Call her the Wonder from Down Under, a small-town girl in Australia who is making it big in bodybuilding and the health and fitness industry.

Nickie Ware‘s latest accomplishment is winning the prestigious National Amateur Bodybuilders Association (NABBA) 2010 “Miss International Physique” championship in Melbourne, Australia on May 23, 2010 – for the second year in a row.

The NABBA competition is a very big deal, not only in Australia but in the international fitness community as well. Nickie’s dynamic posing routine, stage presence and overall excellent condition impressed the audience and judges alike in the competition, held last month at the Darebin Arts and Entertainment Centre in Melbourne. Nickie was sponsored this year by MRI Performance Supplements – an accomplishment in itself, as it is relatively rare for female competitors to acquire sponsorship from international supplement companies. MRI was apparently impressed by an article about Nickie that appeared in the bodybuilding magazine Australian Ironman.

Such accomplishments are remarkable for someone from a small rural town in Oz, where the lion’s share of attention is focused on the large urban areas. But it’s part of a winning record for Nickie Ware, who, besides being Miss International in
2009 and 2010, was Miss Australia in the 2008 NABBA competition. She also won the Australia Day Senior Sportsperson Award for 2010. She continues to train for other national and international competitions, including the NABBA Universe competition in Greece. At last year’s Miss International competition as well as this year’s, Nickie was a popular photo op, displaying an excellent balance of strength and femininity.

Nickie comes from Emerald, a small country town in Central Queensland, Australia, where she owns and operates three businesses. She works up to seventy hours a week at her Generations Healthy Life Centre, Femnasium for Women, and Healthy Life Supplement Shop, businesses she owns and runs with her husband Ken. “I want to show people it’s possible to achieve personal health and wellness goals and still work hard at your job or business – and not just let your work become another excuse for not taking care of yourself,” Nickie says.

According to husband Ken, a former Mr Universe and a fitness expert in his own right, Nickie always “trains smart,” listening to her body as she goes. “No living system responds well to abuse,” she says. Nickie believes it is time to lay the old “No pain, no gain” credo to rest once and for all. Ken adds that Nickie lives and breathes the health and wellness model he has designed – a model that, he claims, “seriously challenges typical fitness industry and rehabilitation knowledge, both physical and emotional.”

Nickie Ware is not just another vain and egocentric bodybuilder; she is also involved in her community and is dedicated to inspiring others to a healthy and fit lifestyle.

“She’s a good sport in every sense of the word,” says Ken Ware. “She uses her fame to benefit the general community, a feat a lot of sports people are not famous for.”