The bodybuilding industry has claimed another victim: an extremely young Texas woman who died of dehydration after taking unhealthy supplements.
As TMZ reports, 20-year-old bodybuilding coach Jodi Vance — no relation to the vice president, seemingly — died suddenly this week after attending Arnold Schwarzenegger's sports festival in Columbus.
Though she wasn't competing at the sporting event herself, Vance attended the festival to support some of her coaching students. According to her coach, the fitness influencer Justin Mihaly, the young bodybuilder seems to have taken some harmful supplements while she was there that ultimately dehydrated her enough to kill her.
"Jodi made a serious error," the influencer said in an Instagram video posted after Vance's death. "Jodi used two extremely hazardous substances to improve her physique — I assume just for the Arnold Expo — without my knowledge, my approval, without family’s knowledge, their approval."
As Mihaly explained, Vance had some recent health problems and "expressed interest" in taking an unspecified fat-burning drug. Because she hadn't been competing, there was "no reason" she should have taken it, but in the aftermath of her death, it appears that she had taken the substance alongside a diuretic that resulted in her fatal dehydration.
"Recently, [her] health had become quite concerning, and now we know why. Now we have the answers," Mihaly continued. "Many people who loved Jodi, including myself, tried to get her to pull off the gas pedal."
The coach said that those grieving could "direct your blame towards [him]" if that helps them feel better — but there's little doubt that the bodybuilding industry at large seems extraordinarily dangerous, even by the standards of extreme sports.
Just a few months prior, Australian influencer Jaxon Tippett dropped dead when he was on vacation for his 30th birthday. In that case, the specific cause of death was a heart attack, and there's a good likelihood that his past steroid abuse, which he'd opened up about in 2022 after getting clean, contributed.
Unfortunately, those two are far from the only relatively young bodybuilders who've died in recent years. Last September, Belarusian bodybuilder Illia Yefimchyk, a man so large he was nicknamed both "The Mutant" and "Golem," died at 36 after years of admitted steroid use. Just a month prior, as Unilad reports, 26-year-old Brazilian heavyweight Antonio Souza collapsed onstage during a competition awards ceremony after telling his wife that he'd had a "strong pain feeling in his chest."
Be it steroids, supplements, or the strain of such strict diets and grueling workouts, it's obvious that bodybuilding is straight-up killing people — but for some reason, those who engage in it are still by and large viewed as paragons of health.
More on unhealthy lifestyles: In the Face of a Measles Outbreak, Our Dingbat Health Secretary Is Recommending Cod Liver Oil
Share This Article