Janice Lorraine, now 83, was 56 when she saw something that changed her forever.
An elderly woman was trying to get out of a car near her gym, her arms and legs so thin that she could barely support herself. Janice told herself she would never end up that way. That day, retired and accustomed only to aerobics classes, she decided to enter a gym that at the time was almost exclusively male territory.
A trainer noticed her eagerness to learn and coached her for twelve months. Then he invited her to compete in Sydney. She won on her first attempt, and from then on she never stopped: she traveled to Hawaii, Greece, Dubai, Phuket, and Prague representing women’s natural bodybuilding. Last November, at the world championship in Prague, she was crowned champion just days after turning 80, becoming the first woman to compete internationally in this discipline at that age.
Today, young athletes take photos with her and call her their inspiration. Janice says she hasn’t changed on the inside, but now she feels more confident than ever about showing herself just as she is.