Biography

Juliette Bergmann was born on Sunday November 30, 1958 in place called Vlaardingen, in the Netherlands. During her childhood she lost two of her brothers, and her mother found it difficult to deal with the loss of two children and left alot of responsibility on Juliette, and she took care of her younger brother and sister.

Early Life

After finishing school, Juliette started to study financial management, along with journalism aerobics and fitness. In 1975 she got married to a man called Jan Meijer when she was only 17 but divorced him in 1985. Juliette started training in 1981 with her ex-partner Jan Meijer. Juliette's goal was just to lose weight, it wasn't until she went to a bodybuilding contest in 1983 after seeing how good the female contestants looked that she decided to start bodybuilding.

Bodybuilding Career

Juliette entered her first competition at the end of her first year where she won first place.

In 1984 she competed in her first national Championship contest where she placed second after Erika Mes and Ellen Van Maris and qualified for her first European Championship, which was in Den Hague, in the Netherlands where she finished seventh.

In 1984 Juliette moved to Middelharnis and started to train with Jim Lensveld the vice president of the Dutch National Bodybuilding and Fitness Federation. She went on to win her first Dutch National Championship and and then won it again in 1985. Later that same year she qualified for the World Amateur Championship, where she achieved first place.

At the end of 1985 Juliette competed in her first Ms. Olympia contest, but only managed 14th place. However, in 1986 she had a huge success by winning first place in the Pro World Championship, Placed second in the Ms. International contest and sixth in the Ms. Olympia. After 1989 Juliette took a break from competition and didn't return until 1991 but then she suffered a bad broken ankle and was unable to train properly for a few years,

In 2001, she returned after a twelve year gap which she had been working as an IFBB judge. She enter the Ms. Olympia contest where she took first place in the lightweight class and won the overall title. Juliette went on to win the title for 3 years running up until 2003 and then lost the overall title to Lenda Murray in although she did win the lightweight class.