Tracey Greenwood gets ready for this weekend’s Houston Pro
July 3, 2008
Written by FLEX Staff
Nearly 50 professional female athletes will take the stage this weekend at the inaugural Houston Pro, held this Friday and Saturday at the Stafford Convention Center in Houston, Texas. We caught up with one of the best, Tracey Greenwood, as she prepares for what she hopes will be the sixth professional fitness win of her career.
See Tracey’s interview below.
Want more fitness interviews? Check out interviews with Shannon Meteraud and Nicole Rollolazo on the FLEX blog.
WHAT: Houston Pro Bodybuilding, Fitness and Figure WHERE: Stafford Convention Center, Houston TX PREJUDING: Friday, July 4 at 5:30 pm EST and Saturday, July 5th at 8 am EST FINALS: Saturday, July 5 at 4 pm EST FOR MORE INFORMATION: Go to Houstonproshow.com
COMPETITOR LIST FITNESS Blanchard, Maggie Capes, Myriam Cassetty, Jennifer Dey, Shannon Duncan, Nicole English, Angela Fletcher, Heidi Gainey, Bethany Greenwood, Tracey Groshek, Susan Haddad, Amy Hughes, Liza Jackson, Laticia Marquez, Lisbeth McCormick, Lisa Meteraud, Shannon Newton, Leslie Rae Redding, Traci Riley, Erin Rohm, Jessica Rojas, Kristina Rollolazo, Nicole Villa Nelson, Amy Warren, Trish Wig, Stacy
FIGURE Abbou, Jelena Archibold, Elisha Arcinas, Houng Awad, Jane Benson, Natalie Bock, Susanne Briceno, Tivisay Chin, Krissy Dumon, Andrea French, Heather Mae Galvan, Bernadette Georges, Nancy Gonzalez, Celeste Hernandez, Lenay John, Candice King, Carol Mello, Patricia Mertl, Petra Mullarkey-Barringer, Karen Pearo, Melissa Peters, Amy Romero, Felicia Seiwald, Liane Steffens, Jessica
FLEX: What made you decide to enter the Houston Pro? Tracey Greenwood: It’s a new show and I always like to do new shows. I figure that the athletes will be treated really well since Lee Thompson is the promoter and an IFBB judge. I don’t work in the summer because I’m a college professor, so I really don’t have anything to do but train. So I thought this was a welcome opportunity to stay in shape and maybe make some money.
FLEX: Give me a breakdown of who you think has a realistic chance to win this contest. Greenwood: There’s 24 or 25 women in this contest, which is lot of women for a fitness show. So that is pretty exciting, pretty promising for the future. But let’s face it Allan, I sweat no one ! Heidi Fletcher, she just won the New York show this year, so she’s a contender. Trish Warren placed second at the New York show so I’m sure that she’ll be in great shape, maybe even better shape than she was in New York. Bethany Gainey has been cracking top five at the last few shows she did last summer. And then you can’t forget Shannon Meteraud making her comeback to fitess. Shannon is probably one of my best friends in the whole world so I’m really excited to be competing with her again. And there’s a lot of new girls that are making their pro debut that I’ve talked to, who I’ve been mentoring along the way, that are doing this show You just never know.
FLEX: On a scale of 1-10, how confident are you that you’re going to win this contest? Greenwood: Ahh let’s see … 9.5. There’s always that chance. But my body is ready my, routines are ready. I’m small, I’m tight and I feel good. Knock on wood, I don’t have any injuries heading into this show. I feel great. But I don’t like to jinx myself.
FLEX: How is the new judging criteria going to effect your preparation for this show? Greenwood: I’m one of the taller athletes so that always gives me the illusion of being bigger. And I have those, let’s face it, it doesn’t matter if I never pick up another weight in my life, I’m just never going to get rid of these shoulders. They’re just genetically placed on my body. I haven’t trained with weights in a long time and I’m coming in four pounds lighter, not harder but just smaller. Condition-wise I’m dead on, not too hard. I feel very good about myself.
FLEX: Ok, prediction time: Give me the top three, in order. Greenwood: In order? Aww come on. You’re killing me. You’re Jinxing me. Where is this going? I don’t want girls to get mad at me.
FLEX: Come on Tracey. You know you gotta stir things up. Greenwood: Alright top three, in order. Alright. I gotta take four rounds into consideration here. I’m gonna say .. can I do top five?
FLEX: Yes. You can give me top five. Greenwood: Me. Heidi. Trish Warren. Shannon and Bethany Gainey.
FLEX: See, that wasn’t that hard. Let’s look forward to September. Adela Garcia, Jenny Hendershott and Kim Klein have had a stranglehold on the top three spots at the Olympia for the past few years. What do you have to do in order to break into that group? Greenwood: I have no idea. I get asked this question every year. You know, there’s six or seven of us in the mix. You’ve got Adela, Kim Jenny, myself, Julie Palmer, Tanji Johnson and Julie Lohre. So there’s seven of us going for a top six position. You know, I don’t know what I have to do. I’ve always been the 4-5 girl and I’m happy with that. I mean yeah, if I make third that would make me ecstatic. I think they just want to keep seeing me get smaller and smaller – that’s always their beef with me I’m a little too big. I’ll be smaller this year than I have been … so maybe one day I’ll hit the mark.
