She’s a Good Sport : Athlete Reluctantly Enters Beauty Contest and Wins

Kristin Dietz of La Habra said she never would have entered a beauty contest. But a contest for Most Beautiful Athlete was different.

Dietz, 21, a UCLA psychology student, had won the title of most valuable in various sports at Sonora High School in La Habra before she broke her leg playing soccer in her senior year.

But when she heard about the new contest in San Diego, titled Most Beautiful Athlete, and its $3,000 scholarship prize, she was reluctant.

“I just never thought of myself that way,” she said. “I don’t have anything against beauty contests, but it’s not me.”

However, when she learned that the contest was geared more to physical fitness and athletic competition, she said, “it seemed to fit me . . . . I guess if the contest sponsors didn’t have the beauty angle, it would have been just another athletic competition.”

Dr. Ernest Vandeweghe, a member of the President’s Council on Physical Fitness who developed the contest and raised $150,000 from grants and sponsors, said, “That’s precisely why we did it this way. I felt if we could show physical fitness being practiced by pretty girls, it would attract attention and get people to get themselves in shape.”

Vandeweghe, who specializes in sports medicine, said that next year he plans to spread the contest to more universities across the nation.

Chandler Lippitt, who operates a Corona del Mar summer sports camp and who coordinated the contest, acknowledged “it has a sexist connotation, but if we hope to get this on television next year, we have to give people a reason to watch it besides the competition.”

Sponsored by Coca-Cola, Michelob and Sea World among others, the event drew 32 women from 19 universities throughout the country. Most entered through their schools’ athletic departments.

Dietz entered through her sorority.

The 32 competed at various San Diego locations, and the finalists competed aboard the U.S. aircraft carrier Kittyhawk.

First, judges rated the contestants on personal appearance, personality and fitness, each accounting for 25% in the scoring.

The fitness competition involved 60-yard dashes, 25-yard swims, tennis accuracy serves and a basketball shootout.

Heart rate, percentage of body fat and flexibility entered also into the scoring.

Six finalists then competed in four events for the final 25% of the scoring. Those were a sprint race, vertical jump, basketball throw and demonstration of flexibility.

Dietz won them all.

“Actually, when I first heard of the contest I was really scared,” Dietz said. “I thought it was going to be something more like the triathlon, and that’s tough. As it was, all the events were in my strong suits. Next year the sponsors should toughen up the individual events.”

Although she saw a “competitive energy to win,” Dietz said, “It really wasn’t a cutthroat competition.”