In 2021, at 64 years old, Marlene Flowers entered her first bodybuilding competition. Oiled, tanned and wearing a bikini, the auto repair shop owner from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, found herself under bright lights on stage, twisting and contorting to show off her taut muscles alongside people half her age. Once the flexing was over, she then performed a one-minute posing routine to the theme song from Flashdance, one of her favourite films. “I was terrified to get out there but as soon as I did, I realised everyone was so encouraging and supportive,” she says. “We all wanted each other to succeed and I walked away with a trophy.”
If you had told Flowers when she was in her 50s that she would be inviting people to judge her figure, she would have laughed in your face. She had a natural aptitude for freestyle swimming as a child, but struggled with her body image. Self-conscious and often shy, Flowers went on to marry and divorce twice. “It all affected my self-esteem and I ended up with an eating disorder for many years,” she says. “It was getting worse and worse until I was hospitalised for issues relating to my weight loss at 58. That was my wake-up call.”
