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Article care of juliettebergmann.com
I was born on Sunday November 30, 1958, in
Vlaardingen, the Netherlands. My father is
Indonesian and my mother is Dutch and they gave me the best from both
worlds. I had an older brother who died when I was four years old.
My parents then decided to have more children and they gave me a
sister, who is also a very good Bodybuilder, and two brothers. For
a couple of years we were a happy family of six. Then one of my
younger brothers died, I was 12 years at that time. My mother, who
lost two children, had a very difficult time and I had to take
care for my younger sister and brother. I had a difficult
childhood since that time but it also made me what I am today,
serious, disciplined, loyal and responsible.
I finished school and
studied financial management, journalism, aerobic and fitness
training. When I was 17 I met my (now) ex- husband Jan
Meijer and we stayed together for 10 years. This explains to many
of you why my name was Juliette Meijer, when I first started to
compete as professional. I used my maiden name again and moved to Middelharnis in 1985 and still live there with my friend,
my sister and daughter Roxanne. We have a publishing company,
travel agency and the Gym (Ironman Gym). When I am not traveling I
am at the office during the daytime and in the evenings I work
(besides training) in the Gym. I travel a lot because for the past
10 years I have been a Pro-Judge and secretary/treasurer of the NBBF
(Dutch Bodybuilding and Fitness federation). I also do a lot of
guest posing.
I started training in 1981
together with my ex- husband. The main reason to workout for me
was to lose weight, definitely not to become a bodybuilder. I
decided to become a bodybuilder after I visited a bodybuilding
contest in 1983 and noticed how good the girls looked. The owner
of the gym persuaded me to compete and I did my first and second
contest the end of that same year, I won both shows. In 1984 I competed in
my first National Championship and came in second after Erica Mes
and Ellen van Maris and qualified for my first European
Championship in Den Hague, Netherlands where I finished seventh. The
owner of the gym where I trained at that time did not know how to
help me further and brought me in contact with Jim Lensveld who
was and still is the vice- president of the Dutch National
Bodybuilding and Fitness Federation. Jim owns a gym in
Middelharnis and for two years I traveled everyday one hour to the
gym in Middelharnis and one hour back to my home, which at that time
was in Oud-Beijerland/Rotterdam.
After my divorce I moved to
Middelharnis and Jim became my trainer and my friend and we
are still together. Jim trained with me and ran with me in my
contest preparations and I did well after that. End of 1984 I won
my first National Championship and in 1985 my second. I qualified
again for the European Championships, this time in Madrid, Spain
and won the lightweight division with straight first places. Then
I had to compete again in a National Championship to qualify for
the World Championship in Brussel, Belgium. I won my third
National Championship and qualified for the World Championship. I
was very impressed by all the other competitors and had no idea
that I was better than all of them. I had one comparison the whole
show and did not expect that I was doing well. Later I heard that
they compared me one time just to let the audience see me. I
discovered I had already won in the line- up, again with straight first places and
qualified for the Ms. Olympia 1985 in New York.
By that time, after
competing in the National Championships, two qualifiers, European and
World Championships and the personal difficulties (my divorce) all
in the same year, I was completely burned out. At the
Olympia, I had for my fans a very
disappointing 14th place finish.
The next
year, 1986, I had a guest appearance together with Berry de Mey in
Orange County and Jim and I stayed at Steve Wennerstrom's place
for a while. I looked so good at that show that Jim Lorrimer
invited me to compete in the Ms. International. I decided
"why not" I was
there anyway so I competed and finished second to Erica Giessen
with only one point difference. I lost the posing round. One week
after the Ms. International, I was in the still in the States so
again "why not," I
competed in the L.A. Pro Show and finished second to Diana Dennis.
At that show Tony Pearson approached me to do the Pro World
Championship Couples together with him and I agreed. We picked out
music and made our own individual best poses each at our own home,
he in the States and I in the Netherlands. We matched the poses
together by sending Polaroid photos to each other and matching
them with our individual poses. One week before the Pro World
Championships ?86 in Toronto, Canada we got together and
practiced the routine for half a day. I won the women?s Pro
World Championships from Diana Dennis and with Tony Pearson I made
it complete by also winning the Pro-World Championship mixed
pairs. In November 1986 I competed in the Ms. Olympia and
finished 6th. In 1987 I had a very busy year and made
mistakes like everybody does in their lives but to my surprise, finished
9th at the Ms. Olympia 1987. I still do not
understand that placing because I was totally out of shape and
should not have competed, I looked like a power lifter and was 6
kilos heavier than I normally was at a contest. After that Ms.
Olympia I changed my diet and started to do a lot of running, my
training stayed the same. Three months later
I went to Nice, France to compete in the pro- World Championships
?88 but after the drugs test I was told, one hour before
the show, that I tested positive. I know that that was not
possible but I learned that sometimes you have to let go.
So, I asked for VIP tickets to watch the show. I felt bad for my
fans, not for myself, because that year (1988) I was in the
best shape of my life and I was not able to show this to my
fans and to win the title again. In 1989 I prepared for the
Pro- World Championship again but one month before that show my
father was hospitalized and I had to decide if they would operate again so he would live another year. My father asked me to
decide not to operate because he could not live another year with
the pain. I stayed at his bed for about two weeks before he died. It
would have been better not to compete but I felt responsible for
all my fans and went. I did not do well although I think I looked
good enough, I finished 7th.
I looked the way they like to have the woman
bodybuilder?s look today, with the new rules. I decided to take one year off
and to compete again in 1991 but fate decided different. When I
was running a dog (Doberman) attacked me and I broke my ankle real
bad. Everything in my ankle was damaged. My foot went out off its fork and was turned backward. I was lucky that the surgeon was
a good friend of ours and knew who I was and what I did. He stitched
everything together and screwed the broken bones back to where
they belonged. The only memories of that accident are big scarves
and a lot of pain with running and sometimes with training.
It took a couple of years before I could train and run the way I
always had and in that time we were expanding our business. We now
have two magazines, one British car magazine and one magazine
which covers Bodybuilding, Fitness, Sumo wrestling, Wrestling,
weightlifting and power lifting. We also have a travel agency
which specializes in boat trips from the
Netherlands to England. And of course we have our gym. I also do a lot of guest
posing at shows
because I always look the same and keep myself in good
condition all year round. Doing so also makes me available on short notice. My
secret is that I always train, when my ankle was broken I had the
guys in the gym carrying me into the gym so I could train my upper
body, run, watch what I eat for 20 years already and I profit from
this when I get older. Today I look better than 20 years ago and I
am happy that I have been able to do this and hope to be able to
continue this for another 20 years and to win the only title I do
not have. Well, it has finally happened.
I have now won the only title I did not have, Ms. Olympia. After receiving a special
invitation to compete I flew to Las Vegas and competed in the 2001
Ms. Olympia Contest. It was a very good field of competitors and I
am proud to have won.