Bev Francis

Bev Francis is Australian professional bodybuilder. She was born in Geelong, state Victoria, Australia in 1955. Bev was the youngest of five children. Bev Francis attended Hern-Hell Elementary School, Bell Park High School and the University of Melbourne. Bev started playing sports from early childhood. From 4-15 she was engaged in ballet, in school she was engaged in athletics, swimming, football, field hockey and tennis. In the university she was engaged in volleyball, rowing and athletics. In 1976 she graduated from university. By specialty Bev is physical education teacher. In 1977 she took part in the Australian team at the Pacific Games. In 1978 she performed at the games of the British Commonwealth, in 1979 at the World Championships in Athletics, in 1981 at the Pacific Games and in 1982 at the Games of the Commonwealth. From 1980-1985, she represented Australia at the Powerlifting Championships and won all six times. Her powerlifting accolade led to her being invited by producer George Butler to take part in the film Pumping Iron II: The Women, which was being shot around the Cesar's World Cup being held in Las Vegas in December 1983. Despite years of attempting to achieve higher scores on the femininity aspect of the contests with measures including a nose job, hair bleaching, and slimming down her physique by losing muscle, Francis still failed to take first place at the major competitions. However, after successfully developing methods of achieving a more symmetrical physique while maintaining the size built from her powerlifting background she won the World Championship in 1987. She continued to experiment with her physique, leading to a disappointing 1990 Ms. Olympia. There, she was criticized as not having the fullness or muscularity compared to winner Lenda Murray, and subsequently worked on becoming as massive and symmetrical as possible for the 1991 Olympia. After the ensuing 2nd-place finish and resulting controversy, she retired from bodybuilding.