even then, Oshiro says, he rarely worked with anyone younger than 17 or 18.
“Ava didn’t come out with the mindset that she’s going to win this whole thing,” Oshiro said, “but she definitely put in the work.”
The work was cut back a little from some of the older competitors with more mature bodies that Oshiro trains.
Ramos did all the lifting, he said, but there were dietary adjustments. She had a few more carbs and stayed a little more hydrated in the weeks leading up to the competition.
That depletion has a big impact on the athletes’ bodies, but it also affects their brains and Oshiro wanted to avoid that with someone as young as Ramos who had to pay attention in third period math.
“(My mind) still functions, I just have to think a little bit harder,” Ramos said. “Some days are fun and some days there’s just a lot of torture.”
As the nationals drew closer, Ramos’ training intensified. She kept her lifting life a secret, telling only a couple friends and none of her teachers, but it was tough to hide the exhaustion.
Ramos took a break from training with the Island Twisters for the last few weeks before the physique competition, but she showed off some gymnastics during her routine.
During the evening session her stage routine include backflips, tumbles handstand walks and the splits. She even performed to a poem she recorded over music from Eminem’s song “Not Afraid.”
Ramos was the only one from Guam to enter the physique division and she finished third overall.
Oshiro said he thinks Ramos’ performance may help inspire other young athletes to try the sport themselves.
For Ramos, though, the end of the competition means a return to the normal life of a teenager. She’ll be able to eat potato chips and Oreos again in the cafeteria.
Training was fun and all, and she’ll probably try another show in a few years, but if she got to choose between the thrill of taking the stage in front of judges and an auditorium full of fans again or repeating another bucket-list item, which would she choose?
“Milking a cow,” she said. “Definitely.”
Courtesy of: WFMY News