Biography

I was born in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, but mainly grew up in the city of Moncton, New Brunswick. I graduated from Harrison Trimble High School in 1995 and continued on to the University of Western Ontario in London, Ontario, in a Bachelor of Science Program, where I graduated in 1998. After 3 years, I returned to Maritimes, and completed a Bachelor of Education at the University of Prince Edward Island and now am a full time high school math teacher in the Eastern Townships in Quebec, Canada.

I have been involved in athletics all my life. I climbed the walls as a child, so my mom put me in gymnastics. Progression is limited by your age, and I had no motivation to live this very structured life, therefore, I set my sights on cheerleading. I had participated in cheerleading throughout elementary and high school and was recruited for cheerleading at the University of Western Ontario as a Mustang.

During my second year at Western, I remember the exact moment that I discovered fitness competitions. I was at the Toronto Skydome, for a National cheerleading event and there it was - a fitness competition on television. I knew that this was something that I would pursue, but being a student and participating in a sport is difficult enough without adding another activity. So, I decided to wait until I was finished with cheerleading.

After I moved back to the Maritimes, I took a year off from training and sport, and lived the normal university life. The following year, I had an overwhelming desire to be involved with sport again, and realized that now would be a great time to experience fitness.

I began to educate myself on fitness through the various fitness magazines that are out there, especially Oxygen. Very few people had a web site at this time, as the Internet was relatively new. But I managed to find out where a local competition was being held, trained and entered. My first show was the Miss Fitness New Brunswick. It was myself and one other girl who competed, but it set the stage for my future competitions.

I ended up winning the show, and to my surprise a gentleman by the name of Gary Bartlett was in the audience and wrote for Musclemag in this column called "Canadian Corner ". To my surprise, my very first show had a highlight in an international magazine. I thought this was pretty cool, and I continued to enter more competitions, gaining more exposure with each show.

Although my motivations to compete in fitness have changed over the years, I do evaluate my reasons for entering each show. The sport has brought me to a new level of understanding about myself, yet know that I have not peaked as an athlete.

Allison