Every Ms. Olympia Winner Since 1980 (and History of the Division)

The Olympia took 15 years to give women a contest. Mr. Olympia started in 1965; Ms. Olympia debuted in 1980.

It has not been treated well since, either. The contest was discontinued in 2014, with the Olympia management citing falling ticket sales and waning fan interest. The elite female bodybuilders who lost their stage went to Rising Phoenix, which became the sport’s main women’s show, and Ms. Olympia only came back after Rising Phoenix promoter Jake Wood bought the Olympia brand in 2020.

The physiques have changed more here than in any other division. Put Rachel McLish, who won in 1980 and 1982, next to six-time and reigning champion Andrea Shaw and they look like different sports.

Every champion, 1980 to 2025

11 champions have won it across 41 contests

Year	Champion	Country	Runner-up
2025	Andrea Shaw ×6	United States	Ashley Lynnette Jones
2024	Andrea Shaw ×6	United States	Angela Yeo
2023	Andrea Shaw ×6	United States	Angela Yeo
2022	Andrea Shaw ×6	United States	Angela Yeo
2021	Andrea Shaw ×6	United States	Helle Trevino
2020	Andrea Shaw ×6	United States	Margaret V. Martin
2014	Iris Kyle ×10	United States	Alina Popa
2013	Iris Kyle ×10	United States	Alina Popa
2012	Iris Kyle ×10	United States	Debbie Laszewski
2011	Iris Kyle ×10	United States	Yaxeni Oriquen
2010	Iris Kyle ×10	United States	Yaxeni Oriquen
2009	Iris Kyle ×10	United States	Heather Armbrust
2008	Iris Kyle ×10	United States	Betty Viana
2007	Iris Kyle ×10	United States	Dayana Cadeau
2006	Iris Kyle ×10	United States	Dayana Cadeau
2005	Yaxeni Oriquen	Venezuela	Iris Kyle
2004	Iris Kyle ×10	United States	—
2003	Lenda Murray ×8	United States	—
2002	Lenda Murray ×8	United States	Iris Kyle
2001	Juliette Bergmann	Netherlands	—
2000	Valentina Chepiga	Ukraine	—
1999	Kim Chizevsky ×4	United States	Vickie Gates
1998	Kim Chizevsky ×4	United States	Yolanda Hughes
1997	Kim Chizevsky ×4	United States	Lenda Murray
1996	Kim Chizevsky ×4	United States	Lenda Murray
1995	Lenda Murray ×8	United States	Kim Chizevsky
1994	Lenda Murray ×8	United States	Laura Creavalle
1993	Lenda Murray ×8	United States	Denise Rutkowski
1992	Lenda Murray ×8	United States	Laura Creavalle
1991	Lenda Murray ×8	United States	Bev Francis
1990	Lenda Murray ×8	United States	Bev Francis
1989	Cory Everson ×6	United States	Sandy Riddell
1988	Cory Everson ×6	United States	Anja Langer (2)
1987	Cory Everson ×6	United States	Ellen Van Maris (2)
1986	Cory Everson ×6	United States	Clare Furr
1985	Cory Everson ×6	United States	Mary Roberts (2)
1984	Cory Everson ×6	United States	Rachel McLish
1983	Carla Dunlap	United States	Candy Csencsits
1982	Rachel McLish ×2	United States	Carla Dunlap
1981	Kike Elomaa	Finland	Rachel McLish
1980	Rachel McLish ×2	United States	Auby Paulick

Runner-up sourced from 610 recorded placings. Updates automatically.

Every Ms. Olympia champion

1980-1983: nobody could hold it

Nobody, fans or promoters, knew what the contest was supposed to look like, and the title changed hands every single year for four years.

Miss Olympia, as it was called then, was held at a Philadelphia hotel in 1980, the year Arnold Schwarzenegger came out of a four-year retirement chasing a seventh Mr. Olympia. Rachel McLish won it. Ritva Elomaa took it off her in 1981; McLish took it back in Atlantic City in 1982.

Then the machinery changed. George Snyder lost the rights in 1982, and until that point competitors had simply been hand-picked. From 1983 athletes had to qualify through placings at smaller contests, which brought in a more muscular field almost immediately. Carla Dunlap won that year convincingly.

1984-1989: Cory Everson

The 1984 contest, in Montreal, was the first held outside the United States, and it ended the moment Everson walked out. She was bigger and harder than any female bodybuilder anyone had seen. McLish finished second, defending champion Dunlap fourth.

Everson won six in a row and retired in 1989. She is the only female pro bodybuilder to have retired undefeated.

She went into acting afterwards: Double Impact (1991) with Jean-Claude Van Damme, Natural Born Killers (1994), Ballistic (1995), and Atalanta on Hercules: The Legendary Journeys.

1990-1995: Lenda Murray

Everson’s retirement left the title with no defending champion for the first time. Bev Francis had been circling it for years and was the obvious pick. Murray won it on her debut instead, on size, conditioning and posing, and then held it for six years to match Everson.

The 1991 contest was the first Ms. Olympia televised live. Murray beat Francis by a single point.

By 1992 the IFBB had decided Murray and Francis were taking the division too far and introduced “femininity” rules that penalised competitors for being too big. Murray met the requirements and won anyway, and the federation walked the rules back.

1993 was the closest call of her reign. Denise Rutkowski pushed her hard enough that plenty of people in the room thought Rutkowski had won. She retired the following year, widely expected to be a future champion, and was later diagnosed with bipolar disorder and arrested over drug abuse.

Must Read: The Tragic Downfall of Ms. Olympia Runner-Up Denise Rutkowski

1996-1999: Kim Chizevsky

Chizevsky finished second to Murray in 1995 and beat her in 1996. Murray came back for a rematch in 1997, lost again to Chizevsky’s conditioning and symmetry, and retired.

Chizevsky won four straight, with her husband and coach Chad Nicholls widely credited as a factor. The 1998 contest was held in Prague. She left the division afterwards and competed in Fitness from 2001 to 2002 and Figure from 2003 to 2004.

Her 1999 runner-up was Iris Kyle.

2000: the year with two champions

Three things changed at once. The Ms. and Mr. Olympia contests had been held on separate dates until then; in 2000 the IFBB merged them into one Olympia Weekend. Weight classes were added, heavyweight over 135 pounds and lightweight up to it. And new judging criteria told judges to assess “symmetry, presentation, separations, and muscularity BUT NOT TO THE EXTREME.”

Valentina Chepiga won the heavyweight class, Andrulla Blanchette the lightweight.

2001: Juliette Bergmann

The weight classes ran for five years, 2000 to 2005, and 2001 produced the one result the format was capable of and never repeated.

Kyle had debuted in 1999 as runner-up and slipped to fifth in 2000. She won the heavyweight class in 2001.

Bergmann, back on an Olympia stage for the first time since 1989, won the lightweight class and then beat Kyle for the overall title. In five years of weight classes, that is the only time the lightweight winner took the overall.

2002-2003: Lenda Murray again

Murray saw an opening and came back after five years away. She won the heavyweight class off Kyle, then beat reigning champion Bergmann for the overall, and did the same again in 2003.

Eight titles, matching Lee Haney’s record.

2004: Iris Kyle breaks through

Kyle finally beat Murray in the heavyweight class, then beat lightweight winner Dayana Cadeau for her first overall title.

2005: Yaxeni Oriquen-Garcia

The weight classes were abandoned in 2005, and the IFBB introduced the ’20 percent rule’, instructing female athletes in bodybuilding, fitness and figure to “decrease the amount of muscularity by a factor of 20%”.

Oriquen-Garcia had finished third in the heavyweight class three times. In the first year without classes she beat Kyle outright for her only title.

2006-2014: Iris Kyle

Kyle came back in 2006 in the best shape of her career and did not lose again. Nine consecutive titles, ten in total, more than any bodybuilder has won in any division.

Then the Olympia management pulled the contest, citing ticket sales, fan interest and falling athlete participation. Kyle’s tenth title, in 2014, was the last Ms. Olympia for six years.

2020-2025: Andrea Shaw

Jake Wood brought it back in 2020, and the reigning Rising Phoenix World Champion won it. Shaw took the first one in Orlando ahead of Margie Martin and Helle Trevino, and held it in 2021.

The 2022 three-peat came against Angela Yeo, second on her Olympia debut, and a Trevino working back from shoulder surgery. Shaw won it on the same things she always does: size, symmetry, conditioning and separation.

2024 was the hardest. Shaw went in having lost to Yeo at the Rising Phoenix Pro earlier that year, which had not happened before. She moved to Phoenix, took on a new coach to address specific weaknesses, and came back with a visibly better physique for a fifth.

At the 2025 contest the question was whether the field had finally caught her. Yeo and a group of newer competitors had been closing for several years. Shaw brought sharper conditioning, better biceps detail and a tight back, and won a sixth to match Cory Everson. Ashley Lynette Jones was second, Leyvina Barros third.

She is also a five-time Rising Phoenix Pro champion, the second most prestigious title in Women’s Open bodybuilding.

What the full results reveal

Only one champion ever won it on debut

Rachel McLish, at the very first Olympia in 1980. Every champion since lost before winning, on average 1.3 times first.

Rachel McLish01980

Kike Elomaa01981

Cory Everson01984

Lenda Murray01990

Andrea Shaw02020

Carla Dunlap11983

Kim Chizevsky21996

Valentina Chepiga22000

Iris Kyle22004

Yaxeni Oriquen32005

Juliette Bergmann42001

Olympias entered before a first title, fewest first

The best bodybuilders who never won it

Bev Francis reached the podium 5 times between 1987 and 1991, 2 of them as runner-up, and never took the title.

5Francis

5Creavalle

3Gates

3Cadeau

3Laszewski

3Trevino

3Yeo

2(2)

Each block is one podium finish. Filled = runner-up.

5 reigns hold 31 of the 41 titles

The title moves in blocks rather than years. The long reigns below are the dynasties; the single years are the era we are in now.

Rachel McLish11980

Kike Elomaa11981

Rachel McLish11982

Carla Dunlap11983

Cory Everson61984–1989

Lenda Murray61990–1995

Kim Chizevsky41996–1999

Valentina Chepiga12000

Juliette Bergmann12001

Lenda Murray22002–2003

Iris Kyle12004

Yaxeni Oriquen12005

Iris Kyle92006–2014

Andrea Shaw62020–2025

Each bar is one unbroken reign, oldest first

How many rivals you had to beat

The 1980s Olympia averaged 17.6 competitors. By the 1990s it was 18.7, and in the 2020s it is 14.7.

Average scored competitors per contest, by decade

Where the title lives

Champion nationality, decade by decade.

1980s9United States 9, Finland 1

1990s10United States 10

2000s7United States 7, Venezuela 1, Netherlands 1, Ukraine 1

2010s5United States 5

2020s6United States 6

Oxblood marks a champion from outside the United States