I am often asked how I ended up competing in figure. Here’s the answer. From the day I was born I was surrounded by athletics.

My dad played minor-league baseball and college football. He also coached high-school football, wrestling (still does), and baseball my entire childhood. I grew up with wrestlers living in my house to avoid their mothers’ “country cookin”.

My mom is also very athletic and is an avid horseback rider. Most of my competitiveness, however, can be attributed to my brother, Eric.

He was an outstanding athlete who excelled in football and especially wrestling. How did this affect me? I was his wrestling “dummy.” Each night after practice he would demonstrate his new moves on me. I got beat up a lot, but learned quickly how to defend myself. What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger!

My parents put me in gymnastics at a young age with hopes of wearing me out so I would be still at home...didn’t work. But I did catch onto the sport quickly and had dreams of competing in college. However, I had too many injuries to list, so stopped competing when I was thirteen and started playing school sports.

My best was track where I set records in the high jump and hurdles (some still stand.) I also earned a scholarship to the United States Naval Academy to run track but left after a few months (you can ask why via email). I finished up college at West Virginia University where I graduated Summa Cum Laude with a degree in Industrial and Management Systems Engineering.

Yep, I’m smart...who would’ve known!? After spending three years climbing the corporate ladder I realized that I was bored out of my mind. I started coaching gymnastics again and got into weight training. People in the gym told me that I should compete in fitness so I decided to give it a shot.

I blew my ACL practicing gymnastics and ended up having surgery and sitting out from leg training for eight months. Since I was still unable to tumble I set my goals for the NPC Natural Northern Figure Competition in April 2002. To my surprise, I won the overall!

I competed in two more competitions in May 2002 and placed 2nd both times. Then for fun, I bought a ticket to NY to compete at the NPC Figure Nationals in August 2002. I placed 3rd in the medium class and took home an IFBB pro card only four months after competing in my first show. And the rest was history!

Jaime is exclusively managed by JMP Management.