Alina Popa

Last updated
Alina Popa [1]
Bodybuilder
IFBB Pro Alina Popa flexing triceps.jpg
Personal info
NicknameThe Romanian Queen of Bodybuilding
Born (1978-10-12) October 12, 1978 (age 46) [1]
Brăila, Socialist Republic of Romania [1]
Height5 ft 6 in (1.68 m) [2]
WeightIn Season: 160–165 lb (73–75 kg)
Off-Season: 180–185 lb (82–84 kg) [3] [2]
Professional career
Pro-debut
Best win
Predecessor Helle Trevino [2]
SuccessorHelle Trevino [2]
Active2010-2018 [3]

Alina Evelina Popa Molinari (born October 12, 1978) is a Romanian-born former professional female bodybuilder currently living in the USA.

Contents

Early life and education

Popa grew up Brăila, Romania. From the age of 12, she competed in track and field, initially to lose weight. n 1997, she graduated Lic Th Gh. Munteanu-Murgoci Brăila. She studied English, Romanian, majoring in the former with a teaching degree, and literature at the University of Galați, where she was part of the Galati University "Dănărea de Jos" Sports Club and graduated in 2002. She studied Culinary arts at the Auguste Escoffier School of Culinary Arts and graduated in 2015. [4] [1] [3]

Bodybuilding career

Amateur

At 18, Alina entered a gym in Brăila just to keep fit and lose some weight, but immediately fell in love with bodybuilding. In 1998, she began to read bodybuilding magazines. There was one female in the gym getting ready for the National Junior Championship and she felt admiration for her and wished she had her muscles. She kept on training for the next two years until one day she entered another gym in another town, where she was a student, and the trainer there saw her potential and suggested to her she should train to compete. [2] [3] [5]

In 1998, a gym owner suggested she compete in fitness. She started training to compete in fitness. However, immediately as she gained muscle, her trainer said they were too muscular for the division and that they should compete as a bodybuilder. Her role model was Lenda Murray. She competing for Romania till 2005, then in 2006 she moved to Switzerland and competed for Switzerland. In 2008, she received her IFBB pro card after winning the overall and heavyweight at the 2008 Worlds Santa Susanna. [3]

Professional

At the 2010 Ms. International, Alina had her pro debut, where she placed 8th. [3] In 2011, Dylan Armbrust, owner of Armbrust Pro Gym and former husband of professional bodybuilder Heather Armbrust, asked Alina for an autograph and she moved to Colorado to train with Dylan at the Armbrust Pro Gym. [6] At the 2011 Ms. International, she placed 3rd and qualified for her first Ms. Olympia. At the 2011 Ms. Olympia, she placed 5th. At the 2012 Ms. International, she placed 3rd. At the 2012 Ms. Olympia, she placed 4th. [7]

Alina decided sit out the 2013 Ms. International in order to focus on the 2013 Ms. Olympia. [8] At the 2013 Ms. Olympia, she placed 2nd. In 2014, she began being sponsored by Supplement Giant and at the 2014 Ms. Olympia, she placed 2nd again. In 2015, due to injuries, she did not participate in the 2015 Rising Phoenix World Championships. [9] She returned to competing in 2016 and at the 2016 Rising Phoenix World Championships, she placed 3rd. In 2018, she won her first IFBB Pro League contest, the Muscle Vodka Tampa Pro. At the 2018 Rising Phoenix World Championships, she won the Ms. Rising Phoenix title and retired from bodybuilding. [7]

Legacy

Since November 1, 2018, Alina has been Vice President of European Operations & Athletes' Rep of Wings of Strength. She promotes three IFBB Pro League contests—the Alina Popa Classic Pro, the Romania Muscle Fest Pro and the Masters Olympia. [10] [11]

Contest history

Best statistics

Personal life

Popa currently lives in Arvada, Colorado, [13] and she is divorced. As of September 11, 2013, Popa started working at Armbrust Pro Gym in Wheat Ridge, Colorado, as a personal trainer, and also poses as a freelance fitness model. [1] [3]

Related Research Articles

Lenda Murray is an American professional female bodybuilding champion.

Female bodybuilding is the female component of competitive bodybuilding. It began in the late 1970s, when women began to take part in bodybuilding competitions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Iris Kyle</span> American bodybuilder (born 1974)

Iris Floyd Kyle is an African-Indian American professional female bodybuilder. She is currently the most successful, female or male, professional bodybuilder ever. She has a total of twenty professional bodybuilding titles, with ten overall and two heavyweight Ms. Olympia titles and seven overall and one heavyweight Ms. International titles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dayana Cadeau</span> American bodybuilding champion (born 1966)

Dayana M. Cadeau is a Haitian Canadian professional female bodybuilder.

Gayle Moher is a British-American professional bodybuilder.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Betty Pariso</span> American professional female bodybuilder (born 1956)

Betty Carmichael Pariso is an American professional female bodybuilder. She is the oldest professional female bodybuilder to win the overall of an International Federation of Bodybuilding and Fitness Professional League contest at the age of 53 years old.

Lisa Cross is a professional British female bodybuilder.

Monique Jones is an American professional female bodybuilder.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Heather Armbrust</span> American professional female bodybuilder

Heather Marie Armbrust is an American professional female bodybuilder.

Dr. Dena Michele Westerfield, D.C., is an American IFBB professional female bodybuilder, chiropractic doctor, personal trainer and massage therapist. She lives in Chesterfield, a suburb of St. Louis, Missouri.

Sheila R. Bleck is an American retired professional female bodybuilder.

Kimberly "Kim" Ann Chizevsky-Nicholls is an American professional female bodybuilding champion, fitness, and figure competitor.

Yaxeni Oriquen-Garcia is a Venezuelan-American retired professional bodybuilder.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Helle Trevino</span> US-based Danish professional female bodybuilder

Helle Trevino is a United States–based Danish professional female bodybuilder and the title winner of the 2017 and the 2019 Rising Phoenix World Championships.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Colette Nelson</span> American professional female bodybuilder

Colette Nelson is a former American professional female bodybuilder and nurse practitioner.

The IFBB Pro League Wings of Strength Rising Phoenix Women's Bodybuilding World Championships is a professional female bodybuilding competition, promoted by Wings of Strength and founded by Jake and Kristal Wood., and sanctioned by the International Federation of Bodybuilding (IFBB). It is considered to be the most prestigious IFBB Professional League all women's bodybuilding event in the world. The show's inception came as a result of the elimination of the Ms. Olympia, being the pinnacle of women's bodybuilding from 2015 to 2019, while the Ms. Olympia contest was on hiatus. The first championship show took place in conjunction with the IFBB Texas Pro, the NPC Tim Gardner Texas Extravaganza, and the NPC National on August 22, 2015, at the Grand Hyatt, San Antonio, Texas.

Margie V. Martin, nicknamed "The Marvelous One", is an American professional female bodybuilder. She is the first Ms Rising Phoenix of the 2015 and the 2016 IFBB Wings of Strength Rising Phoenix World Championships.

The 2016 Rising Phoenix World Championships was an IFBB Wings of Strength female professional bodybuilding competition and held in conjunction with the IFBB Arizona Pro. It was held on September 10, 2016 at the Talking Stick Resort in Scottsdale, Arizona.

Andrea Shaw is an American professional bodybuilder. She holds five Ms. Olympia title wins and four Ms. Rising Phoenix title wins.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Theresa Ivancik</span> American bodybuilder

Theresa M. Ivancik is an American professional bodybuilder and former professional physique and figure contestant. She is currently ranked as the 7th best professional female bodybuilder.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 "Alina Popa". Facebook. Retrieved May 18, 2014.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 About Me 2008
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 "IFBB Professional Bodybuilder ALINA POPA". amg. 2010-04-04. Retrieved May 18, 2014.
  4. Alina Popa Work and Education
  5. Q & A with the hosts
  6. Mile High Muscle Show : Episode One
  7. 1 2 3 Alina Popa Muscle Memory Profile
  8. 2013 Ms. International Preview: Iris Kyle Seeks Her Seventh Title
  9. Mile High Muscle Show: Episode 5 , retrieved 2022-02-26
  10. 2024 IFBB Pro League Schedule
  11. 2023 IFBB Pro League Schedule WOMEN’S BODYBUILDING
  12. 1 2 3 Iron Belles
  13. "Alina Popa". Twitter. Retrieved May 18, 2014.