Team Herald:

MARGAO: A single-mother-of-three Viola Rodrigues from Colva as made Goa proud by winning the fourth position at the international Olympia Amateur championship held in Mumbai on October 14, even though this was the first time she was participating in this event.

“Right from my childhood I liked to exercise and keep fit and in fact used to pick up by cousin’s dumbbell to exercise as I always liked to have good biceps and abs,” she recalls, adding that her fitness regime helped her achieve the feat.

While her visits to the gym to keep fit and healthy have been erratic with ups and downs in her life, she took it up seriously this year and began exercising with a vengeance, using every taunt and negative comment at the gym to prove them wrong.

“My visits to the gym began after the birth of my third child as I had become very fat and was weighing 74 kgs which let to various medical complications including improper circulation and I was advised to lose weight,” she said.

She is very grateful to her friend Ashish Naik from Ponda who has been a guide and mentor who introduced her to Kushali Virdikar, who got her to participate in the Mr Olympia championship even though she was down with fever for a week after getting selected for the event.

“I was not sure whether I would be able to participate but Bapa Sir motivated and goaded me and in fact it was the workouts with him that helped me tone my body to meet the standards of this international meet,” she said.

According to Viola it is not easy to take up body building as it is a very expensive sport. “You have to spend money to build muscles,” she said, disclosing that at least Rs 500 was spent on chicken breast everyday in order to build the muscle mass.

“I have been lucky that my parents have been supportive, though actually it is my father who is supportive as my mother would keep nagging me that I look like a patient with the slim look,” she says.

While expressing a strong desire to continue with the sport she however felt finances may be a problem as while other participants in the event were sponsored, she had to manage everything on her own. “In fact I stitched my own posing suit as the readymade ones were too expensive,” she said adding that she had to even dip into her investments to pay the entry fee for the contest.

Viola was the only married lady in the contest and yet performed exceedingly well coming at the fourth position. “I know my shortcomings and can work on those to perform better next time as my back and hamstrings are my strong points,” she said.