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About Cory Everson

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About Cory

Merely looking at the woman who is one of the most successful bodybuilders in history is perhaps the least effective way of understanding her.

In an age of specialization, Cory Everson is far more than the spectacularly honed body that has appeared on more than 200 magazine covers and hosted a daily exercise television show, "Gotta Sweat with Cory Everson" for seven years.

Mother, wife, athlete, artist, actress, author, fitness motivator, public speaker, role model--Everson seems blessed with an abundance of talents and unlimited energy.

Her defining achievement is in bodybuilding, where she won the premier title, Ms. Olympia, six times (1984 - 1989) before moving on to become a fitness authority through books, television shows, home videos and personal appearances. At the same time, she began an acting career that has included featured roles in movies and on several television series.

Far less well known is Everson's love of art and design. Born in Racine, WI., into a family devoted to both art and sports, she attended the University of Wisconsin, where she won the Big Ten pentathlon championships four years in a row. She got into bodybuilding in college by competing in pairs competitions.

She also majored in interior design at Wisconsin and to this day considers it one of her professions. Her home in Los Angeles provides abundant evidence of her talents, including vivid, playful murals of Western scenes, painted floors and painted, three-dimensional structures on the walls. A newly developed passion is landscaping turning her own yard into a southwestern mecca.

Cory has been drawing and painting since she was very young. "Art has been a sort of secret satisfaction for a long time,". Today she works in many media, including pencil, acrylics, oil and water colors. She brings to her art some of the same characteristics that made her an outstanding athlete: fierce dedication, laser-like focus and a painstaking attention to detail.

"I like realistic art, ultra-realistic,. It's difficult for me to appreciate abstract art. I want people who see my work to be able to understand it. I really enjoy being absorbed in my paintings. They take a long time to create and a long time to finish. I don't stop until I feel they're perfect."

Although she has appeared in several movies and TV series, she has placed her acting career largely on the back burner. She prefers to concentrate instead on her daily exercise activities and camp.

"Because of the exercise regimes, people come to me and say, 'You saved my life; I stopped smoking; I lost weight,'" Cory explains. "No one ever said anything like that because I was in a movie or a TV comedy."

The opportunity to be an inspiration to young girls prompted Cory to join the HealthSouth Sports Medicine Council, whose athlete members appear in a traveling roadshow called "Go For It!" that teaches youngsters about nutrition, health, sports and fitness. The sponsor, HealthSouth, is a national health-care provider.

Council members include Bo Jackson, Troy Aikman, Herschel Walker, Jennifer Chandler, Dan Marino, Matt Bahre, Doug Flutie, Mary Jo Fernandez and Nancy Lopez. "The council was dominated by men, and I thought the girls needed role models of their own sex," Cory explains. The show is expected to reach 3 million children in 300 cities over 10 years.

"I want to show that an athlete can be powerful and sensitive, powerful and artistic,". She is talking about her art, but also seems to be expressing a broader mission. "I want to communicate happiness".

By Cory Everson