Brandon Curry is the new champion, Mr Olympia 2019 winner. Yet I confess, I’m pretty far from impressed. Could this be the death of bodybuilding?
Is that it, is that the best in the world, really?
This is tantamount to Harry Kane being the best footballer on the planet, he’s a good player sure, but the best? In my humble opinion, this leaves bodybuilding in a sad state of affairs.
There was a lot of buzz about Hadi Choopan and even William Bonac. Yet all of the aforementioned are sub-par! Remember folks, we’re talking about the best of the best here, MR OLYMPIA 2019.
Nearly one and half million in accumulated prize money, and a cool 400,000 dollars to the winner. The biggest event in bodybuilding, our Super Bowl or the World Cup of bodybuilding.
“In my humble opinion, this leaves bodybuilding in a sad state of affairs”
Callum West – 2019
Phil Heath And Kai Greene Missing!
Okay, so some big names pulled out this year, no Phil ‘the gift’ Heath and no Kai Greene. Both who would have cleaned the floor with any of the top 4 from last week’s Las Vegas line up.
This year was wide open for a win, everyone associated with the sport was begging Phil Heath to come back and add an eighth title to his Olympia crowns.
And it doesn’t take a genius to realise, that Kai has had it with the sport. He seems to have ventured into acting, modeling, entrepreneurship and is broadening his horizons.
Social Media…..
With the rise of social media and with that ‘social media stars’ and ‘Influencers’ who are landing the big endorsements and advertising deals.
I guess some bodybuilders are taking a good look and thinking to themselves, why am I breaking my back to maybe win two, three, four shows a year and earn only a million dollars a year?
When these social media dudes are earning three, four, five million dollars a year from endorsements and not really breaking a sweat.
There’s a big problem in the industry right now, the older generation, the pre-internet era guys.
The ones who had to win shows pay their dues make their bones before they ever saw a decent paycheque are hating on these young guys.
Coming through with their legion of loyal followers and snapping up all the sports endorsements and lucrative advertising sponsorships.
Calum Von Moger
Calum Von Moger who has never won a major title has 3 million followers on the Gram. And Phil Heath, seven times Mr Olympia Winner has 3 million followers on Instagram.
Add to that the Gift was busting his ass in the gym while Calum was banging cheerleaders two at a time and you can get a sense where some of the jealousy derives from.
So the older generation is hating on the new generation, nothing new there. I actually quite like Calum Von Moger and to his credit he’s in great shape, trains hard and as much as I can gather from a celebrity I’ve never met, he seems like a decent bloke, a nice guy. A good bodybuilder!
Calum Von Moger plays a young Arnold Schwarzenegger in the feature pic made of the G.O.A.T’s (greatest of all time) remarkable life and although I see it advertised I can’t find even a possible release date for it anywhere.
Death of bodybuilding
The older guys think these young kids have not paid their dues. Haven’t lost shows and been broken, haven’t given their blood sweat and tears to the sport. Haven’t won shows and proved they’re the best.
However, you can’t blame these guys for taking full advantage of the times they’ve grown up in. All of their friends have Instagram accounts and Twitter and their entire lives are online. My teenage daughter tells me, “If it’s not posted on the Gram then it’s like it didn’t really happen.”
Calum Von Moger gets a lot of haters, you see Calum made the mistake of being exceptionally good looking. He’s dashing, a throwback to the Hollywood Golden Era.
Imagine if 007 lifted weights, heavyweights. Imagine if James Bond was Jacked then that’s Calum. From sunny Australia, a strapping 6 foot and three inches, with blond surfer’s hair and a well built. Muscular physique and looks to give David Beckham a run for his money, he’s quite the sponsor’s dream ticket.
As winning Mr Olympia lost its appeal?
So you’re 24 years old, a struggling bodybuilder with an Instagram account and a company contacts you out of the blue and offers you two 200,000 dollars a year to promote their product, you’re not going to say no.
Being a star on Instagram can earn you anywhere from thirty thousand dollars for a single post to the high end for the likes of Kylie Jenner who earns 1.3 million dollars for a post.
Gone are the bodybuilding days of magazine covers and waiting for a phone call from Joe Weider.
Mr Olympia 2019 Results
Bodybuilding destroyed itself. From the moment Dorian Yates burst onto the scene like a UFO crash landing from outer space the sport took a fateful trajectory.
Once Mr. Yates flew over the pond to the shores of California it was all over. Probably the most muscle anyone had ever seen on a single individual. We were left in no uncertain terms that, the era of the freak was upon us.
Gone was the V Tape shape, the aesthetics, and the symmetry now it was all about Size! Now if you weren’t 300 pounds don’t even get out of bed in the morning.
Dorian in his six Mr Olympia title wins looked at these kids on stage who were small by comparison and had an air of superiority about him, looking at the competition like, “This won’t take long, here’s a dollar kid, bring my car around.”
King Ronnie
Then along came another monster, King Ronnie. Mr. That’s Lightweight Buddy, with his southern drawl, 315-pound frame, 800-pound squats.
He had a Mr Olympia bodybuilding physique that had him crowned champion before he even set foot on stage.
Now, this is what we’re left with, Brandon Curry, Brandon is the epitome of you’re a day late and a dollar short.
Just not quite good enough, no wow factor, nothing special, like driving a Kia.
Brandon Curry wouldn’t even of placed in the top ten in the Ronnie Vs Jay Cutler era or even the Schwarzenegger era.
Conclusion
In the lead up to last week’s anti-climax in Vegas, all I kept hearing about was Hadi Choopan’s conditioning for Mr Olympia 2019. He’s a professional athlete, he’s meant to be in condition for Christ’s sake! I realized how poor this line up was with all this talk of conditioning.
It was glaringly evident that we were grasping desperately for something tangible to hold on to.
And then there was nothing, nothing other than once a great sport. Staring at its demise in the mirror and the reflection staring back without an answer.
