Rachel McLish
| Rachel McLish | |
|---|---|
| — Bodybuilder — | |
| Personal info | |
| Born |
June 21, 1955 Harlingen, Texas, U.S. |
| Height | 5 ft 6.5 in (1.69 m) |
| Weight | 129 lb (59 kg) |
| Professional career | |
| Pro-debut | IFBB Ms. Olympia, 1980 |
| Best win | IFBB Ms. Olympia champion, 1980 and 1982 |
| Predecessor | None |
| Successor |
Kike Elomaa Carla Dunlap |
| Active | Retired 1984 |
Rachel Livia Elizondo McLish (born June 21, 1955) is an American female bodybuilding champion, actress, and author.
McLish was born as Raquel Livia Elizondo in 1955 in Harlingen, Texas, the second-youngest daughter born. Her father Rafael was of Mexican ancestry and her mother is named Raquel Elizondo. She attended the Harlingen High School, where she was a cheerleader and twice-named Cardinal’s Football Sweetheart. She graduated from high school in 1973. In 1978, she graduated from the University of Texas-Pan American with a degree in physiology and health and nutrition.
While attending college, McLish worked at a health club in McAllen, Texas. When she graduated college, she and the manager of the health club she worked at formed a partnership and founded the Sport Palace Association in Harlingen. With the success of the Sport Palace Association, she opened two more facilities in Corpus Christi and Brownsville in 1980. She was inspired to compete in bodybuilding thanks to Lisa Lyon and the men's club manager, Javier Gutierrez, who would show her magazines of female bodybuilders and encouraged her to compete. She decided to compete because the opening of her new health club would coincide with a women's bodybuilding contest and bodybuilding would give her a platform to promote fitness to women.
McLish merits special historical significance in the sport of women’s bodybuilding. In 1980, she won the inaugural United States Championships, as well as beating Auby Paulick to win that year’s first-ever IFBB Ms. Olympia contest. After her 1980 Olympia win, no woman appeared on more magazine covers for the next five years. She got sponsored by Dynamics Health Equipment Manufacturing Corporation. These breakthrough victories, together with her visual appeal, brought women’s bodybuilding a further rush of media attention, which had been jump-started into action by Lisa Lyon.
In a competitive career that spanned only four years, McLish proved a resilient force, never placing lower than third in any contest she entered. In 1981, she lost her Ms. Olympia title to Kike Elomaa, because her physique was not as defined as usual. At the 1982 Ms. Olympia she beat Carla Dunlap to reclaim her title. Both Paulick and Dunlap brought more muscle than McLish in those respective contests, but neither could match McLish's overall appeal. Dunlap defeated her in the 1983 Caesar's World Cup contest. She finished a controversial second behind Cory Everson in the 1984 Ms. Olympia. As quoted by several magazines covering the event, some competitors expressed surprise at McLish's high placement because she didn't carry the muscle mass carried by many of the top women. Though Dunlap, who finished fifth, was the defending Ms. Olympia, the cover of the March 1985 Strength Training for Beauty's March 1985 cover declared "Cory dethrones Rachel."
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