Photo Credit for all three photos: NPC News Online/Jeff Binns
2016 is the year people really started taking notice of Cydney Gillon. Before that, she was a very good pro doing pretty well in shows but that year she really put people on notice, she was no longer the always improving figure competitor, she was an elite figure competitor. While the sport is always about improving and she continues to, eventually certain people will earn their way off the improving list and on to the arrived list. 2016 saw Cydney take several top threes including at the Olympia. The stage where the elite of the elite compete.
But who can say they saw 2017 coming? Starting the year taking second place at the Arnold Sports Festival, Cydney went on to win the Arizona Pro before going to the Olympia and becoming the best in the world with a first place finish. While people may not have expected it, they also couldn't say they were surprised. Cydney had continued to show improvement, continued to move up in placings and had shown she could hang with the best, so why couldn't she be the best?
But when you become the best, you become the measuring stick, you become what everyone else is shooting for, who they compare themselves to and most of all, who they want to beat. Which in reality, while you may be the best, you have to work harder than ever because everyone is gunning for you, they are going to bring their best, so your best has to be better than your previous best.
So we enter 2018 and Cydney starts the year off with two second place finishes at the Arnold Sports Festival, both in America and Australia. Second place is nothing to be ashamed of when competing with the best, so while not wins, Cydney showed she hadn't quit working and getting better. Those second place finishes where nothing to be unhappy about. Heck, the may have even been a blessing in some ways because perhaps it gave her an idea of where she stood, what she needed to do to retain her Olympia title, perhaps it told her she still had more work to do, her competition was getting better.
Before the Olympia though was the Arizona Pro once again. Against a very solid group of competitors, some of which would be on the Olympia stage with her, Cydney came out on top and looked amazing and notice was served, Cydney Gillon was at her best and ready to retain her title.
As mentioned and as everyone knows, the Olympia is the best of the best and 2018 may have been the most loaded and competitive group of figure competitors to ever step on that stage. Names like Lewis-Carter, Padilla, Dees, Starling-Horrell, Wyatt and on down the line, this was an insane line-up, and to win would be an amazing feat. What happened? Cydney Gillon won again. I read an article afterwards that said, fourth place could have won in many years, and I agree with that, which tells you just what an accomplishment winning was.
Going forward, Gillon has already put herself in a very elite class of all-time greats, as far as I am concerned, back to back Olympia's gives her that. Now she works on building on a legacy. Besides the competing part, Cydney is so very easy to root for. She's very unassuming and has not let success go to her head at all. If you are looking for controversy, drama, or anything of the sort, look elsewhere, you won't find it with her. That is why Cydney's success is so fun to watch.
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