A bitter rivalry inside competitive bodybuilding has spilled into public view, with former champion Sarah Villegas accusing two-time Ms. Olympia women's physique winner Natalia Coelho of receiving Plexiglas injections to enhance her muscles. Coelho has not confirmed or denied the allegation, and the sport's governing body has not announced any investigation into it.
The accusation centers on a Brazilian clinic and doctor that Villegas says she learned about from a licensed health professional in Brazil. As reported by USA TODAY, that doctor and clinic were identified as Fernando Vitor at Instituto Lappidare, and Coelho appeared at the clinic with Vitor in a video posted to Instagram. USA TODAY also reported that Vitor and his clinic have financial ties to bodybuilding's governing body through promoter and Olympia producer Tamer El-Guindy.
Villegas told USA TODAY she first grew suspicious after what she described as an abrupt change in Coelho's legs at the 2025 Pittsburgh Pro. She said her coach and husband, Ali Taktak, privately raised the allegations with IFBB Pro League leadership in December 2025, months before the controversy became public. The outlet confirmed with the health professional who shared the information that they had, in fact, passed it along to Villegas, though that person declined to be identified out of fear of retaliation.
Coelho Declines To Address The Allegation Directly
Coelho won the women's physique title at Ms. Olympia in 2025 and repeated as champion in Las Vegas in late September, with Villegas finishing third. Asked about the controversy, Coelho did not confirm or deny it. “If I get into that, I'm not doing any good for the sport,” she told USA TODAY. The outlet reported that Coelho did not return several messages seeking additional comment, and that Vitor and El-Guindy likewise did not respond to messages.
Villegas has not softened her stance. She has called the alleged injections an existential threat to bodybuilding and said plastic muscle implants have no place in a sport founded on building actual muscle through human effort, according to the same USA TODAY report. She has also said obtaining artificial muscle tramples the spirit of the sport.
No Clear Rule Against It
Villegas said the IFBB Pro League told her it has no rules prohibiting PMMA plastic muscle implants and requires no disclosure of physique-enhancement methods. As of early November, the IFBB Pro League's website did not list any rules forbidding muscle implants or artificial muscle augmentation, except in natural, drug-tested contests, per the USA TODAY report. The league did not announce any investigation into the allegations and did not respond to several messages from the outlet.
A separate report from Physical Culture Study describes a split in the rulebooks: the 2026 amateur IFBB rulebook bans “implants or fluid injections causing the change of the natural shape of any other parts or muscles of the body,” but the professional rulebook contains no outright ban on fluid injections. That gap leaves open the question of what, if anything, a pro athlete would be violating even if the allegation were confirmed.
Backlash Against Villegas
Some prominent figures in the sport have pushed back on Villegas rather than on the underlying allegation. Shawn Ray, a 13-time Mr. Olympia finalist, said on a podcast with Bob Cicherillo that Villegas sounded like a sore loser after losing the crown to Coelho. Cicherillo, who hosts the Olympia competition, said the IFBB Pro League was anything but a natural federation. He called Villegas's allegations very unprofessional and said there are no rules set forth and no testing procedures in place. Cicherillo said he does not personally care what anyone does to enhance their physique and has no moral or ethical fight over it, though he added that enhancing muscles with injections is making a mockery of the sport. Cicherillo asked Coelho about the controversy directly at a public seminar in September. Ray, for his part, said that if Coelho did use Plexiglas, it is unclear what rule she would have actually broken.
What Plexiglas Injections Actually Involve
Bodybuilders have historically used steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs to improve their physiques, per USA TODAY's reporting, and some in the sport argue Plexiglas injections are different because steroids still require hard work to build muscle. In the United States, cosmetic Plexiglas injections typically consist of Plexiglas microspheres suspended in bovine collagen, marketed as Bellafill. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approves the product only as a dermal filler for nasolabial folds and acne scars, not for enhancing bodybuilding physiques.
The FDA's instructions for Bellafill warn that it should not be used in vascular-rich areas, noting that similar products used in such areas have resulted in cases of vascular embolization and symptoms consistent with ocular vessel occlusion, including blindness. Using Plexiglas for muscle volume would be considered off-label in the United States, meaning the FDA has not studied its safety for that purpose or legitimized any claimed benefits.
Brazil banned Plexiglas for aesthetic purposes in June after a 48-year-old woman died following an injection for cosmetic buttock augmentation, with a Brazilian government official warning the substance could cause irreversible damage and death. Separately, Brazil's health regulator, Anvisa, has said PMMA's approved indications do not cover indiscriminate aesthetic use. Bodybuilder Rich Piana died in 2017 at age 46, and bodybuilding's use of the substance has been discussed for years without much public confirmation of actual usage, according to USA TODAY.
USA TODAY Sports reported that neither the IFBB Pro League nor its president, Jim Manion, returned several messages seeking comment by phone and email, and that Olympia owner Jake Wood also did not respond to messages. Judges ultimately determine bodybuilding winners based on muscle and other factors, leaving the controversy unresolved as the sport heads toward its next competitive season.
