Remembering Crystal Fontaine.

On Saturday, May 12, a category and trophy in Crystal Fontaine’s name will be presented at the Nova Scotia Physique Championships at Casino Nova Scotia. Crystal was a mother to four boys and decorated bodybuilding competitor. In February she was diagnosed with adrenocortical carcinoma, an aggressive form of cancer, and passed away on March 25 at the age of 40.

James Stone, Fontaine’s partner and fellow bodybuilder told the Dartmouth Tribune.

“Right into the last day, in the few sentences she spoke to me, she still wanted to go ‘balls to the wall.’”

Fontaine’s started experiencing fatigue and back pain around the time her mother passed away in 2017. Early this year, she finally went to a walk in clinic, where tests revealed low hemoglobin. The back pain worsened until Stone took her to the ER where she received the cancer diagnosis.

Fontaine’s first competition in a 2014 Figure class qualified her for the provincials, where a subsequent performance catapulted her to nationals. In November 2016, she competed again at provincials, this time in Women’s Physique. She won the category and best overall. Then at provincials in 2017 she took second, then third three months later at the Flex Lewis Canadian Classic.

Stone has received several posthumous honors for Fontaine already, including first-place medal for the women’s physique category at the Masteries Naturals Classic, a show Fontaine was training for when she was diagnosed with cancer.

He said Fontaine’s bodybuilding ethos informed every aspect of her life.

“She gave just as much in her everyday life as she did in her sport. She liked when folks from the community would talk with her, or even just reference her. Any mention of her, she was flattered. I can imagine, if she saw any of the stuff happening in the last little bit, she’d be floored.”

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