Champion bodybuilder Hayley McNeff has passed away at the age of 37, becoming the seventh notable bodybuilder to pass away within the past six months.
McNeff, a native of Concord, Massachusetts, passed away on August 8 – but tributes didn’t start pouring in until Wednesday.
Her cause of death has not yet been disclosed. McNeff’s obituary says her passing was ‘unexpected but peaceful’.
Funeral services for McNeff have been planned for this coming Sunday.
Growing up, McNeff was active in many sports – including skiing and diving – while becoming an accomplished equestrian, according to an obituary posted to Boston.com.
She graduated from UMass Amherst and discovered bodybuilding as an adult. After her career ended, she intended to pursue a graduate degree in psychology.
McNeff rose to prominence in the body building world in the 2000s – winning several titles, including the 2009 East Coast Classic.
She continued competing into the 2010s and was featured in a bodybuilding documentary released in 2016 titled ‘Raising The Bar’.
In that film, she discussed her career, saying, ‘The quest for getting huge will never end. There’s no limit. I hope there’s a day that I’ll be able to look in the mirror 100 percent of the time and be like “yeah man, I’m huge.”‘
McNeff’s death is the latest in a disturbing string of deaths in the bodybuilding community – totaling seven deaths in the past six months.
In late July, Spanish bodybuilding star Lorena Blanco died at age 37 of a suspected heart attack while she was preparing to travel to Las Vegas to compete at Ms. Olympia.
A month prior, Colombian bodybuilder Zunilda Hoyos Mendez was killed in a horrific hammer attack in Spain at age 43 after telling her husband she wanted a divorce. Her husband, Jarrod Gelling, was also found dead with knife wounds that police believe was a suicide.
In May, a pair of Brazilian weightlifters died within a week of each other. On May 6, 30-year-old bodybuilding champion Gui Bull died due to asphyxiation. Just days later, another 30-year-old – Wanderson da Silva Moreira – passed away while competing in the Pantanal bodybuilding championship.
In April, male bodybuilder and actor Vito Pirbazari died at age 44 from a heart attack after collapsing on a treadmill.
Back in March, a 20-year-old bodybuilder – Jodi Vance – died when her heart stopped due to ‘severe dehydration’, according to a statement from her family.
Research published by the European Society of Cardiology earlier this year reveals that ‘sudden cardiac death is responsible for an unusually high proportion of deaths in male bodybuilders worldwide with the highest risk among professional bodybuilders.’
That report found that professional bodybuilders were at five-times the risk for a sudden cardiac death than amateur bodybuilders.
