Every Wellness Olympia Winner Since 2021

Wellness is the newest division on the Olympia Weekend lineup, added for the 57th edition in 2021 and received with more enthusiasm than any new category in years.

Francielle Mattos won the first three. Isabelle Nunes ended that run in 2024, and Eduarda Bezerra took the title in 2025, which makes three champions in five years and no settled order at the top.

Every champion, 2021 to 2025

3 champions have won it across 5 contests

Year	Champion	Country	Runner-up
2025	Eduarda Bezerra	Brazil	Isabelle Nunes
2024	Isabelle Nunes	Brazil	Francielle Mattos
2023	Francielle Mattos ×3	United States	Isabelle Nunes
2022	Francielle Mattos ×3	United States	Isabelle Nunes
2021	Francielle Mattos ×3	United States	Angela Borges

Runner-up sourced from 124 recorded placings. Updates automatically.

Every Wellness Olympia champion

The division rewards mass in the hips, glutes and thighs, so it is no surprise that South American, and particularly Brazilian, athletes have dominated it from the start.

2021-2023: Francielle Mattos

Mattos came from the Fitness division, winning gold at the 2019 Arnold Amateur South America before the Wellness category existed.

She switched as soon as the IFBB Pro League introduced it and won the first contest she entered as a Wellness athlete, the 2020 Arnold Amateur, earning her pro card in the process. Her first pro show, the 2020 IFBB Musclecontest Nacional Pro, went the same way. Wins at the 2020 Overall Arnold Ohio and the 2019 Miss Olympia Brazil qualified her directly for the inaugural Wellness Olympia.

She went to Orlando in 2021 as the favourite. Angela Borges, the first Wellness athlete to qualify by winning the 2020 IFBB Europa Pro Championships, was the other. Both got a harder fight than expected from a much shorter Isabella Nunes, whose lower-body size makes her stand out in any lineup, but Mattos took the first title.

The Arnold Classic added Wellness in 2022 and Nunes won it, which set up the 2022 Olympia as a genuine contest. By then everyone had a clearer idea of what the judges wanted. Mattos held on to become the division’s first multi-time champion, with Nunes moving up to second.

By 2023 the IFBB Pro League was openly holding her up as the template, Vice President Tyler Manion among them. Nunes arrived carrying knee problems that had already cost her the Arnold title and still took silver. Mattos looked in control from the moment she walked out and won a third.

With Borges sitting out, Elisa Alcantara of the Dominican Republic took third and became the first non-Brazilian to reach a Wellness Olympia podium.

2024: Isabelle Nunes

Nunes had been on Mattos’ heels since the division began. In 2024 she finally got past her on shape and overall balance. It was Mattos’ first defeat since turning pro, which is the measure of what it took.

2025: Eduarda Bezerra

Bezerra beat Nunes at the 2025 Arnold Classic first, a result nobody saw coming, and the obvious question was whether she could do it twice.

She could. She brought a better package to Las Vegas than she had to Ohio, and the judges gave her the title. Three champions in five years, and she is the third.

What the Wellness division actually rewards

Per NPC News Online, Wellness is for “females with athletic physiques that showcase more body mass in the hips, glutes and thigh areas.”

The reasoning behind it is straightforward. Women store more body fat in the lower body than men, and women from South America and Africa are genetically predisposed to carry more of it there. In Bikini, which requires a proportionate upper and lower body and judges walk, poise, skin and hair alongside the physique, that build is a disadvantage. The Pro League created Wellness for athletes who had it and did not want to move to Women’s Open, Figure, Women’s Physique or Fitness.

Judges look for size, shape and separation in the hips, glutes, quads and hamstrings. The upper body is still held to Bikini standards, and while glute-hamstring separation is wanted, too much definition anywhere else works against you. Wellness is an extension of Bikini, not a step towards bodybuilding.