Meet Bhumika Sharma, the Dehradun girl who is the first Indian woman to become Miss World Bodybuilding champion

 

Whenever you hear about bodybuilding, what's the first thing that comes to your mind? If you said muscly men flexing their triceps, we don't blame you. After all, the sexist stereotypes say that women are weak. However, Bhumika Sharma, has certainly shattered all those stereotypes by becoming the first Indian woman to win the Miss World Body Building Championship. Yes, the first-ever woman from India. How awesome is that?

The 21-year-old girl, who's from Dehradun, defeated 50 women from across the world in the final round of the event, held in Venice, to clinch the coveted title.

In an interview to the Times Of India, she said that her toughest challenge was to compete in the male-dominated sport. "More than the feel of my muscles sometimes collapsing, my toughest challenge was actually off the stage, as my desire to carve a space for myself in the male-dominated sport was mostly met with ridicule," she said.

However, no amount of ridicule ever got to her, as she was determined to stay in this sport. "When I first started training, people made fun of me. But as time went by and I developed clean cut muscles, less and less people ridiculed me," Sharma said.

The champion also said that despite all the struggles that she has faced since she took up bodybuilding, her mother was her ultimate support. "Bodybuilding is a male-dominated field and at times men would get insecure when they would see my workouts. There is a lot of negativity towards women bodybuilders. At times I was demotivated. I also suffered a neck injury during the first year of my training. But it was my mother's constant support that kept me on track," she added.

After being crowned Miss World and winning gold at the event organized by World Amateur Body Building Association, she is gearing up for her next challenge. Sharma now has her eyes set on winning the Miss Universe Body Building Championship scheduled to be held at the end of this year.

Sharma is definitely the inspiration young girls nowadays need to achieve the dreams they want to without caring about the stereotypes. After all, no sports is exclusively for men and Sharma has proved exactly that.