El Salvador flexes its muscles at Pan Am bodybuilding

They flexed their muscles glistening with oil on the bright pink stage, blew kisses to the crowd and smiled to the judges, trembling to keep the posture on their toned, deeply tanned bodies. This wasn’t just any competition. All those hours up at dawn for heavy weight routines, all those strict diets culminated in this moment in the spotlight.

In the end, El Salvador came out strongest in Saturday’s debut of bodybuilding as an official sport in the Pan American Games at Lima, Peru. Paulina Zamora won gold in the women’s fitness category and Yuri Rodriguez earned gold in men’s classic bodybuilding.

“Our sport is hard. I’m not going to lie telling you that you enjoy the pain of weights,” Rodriguez said. “This hurts, but when you achieve something like this, you say to yourself: ‘I can do it and I would give much more.’ We’ve made history.”

In all, 16 women and 32 men participated in the event. The women competed in the fitness category with choreography and acrobatics to catchy tunes and glittery outfits. The men in their posing trunks contested in classic bodybuilding. Judges evaluated symmetry (the equal development between the right and the left side of their body), harmony (equal development between the body’s upper and lower sides) and muscularity (the athletes’ fit shape).

“I’m still dreaming,” said Rodriguez, who wore a top hat and a red top on stage for a routine set at a circus and inspired by the film “The Greatest Showman.”

For now, bodybuilding is not included as part of the official competitions for the Olympics.