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A professional bodybuilder and mother of an 11-year-old son has died just weeks after competing on one of her sport’s biggest stages.<\/p>\n
Marianne von Gierke died Wednesday at 40, Chile’s bodybuilding federation announced<\/a>. A cause of death was not disclosed, per the New York Post<\/a>.<\/p>\n Von Gierke recently finished 13th in the women’s physique category at Olympia, improving on her 16th-place finish in 2024. She turned professional in 2021 and also worked as a trainer.<\/p>\n She remained active on social media in the days before her death, sharing a post congratulating a friend on her physique transformation just hours earlier.<\/p>\n In another recent post, von Gierke thanked her boyfriend of 10 years, Juan Cofr\u00e9 Garc\u00eda, for supporting her through the demands of training and competition.<\/p>\n “He is with me 365 days a year, not only when things go well, but also through every difficult stage of a preparation,” she wrote.<\/p>\n She described him as the person who shared her good days, doubts, frustrations and goals, offering support that spectators never saw onstage.<\/p>\n