Going from 'skinny kid' to bodybuilding superstar

BY SABRINA BYRNES

After a three-year absence from the sport, Sudbury's Scott Kivisto has been on a winning streak, leading up to first place in the men's bantam weight division at the Canadian Body Building Championships.

"There's nothing like it," Kivisto said, recalling the experience of standing up on stage and hearing his name being called.

Kivisto has been training in the sport of body building for 12 years, but didn't start competing until 2001, at the age of 18.

"I was just a little kid, a skinny kid...so it's been a long road," the champion said about his journey.

"When I first got out of high school, I just got sick of being a little kid. So I said, 'Well I'm going to do something about it.'"

Kivisto said he went on to meet the right people, the right mentors and eventually got involved in the sport.
His last competition was in 2005, at the Ontario championships, where he came in third. Kivisto said after that competition he took time off to work on the areas where he felt he needed improvement. He said he wanted to improve his lower body and add some mass overall. So for three years he trained hard with the hope of being rewarded for his efforts.

Kivisto's first show back was at the Sudbury Body Building Championships in June. He said had no expectations going in, seeing it was his first competition in three years. Least of all he wasn't expecting to win the championships.
"It was unbelievable. There's nothing like it. It's something I'll take with me forever." Kivisto claimed. "I would never have expected it, because I had never placed first in a show before so it was a real shock to me actually when they called my name."

After that show, Kivisto's accolades began to snowball. He went on to compete at the Northern Ontario Bodybuilding Championships, in which he placed first. Then he went on to the Ontario championships, in which he also placed first. "It was unbelievable," Kivisto said of his experience winning the provincial tournament. "I knew I had a ticket to the Canadians."

The Canadian National Bodybuilding Championships were held in Montreal on Sept. 6 of this year. Kivisto never experienced anything like it.

While it was a completely new experience for him, Kivisto said he never felt the nerves. "It's a fun sport for me. I enjoy every bit of it. The training, the diet, being on stage - all of it," he said. "I was grateful that I had the chance to go and just had fun with it."

Kivisto said the experience had more mental conditioning for him than anything else. He spent a lot of time not worrying about anybody else. The experience was more for his own benefit, to see if he could beat his own conditioning from previous shows.

Kivisto trains six to seven days a week and said he really enjoys the discipline of the sport. He said it's something that one can carry into other aspects of one's life.

Next year Kivisto will compete in the North American championships and again at the Canadians.