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Fitness Models - Photos of Top Figure Competitor Lea Waide

Biography

I was born in West Point, Mississippi to Jim and Jacque Waide. My mom always tells me that I was turning cartwheels on the way out, and I haven't stopped since.

I began dancing at the age of three. My first recital videotape shows me in a shoving match with another pre-schooler over where I was going to do my headstand. I won.

My mom, Jacque Hillman, owned the Dancers' Studio, where I spent most of my time until the age of 12. My dance team practiced four days a week and we competed all over the South. At age 9, I competed before 6,000 people in Myrtle Beach, S.C. and our team, from a small studio, took a first in the nation in acrobatics.

After moving to Somerville, Tennessee, I continued to dance and take acrobatics under my mother at the Karen Thorpe School of Dance and my aunt Karen Thorpe.

I reached a point in my dancing where my mom felt that I should branch out to other studios. My stepdad, Jesse Hillman, would drive me an hour to Memphis every Saturday morning to take ballet class at Memphis Classical Ballet. I also took lessons with Memphis Concert Ballet and the Mid-South Academy of Performing Arts. I competed all the time. My room upstairs at mother’s is filled with trophies, ribbons and plaques.

During junior high and high school at Fayette Academy I was a UCA All-Star cheerleader, ran track and played volleyball. In 1995 I graduated with honors and left for the University of Tennessee Knoxville. My freshman year I pledged Kappa Delta Sorority and made some of the best friends of my life. I also became a part of the UT Dance Team, which was an experience I won't soon forget. We earned 6th place in the UDA competition in Orlando in 1995. As a child my dad used to call me "little Ms.Independent," so it didn't come as a surprise when I decided to move to Las Vegas after the spring semester of my junior year. My sister was back from a tour in Japan and wanted to audition for a Las Vegas show and work there. I was ready for a new challenge. My dad took us out to Vegas to have a look on my spring break. That was all it took. In June 1998 we loaded up the U-Haul and headed out. Since we were unemployed, we moved into a bad apartment on a bad side of town and started going to auditions. We took our pictures and resumes to all the agencies and soon began getting convention work and other odd jobs. Then, in August I auditioned with Dick Foster Productions for the show "Imagine." I landed the job as a dancer and acrobat and I also learned to perform Spanish Web. This meant acquiring major upper body strength to climb a rope 60 feet over the stage and then perform various tricks on it. Fitness became a major part of my life.

At this time, I was also a dance major at the University of Nevada Las Vegas, but I realized I didn't need a degree to tell me that I could dance so I decided to take a break.

I had seen fitness competitions on television when I lived in Tennessee but was clueless about how to get started. And, my body looked nothing like the girls on I saw on TV. I had joined the Las Vegas Athletic Club and picked up a publication listing their personal trainers. Rick Nelson's bio caught my eye. He was a former military master fitness instructor, and I wanted someone who was hard core. I needed someone who would really push me.

We met just long enough for me to threaten him with his life if he made my legs bigger, and we started the next week. In January, he said that it was time for me to get serious and get ready to compete. My diet was very strict, I was hiking for hours almost every day, and I began going to gymnastics classes with Phillip Millaudon. Ninety days later, and 30 pounds lighter, I competed in my first competition--Ms. Fitness Arizona--and I took first place.i continued to compete that year and finished strongly with a 6th place in my first national fitness show, the Ms. fitness USA. The following year I decided to pursue fitness more seriously and switched to the NPC to try to obtain professional status with the IFBB. I won the tall class at the NPC USA in 2003, earning my pro card in front of my hometown crowd. It was an awesome experience! During that time I also completed my degree in Marketing at UNLV.

Currently I am working as a fitness model and special events planner. I am looking forward to making a splash on the pro scene in 2005. The road to becoming a fitness competitor was not an easy one to travel, nor is it an easy one to maintain. But I am persistent. I will persevere.

Website

www.leawaide.net

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