Featured Athlete: Bikini athlete Zuzanna Jedrzejczak.
Evolutionofbodybuilding.net’s next Featured Athlete is one of IFBB’s top amateur Bikini athletes, Zuzanna Jedrzejczak.
At the age of 21, Zuzanna is still a very young competitor, but she has accomplished so much in such a short time.
Zuzanna was born in Poland but moved to Ireland, where she’s now settled and focussing on her competitive career.
At a very young age, instead of playing with dolls like her friends, Zuzanna preferred to play football with the boys.
When Zuzanna moved to Ireland, after gaining some football experience, Zuzanna joined a football team.
Zuzanna was noticed by a number of scouts, and was offered a contract which she signed, to play in the USA.
Unfortunately, Zuzanna’s football career was cut short due to a serious anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury.
The situation went from bad to worse when a few weeks later, Zuzanna had a very bad accident, where she almost lost her life and ended up in a coma.
The recovery was long and stressful, and Zuzanna explains that it took a lot of time to get her life back to normal.
In the meantime, Zuzanna stopped playing football and had to decline from going to the USA to continue her football career.
Being thankful for getting a second chance, Zuzanna never backed down from a challenge and started to focus on her diet and training.
Her love for training started to grow, and after living a healthy lifestyle and having four years of training under her belt, Zuzanna hired a coach with the goal of competing for the first time as a bikini athlete.
Zuzanna’s new coach recommended more time to build her physique, but Zuzanna never backs down from a challenge, and in just under 12 weeks, she was ready for her first debut as a bikini competitor.
A successful start as a Bikini Athlete
On her competitive debut, Zuzanna placed third. She was not very happy, but at the same time was could not complain about such a result on her debut.
Two weeks later, Zuzanna was back to competing, and she managed to win the overall title in Ireland.
Thanks to winning the overall title, Zuzanna was eligible to represent Ireland at the 2022 Arnold Classic Europe, which took place in Seville, Spain.
Zuzanna managed to place first and win the overall title in the Beginners category, and she also placed third in Juniors and Seniors. Three fantastic results for the young athlete.
Knowing she already accomplished a lot, in such a short time, Zuzanna was hungrier for more victories and had more of a desire to train harder to accomplish more.
Zuzanna was crowned 2022 National Champion in Ireland and went on to represent Ireland at the 2022 IFBB World Championships in Santa Susanna.
At this point, Zuzanna was exhausted and still managed to place fourth, against the best amateur bikini athletes in the world.
After her recent successes in 2022, Zuzanna took approximately four months off to prepare for the 2023 competitive season, and she managed to gain a substantial amount of muscle on her physique.
The next goal was to compete at the 2023 IFBB European Championships. Zuzanna explains the prep was very difficult, as she had to lose some substantial weight. Trying to lose weight and keep the ideal bikini shape, was so difficult that Zuzanna went through a lot of dark sleepless nights.
The suffering paid off, as Zuzanna managed to win the 2023 European Championship in her class, Junior Women’s Bikini 21-23 Years, up to 166cm.
Just five days later, Zuzanna entered the 2023 IFBB Diamond Cup that took place in Malta.
Due to her long and grueling prep and just completing her competition at the European Championships five days earlier, Zuzanna was exhausted.
This did not stop Zuzanna, as she went on to win the Junior, Senior, and Overall titles, making her eligible to compete as an IFBB Elite Pro. It was a very successful weekend that she will never forget.
Zuzanna explains that some people believe that each event gets easier to prep for, but contrary, the body changes every time. Zuzanna explains that the athlete has to go through the process of 60-minute daily cardio sessions, low-calorie intake, difficult training sessions, and painful sports massages twice a week.
Regardless of all that she has to go through, Zuzanna explains that she loves the sport and nobody is going to do the work for her. It’s her job to pick herself up and fight for success each time.
Work, food, and future plans
Zuzanna works in a very busy gym, taking care of clients, who want to improve their lifestyle. This fills up her schedule, especially when she is prepping for a show.
When not in the gym training, Zuzanna admits that she loves Italian food and she is a big eater. She has no problem finishing her serving and eating yours as well.
Zuzanna’s future goals are to continue to grow in this sport as a competitor and hopefully compete as a pro someday.
Follow Zuzanna on Social Media
Instagram @zuzanna_fitness
Evolutionofbodybuilding.net would like to thank Zuzanna for this opportunity to feature her on this website.
