Mr. Olympia used to be the jewel in bodybuilding’s crown, but those days are gone.
In a confirmation-of-sorts that fans have grown tired of the CGI-looking “mass monsters” which dominated between 1985-2015, the Classic Olympia has now taken centre-stage.
This category focuses on physiques that hark back to the so-called “golden age” of the sport, which ran from 1970-1985, and featured the likes of Arnold Schwarzenegger, Lou Ferrigno, Frank Zane and Franco Columbo.
Current king Chris Bumstead (above) has been crucial to this pivot, notching an impressive four straight victories thanks to a unique combinatioon of size and definition — a feat that’s led many, including myself, to declare him “one of the best to ever do it.”
But as much as I admire CBum, we mustn’t get carried away.
His most recent victory saw this fabulous photoshop mockup doing the rounds on social media, in which the current champ stands alongside Ah-nuld, with the tantalising headline:
Who wins?
As you can imagine, the internet went into full-scale meltdown.
For the next few days I scrolled through several hilarious social media comment sections, in which total strangers threatened and berated each other over which man looked better in their underwear.
In reality, of course, the winner can only be Arnold.
Don’t get me wrong, I actually believe CBum has a slightly better physique overall, but the gulf isn’t big enough to justify 50 years of advancements in training, recovery, nutrition, supplementation, posing and — yes — drugs.
It’s fucking absurd that The Austrian Oak was able to create such a top physique during an era when solid information on training and nutrition was scarce and gym setups were as basic as could be — let alone one that could still rival the best of the sport half a century later!
And the gap between the two widens even further when we zoom out a little, taking into consideration Schwarzenegger’s immense impact on the sport of bodybuilding and celebrity culture as a whole.
He’s been the face of fitness for six decades, and in the early 1990s was even appointed Chairman of the President’s Countil of Physical Fitness and Sports by George Bush.
Heck, Arnie one of just a handful of people who can legitimately claim to have inspored more people to join a gym than Rocky Balboa.
He achieved a level of worlwide fame that we don’t really see anymore — Michael Jackson, Hulk Hogan, Mike Tyson — with perhaps only The Rock reaching the outer edges of the same stratosphere in recent years.
So all of this is why, in my humble opinion, nobody will ever top what Arnold Schwarzenegger did — not just in bodybuilding, but for it.
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