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| Sport | Bodybuilding, Figure, Physique. |
|---|---|
| Abbreviation | WFF |
| Founded | 1968, Germany |
| Headquarters | Melbourne, Australia |
| President | Graeme Lancefield |
| Official website | |
| www | |
The World Fitness Federation or WFF, is an international bodybuilding organisation formed in 1968. The WFF promotes classic or athletic bodybuilding with a focus on the aesthetic quality of the physique as opposed to just muscularity.
The WFF was founded in 1968 in Germany by Klaus Hoffmann. The early WFF events were promoted within Eastern Europe, however throughout the 1990s international interest in WFF events drew support from far and wide and today the WFF is supported throughout every continent. Graeme Lancefield became the World President of WFF in 2013, taking over from Hoffmann upon his retirement.
In 2014 and 2015, major WFF events were staged outside of Europe for the first time with the 2014 WFF Universe being held in South Korea and the World Championships being hosted by Australia and South Africa in 2014 and 2015 respectively.
2016 saw WFF expand into the US with the WFF Universe being held in Orlando, Florida. In 2018, the WFF World Championships were held in Huntington Beach, California and were hosted by celebrity bodybuilder, Lauren Powers.
The WFF currently stages two major international competitions each year. These events are Pro Qualifier competitions, where individuals are eligible to earn Professional Status within the WFF.
Other Pro Qualifier events include the European Championships, Asia Pacific Championships, Pan-American Cup and others.
In 2014 the WFF Professional Division was created to provide an additional level of elite level competition. The first WFF Pro event was the 2015 WFF Universe held in La Ciotat, France.
WFF offers professional classes for men and women in bodybuilding, bikini and sports modelling. Class winners at WFF International major events and continental championships are offered pro status and the opportunity to compete for prize money.
WFF Pro qualifiers are open to all amateur competitors.
The Universe Championships are annual worldwide bodybuilding events organised by the British National Amateur Body-Builders' Association (NABBA). Originally promoted as the Mr. Universe contest, the event was expanded to include women's classes in 1968. Notable previous winners include bodybuilder, actor, and former governor of California Arnold Schwarzenegger, and bodybuilder and actor Steve Reeves (1926–2000).
Juliette Bergmann is a Dutch female bodybuilding champion.
The International Fitness and BodyBuilding Federation (IFBB), headquartered in Las Rozas (Madrid), is an international professional sports governing body for bodybuilding and fitness that oversees many of the sport's major international events, notably the World and Continental Championships.
Female bodybuilding is the female component of competitive bodybuilding. It began in the late 1970s, when women began to take part in bodybuilding competitions.
The National Amateur Body-Builders' Association, more commonly referred to as NABBA, was founded in 1950 by the Health & Strength League to promote bodybuilding. Although the original intention was to promote physique contests in the United Kingdom, the popularity of the Mr Universe contest, and later Ms Universe contest, drew interest from competitors around the world. Today NABBA International maintains affiliations with around 60 countries.
Lee Andrew McCutcheon is a competitive bodybuilder. He is a former International Federation of BodyBuilders (IFBB) professional bodybuilder and a current National Amateur Body-Builders' Association (NABBA) professional athlete.
Fitness and figure competition is a class of physique-exhibition events mainly for women but also men. While bearing a close resemblance to bodybuilding, its emphasis is on muscle definition, not size. The class was introduced when bodybuilding's popularity began to decline.
Professional bodybuilding or pro bodybuilding can refer to bodybuilding for an income and/or possessing qualifications such as an IFBB Pro, IFBB Elite Pro or Wabba International Pro Card.
The International Federation of Bodybuilding and Fitness Professional League (IFBB Pro League) is the largest international professional sports governing body federation in the world for professional bodybuilding, physique, fitness, figure, bikini and wellness. It sanctions the most prestigious competitions in bodybuilding at the Mr Olympia and Ms. Olympia, and the second most prestigious competitions in bodybuilding at the Arnold Sports Festival and Rising Phoenix World Championships.
Yelena Aleksandrovna Panova, often spelled Elena Panova, is a female bodybuilder from Voronezh, Russia
Elena Shportun-Willemer is a professional female bodybuilder who mainly competes in European bodybuilding competitions. She is known in the bodybuilding world for her artistic style of posing which involves modern and belly dancing, classic lines and symmetry which are often compared with those from the female bodybuilders from the late 1970s and early 1980s such as Cory Everson and Anja Langer. Although Shportun-Willemer has had the opportunity to compete at the pro level she has opted to remain competitive as an amateur level and recently won the 2009 Arnold Amateur International Bodybuilding Championship.
Dayo Audi is active in the sport of bodybuilding, not only as a competitor but also in training fitness enthusiasts and athletes up to national level. Dayo Audi achieved professional status in 1999, competing for the first time in the Masters Olympia in the US in August 2003, where he achieved 11th place.
Brigita Brezovac is a retired Slovenian professional bodybuilder.
The Mr. Australia contest, now known as the Australian Championships, is a bodybuilding contest for men and women organised by WFF Australia. It includes fitness, figure, bikini and sports model competitions. The Australian Championships is a National Qualifier for major international events.
Bodybuilding in the United States traces its early history to the 1860s when it was based on the east coast. By the 1940s, it had arrived in Hawaii. In the same period, the country was involved with the early internationalization of the sport. The sport had a golden age during the 1960s and 1970s when much of the activity was taking place on the west coast. Bodybuilding for women began to take off during the 1970s. A number of changes took place in the 1980s.
Rūta Bunkutė is a current IFBB/NPC Amateur fitness and figure competitor from Lithuania.
Lucion Anton Pushparaj,Tamil: லூசியன் ஆண்டன் புஷ்பராஜ்;(born September 10, 1982) also spelled Lucian Pushparaj, nicknamed Black Lion of Asia, is a Sri Lankan male IFBB professional bodybuilder. He has taken part in several notable international competitions. On 16 December 2018, he became the first Sri Lankan to win the WBPF World Championship title, and was crowned WBPF Mr. Universe.
Carlos G. Duque is an actively competing International Federation of Bodybuilding and Fitness professional bodybuilder.
Mikhail Volinkin is an Uzbekistani first IFBB professional bodybuilder and winner of Arnold Amateuer Classics 2018 overall in heavyweight category.
Uzbekistan Bodybuilding and Fitness Federation is the governing body of amateur and professional bodybuilding in Uzbekistan. It was officially founded and registered in 2006 by Timur Sabirov, Odil Abdurakhmonov and Dmitriy Adisman. Uzbekistan Bodybuilding and Fitness Fedeartion is officially recognised by National Olympic Committee of Uzbekistan. The headquarters is located in Tashkent. The Federation is member of Asian Bodybuilding and Physique Sports Federation (AFBB) and World Bodybuilding & Physique Federation (WBPF). The Federation is responsible for the promotion and growth of the game of bodybuilding in Uzbekistan
