Until 2003, female competitors had two titles to aim at on the Olympia Weekend: Ms. Olympia and Fitness. Figure was the third.
It is judged on shape, balance and symmetry, with the emphasis on back, shoulders, glutes and hamstrings. Deep musculature and striations are marked down, which is the line that separates it from Women’s Physique.
Davana Medina won the first one. Cydney Gillon then won eight in a row and retired, and Rhea Gayle took the vacant title in 2025.
Every champion, 2003 to 2025
8 champions have won it across 23 contests
| Year | Champion | Country | Runner-up |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 |  Rhea Gayle | United Kingdom | Lola Montez |
| 2024 |  Cydney Gillon ×8 | United States | Jessica Reyes Padilla |
| 2023 | Cydney Gillon ×8 | United States | Jessica Reyes Padilla |
| 2022 | Cydney Gillon ×8 | United States | Jessica Reyes Padilla |
| 2021 | Cydney Gillon ×8 | United States | Natalia Soltero |
| 2020 | Cydney Gillon ×8 | United States | Natalia Soltero |
| 2019 | Cydney Gillon ×8 | United States | Latorya Neisha Watts |
| 2018 | Cydney Gillon ×8 | United States | Candice Lewis-Carter |
| 2017 | Cydney Gillon ×8 | United States | Latorya Neisha Watts |
| 2016 |  Latorya Neisha Watts ×2 | United States | Candice Lewis-Carter |
| 2015 | Latorya Neisha Watts ×2 | United States | Nicole Wilkins |
| 2014 |  Nicole Wilkins ×4 | United States | Candice Keene |
| 2013 | Nicole Wilkins ×4 | United States | Erin Stern |
| 2012 |  Erin Stern ×2 | United States | Nicole Wilkins |
| 2011 | Nicole Wilkins ×4 | United States | Erin Stern |
| 2010 | Erin Stern ×2 | United States | Nicole Wilkins |
| 2009 | Nicole Wilkins ×4 | United States | Heather Mae |
| 2008 | Jennifer Gates | United States | Gina Aliotti |
| 2007 | Jenny Lynn ×2 | United States | Gina Aliotti |
| 2006 | Jenny Lynn ×2 | United States | Amber Littlejohn |
| 2005 |  Davana Medina ×3 | United States | Jenny Lynn |
| 2004 | Davana Medina ×3 | United States | Jenny Lynn |
| 2003 | Davana Medina ×3 | United States | Monica Brant |
Runner-up sourced from 457 recorded placings. Updates automatically.
Every Figure Olympia champion
Davana Medina3 titles · United States- Jenny Lynn2 titles · United States
- Jennifer Gates1 title · United States
- Nicole Wilkins4 titles · United States
- Erin Stern2 titles · United States
- Latorya Neisha Watts2 titles · United States
- Cydney Gillon8 titles · United States
- Rhea Gayle1 title · United Kingdom
2003-2005: Davana Medina
Medina arrived at the first contest off a third place at the Arnold Classic and won it on symmetry and shape, ahead of Monica Brant and Jenny Lynn. The division’s reception that weekend made it obvious it would stay.
Lynn and Brant both came back for her, and both finished behind her again in 2004 and 2005, in that order each time. Three straight.
2006-2007: Jenny Lynn
Three consecutive top-three finishes, then the title. Lynn won in 2006 against Amber Littlejohn and Brant, and held it in 2007.
Medina never competed again. The 2005 contest was her last, and she retired after skipping 2006.
2008: Jennifer Gates
Lynn went in chasing a third and finished fourth, out of the top three for the first time.
Gates had been top five the year before and turned up with a much improved physique. Gina Aliotti was second for a second straight year, Zivile Raudoniene third.
Gates never returned either.
2009, 2011, 2013 and 2014: Nicole Wilkins
Wilkins was the division’s first real star, and she won her first title in 2009.
What followed is the best rivalry the division has had. Erin Stern beat her in 2010, she took it back in 2011, Stern beat her again in 2012, she took it back again in 2013. Four contests, one title, traded every year.
She then held it in 2014 against Candice Keene, who had been closing on her each season, for a fourth title.
2010 and 2012: Erin Stern
Stern beat Wilkins in 2010 for her first, and again in 2012 for her second. She never defended the title, and Wilkins never defended it against her either.
She stepped away with two. In 2021 she came back to the Olympia stage as a Bikini competitor and placed 15th.
2015-2016: Latorya Watts
Wilkins went into 2015 chasing a fifth. Watts, who had placed fifth on her debut the year before, took it off her instead.
She defended it in 2016 with Cydney Gillon third. That result is worth more in hindsight than it was at the time: Watts is the only athlete to have beaten both Wilkins and Gillon, the two most decorated competitors the division has produced.
Wilkins competed once more, in 2017, and retired.
2017-2024: Cydney Gillon
Gillon missed the podium’s top step in 2016 and came back in 2017 with the muscle detail and symmetry that would define the next eight years. She beat Watts for the first title.
She never lost it again. Eight consecutive Figure Olympias from 2017 to 2024, and no defeat anywhere since finishing second to Candice Lewis-Carter at the 2018 Arnold Classic Australia.
Jessica Reyes Padilla went into the 2023 contest off a Masters Figure Olympia win and with her best package yet, and finished second. She finished second in 2022 and 2024 as well.
The eighth, in 2024, put Gillon in the company of Ronnie Coleman, Lee Haney, Lenda Murray and Iris Kyle. She announced her retirement immediately after it.
2025: Rhea Gayle
Gillon’s retirement left the title open for the first time in eight years. Masters Olympia champion Jessica Reyes Padilla and Lola Montez were the names being discussed.
In the direct comparisons it was Rhea Gayle, on upper and lower body detail and on shape, who separated herself from both. Whether she can hold it the way her predecessor did is the open question of the 2025 weekend.
What the full results reveal
Only one champion ever won it on debut
Davana Medina, at the very first Olympia in 2003. Every champion since lost before winning, on average 2.0 times first.
Davana MedinaNicole WilkinsErin SternLatorya Neisha WattsCydney GillonRhea GayleOlympias entered before a first title, fewest first
The best bodybuilders who never won it
Candice Lewis-Carter reached the podium 5 times between 2014 and 2018, 2 of them as runner-up, and never took the title.
Each block is one podium finish. Filled = runner-up.
1 reigns hold 8 of the 23 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.
Davana MedinaNicole WilkinsErin SternNicole WilkinsErin SternNicole WilkinsLatorya Neisha WattsCydney GillonRhea GayleEach bar is one unbroken reign, oldest first
How many rivals you had to beat
The 2000s Olympia averaged 14.0 competitors. By the 2020s it was 22.7, and in the 2020s it is 22.7.
Average scored competitors per contest, by decade
Where the title lives
Champion nationality, decade by decade.
Oxblood marks a champion from outside the United States
The winners of the other divisions:
- Every 212 Olympia Winner Since 2008 (and History of the Division)
- Every Wellness Olympia Winner Since 2021
- Every Classic Physique Olympia Winner Since 2016
- Every Bikini Olympia Winner Since 2010
- Every Fitness Olympia Winner Since 1995
- Every Wheelchair Olympia Winner Since 2018
- Every Mr. Olympia (Men's Open Division) Winner Since 1965
- Every Women's Physique Olympia Winner Since 2013
- Every Men's Physique Olympia Winner Since 2013
- Every Ms. Olympia Winner Since 1980 (and History of the Division)
*Images courtesy of Cydney Gillon from @w_wittmannphoto Instagram, Latorya Watts Instagram, Erin Stern Instagram and Nicole Wilkins Instagram
