Here's some more of my background that you may be wondering about!

After qualifying for the Olympia by placing 4th at the GNC, getting the sliding qualification(which means the top 3 girls had already qualified for the O, giving me the last qualification for the fitness Olympia in 2004), I immediately continued with my contest training. Once I got home, I took about 1 or 2 days off from my strict diet and let my body heal a bit from all the hard training up until that point. I was still in shock, to tell you the truth about making it to the Fitness Olympia in my first year as a Pro. Honestly, back when I started fitness, my first goal was to turn pro, and my ultimate goal was to one day qualify for the Fitness Olympia before I retired. Of course, once I turned Pro, my dream was to qualify in my first year, but I truly thought that would be impossible with all the girls that were pro’s for more than a year and had the same drive, determination and talent that I had, with the same goal in mind. In my first year, I even did better than I ever expected, and couldn’t be happier with my placing’s at any of the shows that I competed in. To see my progress and placings in my shows, I wrote about that in my first blog for my website, so feel free to read that post to see how climbed my way up the ranks and qualified for the O! One thing that I may not have mentioned, that is worth mentioning, is that in my first pro show, which was the NY Pro show, placing 8th out of 23 girls…..I ended up winning the mandatory 45 second fitness routine with a perfect score! That feat in itself, was an accomplishment that I will never forget! Even though I didn’t do as well in the other 3 rounds, the fact that I nailed that routine and won it, gave me hope that I would one day step on the Olympia stage if I could make the appropriate changes to my physique and 2 minute routine for any of the other shows I would compete in.

So, getting to my first Olympia debut, looking back, it all seems like a whirlwind, and came and went faster than imagined. The whole year training for all the shows, the dieting, the endless hours practicing my routine, posing, cooking, mood swings..lol, and the other necessary daily activities that needed to be done from day to day with the lack of much needed energy came to an end upon the arrival and ending of Olympia weekend.
The whole weekend in Vegas was like a dream…..a big blur….I felt so weird going to all the meetings, seeing all my “fans”, sitting at the “meet the Olympians” banquet and all the other things that came with being in the Olympia.

In previous years that I attended the Olympia, I was there to work a booth, to see the show and meet all the pro’s myself, always getting nervous to approach any of them. But now, I was one of the pro’s competing in the Olympia, and people were walking around and waiting to meet me…..that in itself, was strange, and to be on the competitor side was something I had never imagined.
Ok, now to the actual show. In the morning we had the 45 second mandatory fitness routine round, the one piece round and the two piece round. As the way things usually go within this sport, and how callouts were concerned, I was pretty much right on track. Since I was the only U.S. rookie of the year, I really didn’t expect to make a mark, or wow the judges on the panel. Heck, I qualified in the very last show possible, and wasn’t even in the Olympia program, given to the spectators, due to the fact of my qualification so close to the Olympia itself….hence, the programs were basically printed out prior to my sliding qualification. It’s funny, I remember walking around the venue, and even sitting at the “meet the Olympians” banquet, hearing people say “ when did Teri qualify?…, I didn’t even know she qualified!” Well, even though many didn’t know I qualified, or even knew I was there, definitely knew who I was by the end of the weekend!
So, after the preliminaries, we, the athletes, had one more meeting to go over how the night show was to go, being that it was the first time ever that the fitness porttion was to be televised by pay-per-view. How exciting, I thought…this was my first Olympia, and the first time it was to be televised live! All of my friends back home were psyched for me and were even having “Olympia” parties back at home to watch me compete!….wow, to think my own friends were sittin’ and waitin’ back home to see me perform….what a crazy feeling!
Now, the whole weekend was goin’ great, and I looked the best I think, I have looked all year to date. But, the one thing that concerned me was a nagging pain that I had in my left hamstring. Throughout the year, my left hamstring had been tight, and giving me grief when practicing my routines. But, as any athlete would do, I just continued to stretch it, massage it, and ice it, as much as possible to keep the discomfort at a minimum.
Moving on with my story, and bringing you to the climax of my Olympia experience……
Now, do I have your attention? If not, then not to worry, my story is over for now….but If I do have your attention….good…..this is sort of like a soap opera…..you must wait until my next blog entry to see how this story unfolds and ends….until then, feel free to leave some comments or questions regarding what you may have heard, or thought, cause I love to fill in the gaps of the true story, to those of you who still have questions and enough heart to hear the whole truth from the source itself…..Me!