Who's buffest of 'em all?

OREM — Nicky Reed steps back from the bronzed specimen like a sculptor scrutinizing her masterpiece. She cocks her head to see how the light and shadows play on the flesh of her muscular subject.

Spying an uneven spot, she dips her rubber gloved fingers into a jar and smears Ron Osborne's chiseled physique with another glob of Dream Tan.

Reed gently works the brown cream into every ripple and crease of her friend's hairless body, massaging it to a uniform glow. She even dabs some under the edges of his bright red Speedo-size trunks to erase any tan line. She does his face last.

Osborne looks as if he has just emerged from a copper mine.

It's exactly the effect he was after.

"The darker you are, the more your cuts and everything show," the 45-year-old bodybuilder says.

A faux tan is the finishing touch on months of lifting weights, pounding protein and downing nutritional supplements for a contest where image really is everything.

"This is a show sport. It is about vanity," said Loran Brumley, a West Valley police officer. "You're going up on stage; you're flaunting everything."

It's also a sport that takes discipline.

Brumley and Osborne, a master sergeant in the Air Force, were among 72 amateur competitors ages 17 to 50 in the recent Utah Cup Bodybuilding, Fitness and Figure Championships at the McKay Events Center in Orem. About 1,500 spectators, paying $15 apiece, attended the evening finals, organizers say. The National Physique Committee, the sport's governing body, sanctioned the event.

Contest promoter Matthew "Biff" Boswell says that's a good turnout for a Utah show. But the 24-year-old Texan stationed at Hill Air Force base plans to pump it up even more.

Through his Buffenuff Productions, Boswell wants to promote shows in Utah "the over-the-top, the larger-than-life Texan way. That's the aura I want to bring."

And with Arnold Schwarzenegger assuming the role of California governor, bodybuilding has an icon with a high profile in politics as well as Hollywood. Bodybuilders say that bodes well for the sport everywhere.

Local gyms are packed with people pumping iron and admiring themselves in the mirror. But the state isn't a hotbed for bodybuilding's competitive side. While anyone who improves his or her looks with weights is a bodybuilder, few shed nearly every stitch of clothing to compare physiques on stage.

Murray resident Dave Evans' biggest fear before his first contest in October was "getting into that little Speedo thing."

Boswell said he realizes he's up against a perhaps disapproving community, but he wants to bring it out to the public "so it's not 'Ooh, taboo.'"