Bev Francis

However, at the conclusion of the second night's events, as Francis stood onstage holding hands with Murray, she was announced in 2nd place, with a score of 31 points to Murray's 32.

Francis's hand rose halfway to her face in shock before she regained her composure, smiled, and congratulated Murray.

This was the slimmest margin of victory yet for a Ms. Olympia win, with Murray edging Francis by only one point.

The audience and commentators were thrown off by this result, since Francis was in the lead after the first two (more contentious) rounds, only to be overtaken somehow in the concluding set.

It was usually suggested that the IFBB and ESPN leadership did not want a woman carrying more muscle mass than most middleweight men to be recognised as the planet's premier female bodybuilder, and instructed the judges to swing the contest in Murray's favor.

Beverley "Bev" Francis (born 15 February 1955) is an Australian gym owner and retired professional bodybuilder, powerlifter, and national shot put champion.

Beverley Francis was born on 15 February 1955 in Geelong, Victoria, the youngest of five children.

In February 1974, she began serious training.

In 1976, she graduated from the University of Melbourne, where she obtained a degree in physical education and a teaching diploma.

She then worked as a high school physical education and mathematics teacher for eight years.

As a teenager, Francis became an accomplished shot putter.

In 1977, she broke the Australian shot put record.

From 1977 to 1979 and 1981 to 1982, she was an Australian track and field team member.

She missed the 1980 track season due to a knee injury.

In 1980, Francis held all world records in the 82.5 kg weight class.

At the 1981 World Powerlifting Championships, she set a world record when she bench pressed 150 kg, the first woman's bench press over 300 lb. At the 1982 Australian Powerlifting Championships in Adelaide, she set a world record in the 82.5 kg class with a squat of 216 kg. She won gold medals in her weight class in the International Powerlifting Federation Championships from 1980 to 1985.

After becoming the first woman to bench press over 300 lb, a picture of Francis striking a most muscular pose, or "the crab", while wearing a bikini appeared in several bodybuilding magazines around the world.

She possessed far more muscular size than the most muscular female bodybuilders at the time.

In 1982, she won the Australian national shot put championships.

Along with shot put, she performed the discus throw, javelin throw, and 100 meter reserve.

Her powerlifting accolade led to her being invited by producer George Butler to take part in the film Pumping Iron II: The Women, which was being shot around the Cesar's World Cup being held in Las Vegas in December 1983.

At that contest, she said she should have been "first or last".

She had overhauled her physique radically from that 1983 Cesar's World Cup, when she was told she was "too muscular", but at the 1990 Olympia she was told she was "not muscular enough" to top Murray.

Determined to win their next meeting, she resolved to build the most densely muscled physique ever seen on a female up to that point.

Francis guest-posed at the 1985 Mr. Olympia competition, igniting the audience.

She finished 10th in her Ms. Olympia debut in 1986.

In 1987, she won the World Pro Championships.

She followed up with three 3rd-place finishes at the Ms. Olympia in 1987, 1988, and 1989, then moved into 2nd place at the Ms. Olympia in 1990 (as runner-up to Lenda Murray).

The 1991 Ms. Olympia contest was the first to be televised live by ESPN, broadcasting a women's bodybuilding contest to the largest audience ever at the time (and contributing to the ensuing controversy).

To facilitate the network's needs, the competition was held over two days.

Rounds one (symmetry) and two (muscularity) were held on Saturday evening, 12 October 1991, whilst rounds three (posing) and four (posedown) were conducted 24 hours later, with the Sunday night proceedings broadcast live.

At the prejudging, Francis walked out with 160 lb of dense and conditioned muscles stacked on her 5ft 5in frame.

The audience gasped—none had seen such musculature on a woman before.

Almost all the competitors came in considerably larger than at the last competition, surprising not just the mainstream ESPN viewers, but some bodybuilding fans as well.

The defending champion Murray was herself 11 lb heavier than the previous year.

At the end of the first night's judging, Francis led the field, four points ahead of Murray.

On the second night, just before the start of the final two rounds, ESPN (in an unprecedented move for professional bodybuilding) flashed up the half-time scores for their national audience and those inside the Shrine Auditorium to see Francis in the lead.

Since the posing rounds had never been recognised as opportunities for a lagging competitor to come from behind, most insiders, including Francis herself, predicted that she only had to avoid falling over to take the title.

She placed in the middle as 8th among 15 competitors.

Disappointed with the results, she attempted to reinvent her physique along the lines of what was being rewarded, especially after hearing that she was "too muscular" for the judges' tastes.