New Face of Fitness : Contestants Say It Will Take Brawn and Beauty to Muscle Their Way to Fame and Fortune

It’s a lot of pain in hopes of financial gain, but the investment is worth it for Kelly McColgan, who has dreams of pursuing a career in modeling after appearing in Playboy and Swimwear Illustrated.

McColgan, a 25-year-old Hermosa Beach resident, devotes an hour a day to aerobics and lifts weights five to six days a week.

The payoff may come this month, when McColgan will be among a field of 175 contestants from 10 countries competing in the $100,000 Miss Galaxy contest in Kissimmee, Fla., a beauty pageant and “American Gladiators” style competition rolled into one. The winner of the event gets $34,000, promotional tours and appearances and opportunities for endorsements.

After winning the 1993 event, Alphie Newman earned about $70,000 in endorsements, according to George Snyder, who started the Galaxy contest last year.

Snyder, 45, is the founder of the Miss Olympia competition. He was a bodybuilding promoter for 11 years, but became alarmed by increased steroid use by women.

“Women look better without taking (drugs),” Snyder said.

Snyder envisions Galaxy contestants as role models for the average woman.

“I mean, some of these (bodybuilders) will scare you if you meet them in a dark alley. . . . They’re not building women’s bodies, they’re building an in-between type of thing, sort of a semi-man, semi-woman type of thing,” he said.

The Galaxy event is comprised of swimsuit and obstacle-course competitions. The obstacle course features tires, monkey bars, a cargo net, hurdles and a rope climb over a 10-foot wall.

McColgan, a flight attendant and mother of a 1-year-old son, recently added training sessions on the monkey bars, the rope and hurdles at a local school. Time permitting, the 5-foot-8 McColgan runs sprints on the beach.

The former collegiate swimmer views the contest as motivation to get back in shape. She won’t feel out of place competing against the likes of American Gladiator Raye (Zap) Hollitt. McColgan was a contender on the 1992 American Gladiators Live Tour.

Swimming, though, is McColgan’s forte.

When she was a 16-year-old high school sophomore in Saskatchewan, McColgan competed in the 1984 Canadian Olympic Trials in the 100-meter backstroke.

McColgan moved to Danville, Calif., for her senior year and won the North Coast Section 200-yard individual medley title at San Ramon High and earned All-American honors.

McColgan, who has a best of 2 minutes, 7.56 seconds in the 200 IM, was offered scholarships from several Division I universities, including Arizona State, San Diego State and Hawaii, but she chose to attend NCAA Division II Cal Poly San Luis Obispo for academic reasons.

As a college freshman in 1987, McColgan set school records in the 50- and 100-yard freestyle, 100 butterfly and 200 IM. She also competed in six events in the Division II national meet, including a fifth-place finish in the 200 IM.

A coaching change and uncertainty about the future of the aquatic program at San Luis Obispo led McColgan to transfer to UC Santa Barbara for her sophomore year. McColgan competed for two seasons at Santa Barbara before dropping the sport after her junior year.

“I swam for 11 months a year for 16 years; I was a little burned out,” McColgan said. “When you’re swimming, there’s not much else you can do. You swim from 5 to 7 in the morning, go to school and then swim again in the afternoon. I just wanted to graduate and try new things to stay in shape.”

That was part of the appeal of the Galaxy competition. McColgan competed in several Ms. Fitness USA competitions in 1991, but was dissatisfied with the judging criteria.

The Ms. Fitness format consists of three rounds--swimsuit, evening gown and a fitness routine--each accounting for a third of the judging.

“It seemed like everybody was doing back flips and layouts,” McColgan said. “Unless you had the ability, you wouldn’t do well.”

The Galaxy’s “obstacle course is pretty cut and dried; you get a time and it’s not someone’s opinion. It’s a true test of how athletic you are.”

Debbie Dobbins, 30, of Costa Mesa, who tied for second in 1993 Galaxy competition, is regarded among the favorites for this year’s title after Newman elected not to compete. Dobbins finished third in the 1993 Ms. Fitness USA competition, but plans to concentrate only on the Galaxy competition this year because of the emphasis on gymnastics in Ms. Fitness.

“The judges are wooed by whoever has the most impressive routine,” Dobbins said. “It has its boundaries and limitations. Miss Galaxy and Ms. Fitness are two different kinds of competition.”

Entry to the Galaxy contest is by invitation only. Snyder said he has received close to 400 entry requests, with nearly 50% coming from Florida and California. This year’s contest at Old Town, a theme park in Kissimmee, was scheduled to be a two-day event with 25 contestants. But the contest was expanded to six days because of the response.

Applicants must submit a photo and a resume. Except for elite competitors, contestants are required to pay for their lodging and air fare.

Kimiko Tanaka of Marina del Rey, a former Raiderette and host of the ESPN’s “Bodyshaping,” is also entered.

Tanaka, 28, a co-owner of a nutritional consulting firm in Venice, decided to enter the Galaxy contest because of her lifelong affection for fitness. At age 14, Tanaka competed on a synchronized swimming team that placed fourth in the Junior Olympics. She also competed in basketball and softball at La Sierra High in Riverside.

“After you graduate from high school and college, there are not many opportunities available to motivate people to stay in shape,” Tanaka said. “A lot of the girls will be competing for trophies and guest appearances. Money brings in a different breed of girl and it can become nasty and competitive.

“I’m going for the fun of it, but just the thought of allowing women to compete, and not at the bodybuilder level, is appealing.”