AZERBAIJANI-STYLE BEAUTY OF THE BODY

The beauty of the body was demonstrated at the Sports Palace recently. However, this beauty was specific, so to speak, muscle-bound. Speaking in the official language, the European Bodybuilding, Classical Bodybuilding and Mixed Pairs Championship was held in the capital.

Incidentally, we have to point out that in the first seven years of the 21st century, Azerbaijan has had the honour of organizing the European bodybuilding championship twice. "When we found out at another congress of the European Bodybuilding and Fitness Federation that Azerbaijan has applied to hold the European championship again, we were very happy. We remember very well that the first European bodybuilding championship in Baku was held at a high level," the president of the international and European bodybuilding federations, Rafael Santonja, said at a news conference. "We also know that the European Rhythmic Gymnastics Championship and the Licensed World Wrestling Championship will be held in Baku this year, which shows that many international organizations trust your country. I think that Baku can host even larger body-building contests as well."

Unlike the first Baku bodybuilding championship which was held in 2001, the current national team of Azerbaijan were stronger this time and competed for higher places. "If before we could hope only for medals from one Azerbaijani bodybuilder, now we are ready to compete for a higher place as a team," the president of the Azerbaijani Bodybuilding Federation, Rauf Bunya-daliyev, said in an interview with R+. The possibilities of Azerbaijani sportsmen were also highly rated by the vice-president of the European Bodybuilding and Fitness Federation, Pawel Filleborn. "The Azerbaijan national team is quite strong, and I would not be wrong if I said that your bodybuilders will not be left without medals at the continental championship. Of course, I am not a referee, and that's why I cannot say what sort of medals they will be. But the hosts will not be left empty-handed, and that's for sure," he said.

The events showed that the country's main bodybuilder knew what he was saying. The words of Pawel Filleborn turned out to be prophetic as well. Azerbaijani bodybuilders won two silver and two bronze medals, while our team took second place after the Russians who won gold medals in seven of the eight weight categories. The Azerbaijan national team won silver medals thanks to Yalcin Mammadov (70 kg) and Vuqar Verdiyev (85 kg), while the bronze was gained by Tahir Faxraddinov and Teymur Aslanov in classical bodybuilding.

Behind the scene

At first sight, you may think that bodybuilding is quite an easy sport the main essence of which is to stand on the stage being closely watched by the referees. In reality, this should be achieved through lengthy and tiring training, a strict regime and a diet. Posing itself takes a lot of power, which our R+ correspondent saw for himself behind the scene where the bodybuilders go immediately after their performance. I felt sorry for the bodybuilders with their masses of muscles. They were so tired and worn out, asked for water and drank a litre of water in one go. Posing is not an easy job, even for bodybuilders.

Although bodybuilding is still regarded as a nontraditional sport, it has quite traditional fans, and they even have something in common with football fans. Only the famous wave created by football fans was not enough for complete similarity. The anxiety of coaches and representatives of other sports causes special feelings. In which sport can you hear a coach prompt his trainee: "Show your breast, show your back, play with your foot…" One of the representatives of the Ukrainian team was not happy about his sportsman: "What are you looking at yourself? Have you fallen in love? Take the right pose quickly, you are not in Ukraine, you are at the European championship…" Emotions are running high just like at the world football championship.

Returning to the results of the European championship in Baku, we should point out that the president of the federation, Rauf Bunyadaliyev, said after the contest that Azerbaijani bodybuilders deserved gold medals as well. "No-one expected our team to take the second place. Although I think that many would agree that Vuqar Verdiyev deserved the gold medal as well. They were surprised how he managed to take second place. Even the leaders of the Russian Bodybuilding Federation were ready to give us their gold medals in the weight category in which Vuqar Verdiyev performed if such a decision had been made. The Russians told me that on seeing our sportsman during weighing, they started preparing their trainee for the second place as they were sure that Vuqar Verdiyev would take first place in view of his perfect proportions," Rauf Bunyadaliyev shared his impressions. "The thing is that the Poles, Czechs and Slovaks who are leaders of world bodybuilding came to Baku with completely equipped national teams and hoped to take first place," Ruad Bunyadaliyev went on to say. "And the referees from those countries turned against us, pressurizing the Azerbaijani bodybuilders and hoping that their teams would surpass us in the team contest. They realized that they would not be able to catch up with Russia in any case, which is why they tried to "drown" us in order to win top prizes after the Russians. But they failed, and we overtook such teams as the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland and Ukraine which take the first places in all world and European championships.

A little bit of history

If we look on bodybuilding as part of the idea of "athleticism", its roots should be sought in ancient Greece. The Heraclean Caves in the southern part of the peninsula can be regarded as the prototype of the first athletic halls. They still preserve stone sports installations that are almost 3,000 years old. The great  phylosopher Plato is known as the most outstanding athlete of the ancient period and the winner of 93 Olympic games. In modern history, athleticism was given an impetus for development at the end of the 19th century. This is when people became interested in making muscles grow bigger. Powerful muscles were regarded not only as a means of survival and self-defence, but also as return to the ancient Greek ideal - a harmonically-developed human body.

If we look at body-building in its modern sense, its history is closely related to the names of the Canadians Ben and Joe Weiders - the first president and vice-president of the International Federation of Bodybuilding. Everything started in 1946 when Joe played for one of Montreal's heavy athletic clubs and was a member of the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) which set the pace in heavy athletics. Bodybuilding was also taken under the wing as a shunned stepson. Bodybuilding contests were usually held at the end of athletic shows. But one day, an athletic contest suddenly dragged on. And it became known that the term for leasing the hall had expired. The bodybuilders were cornered into a small room behind the scene where there was a dim bulb under the ceiling. In order to allow the referees to work, the sportsmen were forces to stand on a table that was there (!). You could not think up anything more humiliating for people who had spent more than half a year preparing for the contest. After that, a decision was made to hold separate bodybuilding tournaments. 

Fifteen minutes before the beginning of preliminary refereeing when the athletes had already lined up, a courier gave Joe a telegram from the AAU headquarters in the USA. In the telegram, the president banned separate bodybuilding contests and obliged him to notify the sportsmen that anyone who takes part in it will be disqualified and expelled from the AAU forever. Having read the telegram aloud, Joe and Ben announced that they will not cancel the tournament in any circumstances. Moreover, they decided right there to set up their own organization of bodybuilders and told those present about it. After that, everyone was free to decide himself - to leave or to stay. None of the body-builders left the hall. This is how the International Federation of Bodybuilding (IFBB) was set up. It was the first organization that started defending the interests of bodybuilders and bodybuilding as a sport. Now the IFBB is the largest organization of bodybuilders and has representative offices in 174 countries of the world. And recently, bodybuilding (the IFBB version) was granted status as an Olympic sport.