Bodybuilders Pose, Flex for Financial Support

Women giggled and some men just stared Saturday night as Dom Sarun put nearly his entire body on display.

“We all feel shy when we are on the stage,” the 62-kg bodybuilder said after competing at the 2008 Thai-Cambodian Friendship Body­­­­buil­ding competition at Ho­tel Le Roy­al in Phnom Penh, where he plac­ed third in the under-75 kg category.

“We want to show the people that Cambodia has bodybuilders,” the 31-year-old said. “My family would like to sponsor me but they can’t afford it.”

A lack of sponsors is keeping the sport from growing in Cambodia, and threatening current athletes’ ability to compete, said Douglas Latchford, President of the South­east Asian Bodybuilding Federa­tion. Most bodybuilders in Cam­bodia, like Dom Sarun, come from poor families, he said.

“High society or people of wealth tend to look down on bodybuilding because they think it is a sport for the masses,” Latchford said.

So far a Cambodian bodybuilding team has competed internationally twice, at the Southeast Asian Games in 2003 and 2007, he said, and no one placed. At the moment he is only aware of four competitive Cambodian bodybuilders, he said.

But Latchford said more wins could garner more financial support for the sport.

Dom Sarun said he spends $150 to $200 a month on food supplements—sometimes more than half his income as a personal trainer.

As the men, covered in shiny brown make-up, posed and flexed before an audience on the outdoor stage, Yvonne Hannan, a 66-year-old Dutch woman, said she was impressed.

“Forty-one’s thighs—his thighs are bigger than my waist,” she said referring to the bodybuilder by the number he wore on his swimsuit.

But size aside, she said she ad­mired their hard work. “This takes a lot of self-determination. No one is going to do it for you,” she said.

 

Related Stories

Latest News