Rachel McLish

Early life and education McLish was born in 1955 as Raquel Livia Elizondo in Harlingen, Texas. She was the second-youngest daughter of father Rafael, who was of Mexican ancestry, and mother Raquel Elizondo.

She attended Harlingen High School, where she was a cheerleader and twice-named Cardinal’s Football Sweetheart. She graduated in 1973.

In 1978, she graduated from the University of Texas–Pan American with a degree in physiology and health and nutrition.

Bodybuilding career Amateur While attending college, McLish worked at a health club in McAllen, Texas. When she graduated from college, she and the health club manager formed a partnership and founded the Sport Palace Association in Harlingen. With the success of the Sport Palace Association, she opened two more facilities in Corpus Christi and Brownsville in 1980.

She was inspired to compete in bodybuilding thanks to Lisa Lyon and the club manager, Javier Gutierrez, who would show her magazines of female bodybuilders and encourage her to compete. She decided to compete because the opening of her new health club would coincide with a women's bodybuilding contest and bodybuilding would give her a platform to promote fitness to women.

Professional McLish merits special historical significance in the sport of women’s bodybuilding. In 1980, she won the inaugural United States Championships, as well as beating Auby Paulick to win that year’s first-ever IFBB Ms. Olympia contest. After her 1980 Olympia win, no woman appeared on more magazine covers for the next five years than her. She got sponsored by Dynamics Health Equipment Manufacturing Corporation. These breakthrough victories, together with her visual appeal, brought women’s bodybuilding a further rush of media attention, which had been jump-started into action by Lyon.

Legacy McLish was the first winner of the Ms. Olympia title. She is one of bodybuilding’s most recognizable personalities. In January 1999, she was inducted into the IFBB Hall of Fame.

Author McLish has authored two books on weight training for women that made the New York Times bestseller list – Flex Appeal, by Rachel, and Perfect Parts. She is now working on two books that focus on fitness and nutrition. In 2008, she sold her house for $3 million to Boston Red Sox player Coco Crisp.