Irene Andersen
Women bodybuilders have revolutionized our ideas about the nature of the female physique and its ability to develop muscle and muscularity. Irene Andersen has been a part of this revolution and also taught us something about the aging process.
Irene is one of the best female bodybuilders competing for Jake Wood and Wings of Strength. She is also 53 years old.
“I first started working out in a gym when I was 15 years old,” says Irene. “I benefit from both muscle memory and muscle maturity. I’ve been training consistently for so long my body considers this degree of development to be ‘normal.’”
Science also tells us that when a bodybuilder continue to train hard for this length of time, it actually changes which genes are turned on or off. Not the genome itself, but it’s expression. This is one reason why bodybuilders, both female and male, peak at older ages than many other athletes.
Irene was a serious athlete as a girl, long before she discovered bodybuilding. She began studying and competing in martial arts, including judo and kickboxing, when she was nine years old. Some years later, she had a friend with a gym, and she started weight training – and she both liked it and her body responded quickly.
“I’d always been muscular,” Irene recalls, “so I was what people call a fast gainer.”
Irene turned eighteen in 1984 and one of her inspirations was Bev Francis. She saw the movie Pumping Iron IIand Bev became a role model, because Irene realized she had a body more like Bev’s and didn’t have the kind of slender aesthetics of somebody like Rachel McLish. But although many urged her to compete, it wasn’t until 2003 that Irene entered a show. One reason for this long delay was she gave birth to three children in the 1990s. But she never stopped training.
Irene went back to kickboxing in 1999 before focusing on bodybuilding in 2003. She then proceeded to win pretty much every female bodybuilding contest in Sweden. She set her sights on turning pro but this involved a complex process – winning the Swedish Championship, the Nordic Championship, the European Championship and top 3 in the World Championship. But since she had already beaten all the serious competition in Sweden , the Swedish Federation decided to simply grant her a pro card.
One of Irene’s great inspirations is 8 Time Ms. Olympia Lenda Murray. She admires Lenda, not only for her outstanding physique and competition success, but the classy way she has continued to represent and promote bodybuilding for women since she retired from competition.
Her first pro show was in 2006 and Irene has been competing as an IFBB pro, and then for Wings of Strength, ever since.
But in the meantime Irene Andersen accomplished something remarkable. There have been documentaries of one sort or another on bodybuilding for women since the beginning. Some, like Pumping Iron II, have been simply flawed. Many others, produced by people with no knowledge or experience of this sport, just repeated the same simplistic story over and over. But 2016 saw the release of the documentary movie Too Big For The World, in which Irene starred and helped produce. This is the first documentary that actually examines what female bodybuilding is like with both some degree of depth and accuracy.
“Even though I am in my fifties,” says Irene, “I don’t feel I am slowing down. I am looking forward to the Rising Phoenix and the Ms. Olympia. And I am very happy with the reception Too Big For The World has received. Bodybuilding for women is truly ‘Something New Under The Sun’ and I look forward to more people coming to understand and appreciate what female bodybuilders have accomplished.”
2003 Luciapokalen 1
2004 Swedish Championship qualifies 1
2004 Swedish Championship
Senior 1
Veteran 1
Couple 4
Overall title
Rookie of the year
2004 Lucia Classic 1
2005 -none
2006 Atlantic City Pro 18
2007 Sacramento Pro 7
2007 Jan Tana Classic 4
2007 Atlantic City Pro 15
2008 Tampa Pro 15
2008 Europa Supershow Dallas 4
2008 Atlantic City Pro 12
2009 IFBB New York 16
2009 Tampa Pro 10
2010 Tampa Pro 18
2010 Europa Hartford Battle of Champions 16
2011 Europa Hartford Battle of Champions 16
2012 Tampa Pro 16
2013 Tampa Pro
2014 -none
2015 Omaha 9
2015 Chicago 7
2015 Rising Phoenix 14
2016 Tampa Pro 7
2016 Rising Phoenix 8
2017 Puerto Rico 3
2017 Omaha 5
2017 Toronto 6
2017 Rising Phoenix 13
2018 Norfolk 7
2018 Tampa Pro 8
2018 Romania 4
2019 Toronto 4
2019 Puerto Rico 6
2019 Tampa Pro 8
2019 Rising Phoenix 3
2020 Rising Phoenix 5
2020 Mr Olympia 5
2021 Rising Phoenix 12
2021 Mr Olympia 5
Facebook : ireneandersenifbbpro
Instagram : ireneandersenifbbpro
email : irene_7654@hotmail.com
email: toobigfortheworld@gmail.com