- And, of course, we'll see the exciting routines tonight
on the final stage.
On the center line, please.
- It would be a wonderful thing if it was an honest sport,
where you could have the best physiques onstage winning
because they deserve to win.
But it's not an honest sport.
It had nothing to do with how good you looked.
It was all about what was happening behind the scenes.
- Bodybuilding is a sport that has long promoted itself
as the pinnacle of health, fitness, and strength.
Athletes are judged by their muscle mass,
definition, and symmetry,
on top of their ability to hold certain poses.
- It's basically like a muscle beauty pageant.
They're looking for a whole package,
is what they're judging for.
- But a "Washington Post" investigation found that,
over the course of two decades,
female athletes were sexually exploited by leaders
within the most premier US bodybuilding federations.
Many women felt that the competitions were rigged
and that the success of their careers
hinged on taking nude photographs
and catering to the mostly male judges, promoters, and managers.
- There were so many people
that could've stopped what was happening.
It was just like a circuit.
- "The Post" spoke with scores of women
who competed in contests run by the Manions,
a family that oversees the sport's biggest empire
in amateur and professional bodybuilding.
They run both the amateur National Physique Committee
and the International Federation of Bodybuilding
and Fitness Pro League.
According to critics and acolytes alike,
the Manions have left an indelible mark on the sport
over the last several decades.
JM Manion in particular looms large in the industry.
- We basically had to court JM.
It's like, "When you go to this show, go and look for JM.
Make sure he sees you and knows who you are."
- JM Manion is the son of the league's president,
Jim Manion, and the official photographer.
He also runs a management company that has directed
the careers of the sport's top female competitors and served
as a gateway to endorsement deals, magazine covers,
and other financially promising opportunities.
But behind the scenes, JM was operating a vast network
of paid websites that featured over 20,000 photographs
of at least 200 female competitors.
He took photos ranging from bikini shots to graphic,
sexual nudes.
- There was no way he would've had that many beautiful women
taking off their clothes in front of his camera,
or doing whatever else they were doing,
unless he was who he was in the business.
- "The Post" reached out several times to JM for comment.
He did not respond.
"The Post" also reached out to Jim Manion for comment.
In an e-mailed statement, a representative responded that
"The NPC and IFBB Pro League
are committed to providing a premium experience
for our competitors, fans, event organizers, and partners."
It goes on to say that the league has
"grown prize purses for female athletes
and improved communications for our competitors to raise
any concerns they may have with an event or their experience"
and that "all involved with our organizations
are committed to supporting our competitors."
- The bodybuilding industry should be subject
to very strict precautions for athletes
because it is a subjective sport,
because it is a judged sport.
When you have these aesthetic sports,
they are much more prone to different kinds of abuse.
- You know, it's all about who you know
and what kind of hookup you get.
And it's not fair, but that's pretty much
how they've made the industry.
- "The Post" interviewed scores of former
and current female bodybuilders about their experience with JM.
Many described a relationship where they felt pressured
to please JM and those within his immediate circle
in order to advance their careers.
- If you were signed by JM,
if you were doing these nude photos on the website,
you were going to be a pro and you were going to be a big name
and you were going to get sponsored
and you were going to just have this great life.
- Mandy Henderson first fell in love with bodybuilding at 18.
- Like, I was at the gym, working out
at like the age of 18,
and I saw a female that, she had muscle and I loved it
and I totally felt like, "That's what I want to look like.
I want to look like that kind of fitness model."
- Henderson began competing in the mid-2000s.
She met John Tuman, a show promoter and judge,
who suggested she sign on with JM,
in order to get her pro card.
The costs of competing in bodybuilding can quick add up,
but only a small minority of bodybuilders ever make money.
Earning a pro card not only allows athletes to compete
in the most prestigious events,
but it also means they can win greater prize money.
- And so he just kept pushing, like, the JM thing, you know,
"You need a contract with JM, JM Management, JM this."
- Henderson agreed to pose nude and received a contract from JM,
promising a 50/50 profit split for websites
that involved "Playboy-style" photos.
She said her first nude photo shoot with JM
happened in Las Vegas during a competition weekend.
- It was clearly said like, "If you do this photo shoot,
you're going to get your pro card."
So we go to this hotel room and there's two other girls
and so we start taking pictures
and JM is the photographer, of course.
Lingerie starts coming off,
and it's getting more and more revealing.
At one point during the photo shoot,
John Tuman came up behind me and I was wearing --
I don't know if I was wearing anything
or if I was just wearing skimpy lingerie.
And he pressed the front of his body against me
and I could feel his crotch area against my back area.
Just sent chills up my spine, and it made me want to throw up.
But in the back of my mind, I just kept thinking,
"Just go with it because this is going to get your pro card.
Like, you just need to do a photo shoot,
and then you're going to get a pro card,"
because that's what these men keep telling you.
I go and I do the show and I end up not even in the top 15.
I was just crushed.
Like, here I am, I'm like, "I just did this photo shoot,
you know, completely naked,
and I didn't even place in the top 15."
And I remember John Tuman had said,
"Just keep going, just keep going,
just keep doing what, you know, JM is telling you to do.
Just keep being on the website.
Keep doing this," and he said, "and you'll get your pro card."
- "The Post" reached out to Tuman,
but he refused to hear Henderson's
specific allegations.
Instead, he responded, "It's all lies."
Henderson posed nude for at least
one other group photo shoot.
She never received any money for the photos.
It would take several more years before Henderson
earned her pro card at the USA's amateur competition in 2010.
She quit shortly after.
- The person that put in the most work
and has the best physique,
that's the person that should win.
It should not be the person
that is taking the nude pictures over here
or doing whatever they're doing behind the scenes.
- I think it's hard to overestimate
just how much an athlete wants to win.
Coaches know it.
Officials know it.
Other athletes know it.
It's this giving up integrity by inches
and having other people, I should say,
take their integrity by inches.
- See if I can go back.
So, like, it says, "Three New Divas
are Coming Soon! !"
And Jenn Gates is one of them.
I did not.
I didn't think I was going to be on a porn site.
I didn't say okay to any of this.
- Jenn Gates rocketed to the top of professional women's
bodybuilding in the late 2000s.
She signed on with JM in 2007 after turning pro,
and began to do photo shoots with him.
- The photo shoots were super awkward and super cheesy
and not good photos.
JM had asked me if I could go topless
or take my bottoms off, and I just wouldn't do it.
And he never pressured me a whole lot
because I always was very guarded
and always said, "I'm a mom.
I'm a mom.
I can't," and grinned and beared it.
- Not long after turning pro,
Gates won in the figure division at Miss Olympia in 2008.
But Gates' personal life was tumultuous.
She had filed for divorce
and was in the midst of moving out
when her husband committed suicide.
- Competing was not on my radar.
It was the last thing I thought about.
I had to take care of my kids, take care of myself,
have a funeral, move everything out of my house
that I'd lived in for 10 years.
It was hard. It was hard.
- Then Gates found out she was pregnant.
- When I told JM I was pregnant,
that's when I lost my sponsorship.
I felt like they were just done with me.
Like, I had a baby and I just kind of got the message
that I didn't get the placing I deserved.
So at that time, I just decided
I was going to walk away from it forever.
- Oh, no. Gonna have bad luck forever.
- Like many other competitors,
Aly Garcia knew she had to shoot with JM
if she wanted to remain competitive in bodybuilding.
- I shot with JM several times.
I would ask, okay, "What -- What look are we going for?
Is it going to be athletic?"
And he's like, "Well, just, you know, pack, you know,
lingerie, you know, thongs, swimsuits."
It was like less was more.
The less we showed was the better.
- In 2013, at a show in Orlando, JM photographed Garcia
with another male competitor at the hotel pool.
- So that video was shot by John Howley,
who, you know, he would make some good content,
but he always added a very perverted twist onto stuff,
like that video of Jason Poston and I.
He loops the part where I laugh and I bend over
and his hand kind of slides down my back,
and he loops it to make it look like,
you know, he's doing me doggy style.
And it's like, why did you have to take something
and just trash it up?
But he then does a shoot or a video of me
talking about what it's like to shoot with JM.
You know, JM really lets us be ourselves
and become creative, and -- -I like to be collaborative.
- Yeah, exactly.
- I make it a collaborative process.
I am not a -- like, a total control freak about it.
- But, yeah, that's what I like. - Yeah.
- And you've seen the images, and they're hot.
- Let me tell you, I am pretty sure
that I was just lying out of my face, you know, because --
I mean, I think part of it was genuine,
but then there were other parts where I'm, like,
saying things to make him look good.
When I still hadn't seen a return
on any of this excitement or investment,
I'm just thinking, I have to push myself.
I have to keep making -- keeping myself relevant.
- Shortly after the shoot,
JM approached Garcia about posing nude.
- When he first showed me that --
the website, when I saw, like, the girls were nude, like,
girls that I know and it looked like softcore porn,
and I wanted to have that
"spit the rice out," "What the hell?"
type of reaction, but I was like, "Oh, okay."
You know, like, "I see."
But you don't know what to say.
You're not going to be like, "Fuck that.
I'm not doing that shit," because that's your boss.
So now you start thinking like,
"Is this what everyone else is doing?
How can I keep this political advantage and not do that?"
I think I rode that as long as I could,
to the point where I couldn't say anything but no.
You know, it was just -- I mean, that was my answer.
But I -- I felt like the moment I was like,
"No," everything was going to change, which it did.
I really tried to believe the industry wasn't about that,
but they sure showed me.
- JM's management group terminated Garcia's contract.
I thought it really sucked that it's like, "Dude, really?
This is the only way I'm going to, you know, hit my goal?
Guess I'm not gonna hit my goal."
- When there's a power dynamic,
we recognize throughout society that you cannot have consent.
So even if it looks like some "consensual relationship,"
when there's a power dynamic between people,
it's really not consensual.
- The websites disappeared in 2015
with no apparent explanation.
It's unclear how much income JM collected from the sites.
But for athletes like Henderson, the damage was done.
- It just left a really bad taste in my mouth.
It wasn't about the sport anymore.
It was about, were you taking pictures,
were you managed by JM,
were you doing everything that you were supposed to do?
And it makes me really sad now to think
that I allowed myself to go through that for seven years
and put myself through that for seven years.