A LOT CAN CHANGE IN FIVE YEARS – THE BEATTY FAMILY ’ S JOURNEY TOWARDS COMPETING
BY CONNIE BEATTY
In 2017 , we were introduced to the bodybuilding community . Connie , then 46 years old , set out to compete in her first bodybuilding competition . She picked the Canfitpro Natural Championships show to be her debut , in 2018 . Connie got six weeks out , before experiencing many arthritic flare-ups with the last flare landing her in the hospital due to the pain . With her coach , they decided to push the original show date back and attend the King Kong Classic . She pushed until the six weeks out point and again had many arthritic flare-ups . Connie then decided that perhaps she would never make it to the stage and put her heels back on the shelf . In 2019 , we moved to the countryside and our oldest daughter , Victoria , started her career as a personal trainer . This is where Victoria met her coach Alessandro Zito , who planted the seed about her competing . That seed grew , and in July of 2021 , she began her journey to the stage .
On October 3rd , 2021 , Rebecca , our youngest daughter , aged 22 , was killed in a car accident by an allegedly impaired driver . Our world was turned upside down . Grief overcame us and Victoria put her goal on hold . MADD became a community of people who completely understood our circumstances , a group of people who knew how it felt to lose a loved one in such a devastating and senseless way . With the support of MADD and the support we gave each other , we began to find reasons to look forward to the future with Rebecca in our hearts and in our minds daily . Grief is something we will live with for the rest of our lives ; the loss of Rebecca has left an irreplaceable hole in all of us . Together , we work to keep her memory alive and honor her in any way we can . We do this by living life to the fullest as we continue to make her proud by putting our best foot forward in our efforts to be the best versions of ourselves daily .
Months later , Victoria decided she needed to finish what she started , and felt this driving force to do it for her sister . She chose to get a custom purple suit from KHCustoms , created in honor of her sister because purple was Rebecca ’ s favorite color . Victoria , at age 25 , competed in her first bodybuilding competition at the Ottawa Natural Classic show in 2022 . With the help of the assistant coach for the day , Alexander Trent Forian , she felt calm , well-supported backstage , and pumped for the stage . For her , making it to the stage was the biggest victory possible , but she was surprised with herself when she got 3rd place in WellnessTrue Novice , 2nd place in Figure True Novice , 4th in Figure Open , and 5th in Wellness Open . She felt like she held her own and was ready to go into a growing season to bring a better package for the following year .
As parents , we watched her on stage , and we were extremely proud of all the obstacles she overcame to get to this point . We sat in the audience in awe of all the amazing athletes . Connie turned to Mark and partially joked that Mark could get on the stage and probably look just as good as the guys up there . Well , Mark agreed and ran with that idea ! Months later , we discussed doing a show as a family . Connie and Victoria began to train together , for Connie had not trained since Rebecca ’ s passing , she had lost the joy