24 Hours
By Greg Merritt, Senior Writer, FLEX
Photography by Kevin Horton
Controversy swirled around the destination of the 2007 Mr. Olympia title; the major claimants being Victor Martinez and defending champ Jay Cutler. The battle was spread across 24 hours. At the Friday night prejudging, the comparisons at left took place, and at the Saturday finals, the comparisons at right occurred. You be the judge.
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MORTALITY I can’t say he looked old when he placed second to jay Cutler four times last fall, nor did Ronnie Coleman look old in the photos that trickled in from guest posing spots this year. Indeed, with new hair atop his long-bald dome, he appeared younger than he had in years. The days of arid back conditioning were behind him, but he competed at nearly 300 pounds last year, and for sheer bulk packing, he may still have been the most impressive bodybuilder on the planet.
DYNASTIES Since the creation of the Mr. Olympia, bodybuilding has been a sport of dynasties: Larry Scott to Sergio Oliva to Arnold Schwarzenegger, Frank Zane, Lee Haney to Dorian Yates to Ronnie Coleman. At least two consecutive Sandows are required, but three are ideal for establishing extended dominance. Of the 11 Mr. O winners, the one-and-out club has just two members, Chris Dickerson and Samir Bannout, and yet everyone has been in it for at least a year. And so it was for Jay Cutler. After seven years and four heartbreaking seconds, he finally joined bodybuilding’s most exclusive fraternity in 2006, but the moment he did, he began viewing his future legacy in a new light. The old pressure was gone. Meet the new pressure. Could he keep it going? Could he shut up the haters by doing it again when everyone was gunning for him? Could he avoid the one-and-out club and launch the Cutler dynasty?
At the athletes’ meeting two days before the 2007 Olympia prejudging and again at the press conference one day prior, Cutler said he didn’t want to diminish the accomplishments of Bannout and Dickerson by saying he had to win another Sandow or his one would be regarded as a fluke. "Last year, I was the greatest bodybuilder in the world. And all the Mr. Olympians were the greatest bodybuilders of that year when they won. To be Mr. Olympia is an incredible honor." Still, to be Mr. Olympia twice is to launch a dynasty, and in the hours before he finally falls asleep on September 27, he will contemplate that historical reality.
BACKSTAGE At 5:50 PM on Friday, September 28, Bill Wilmore strides into the Orleans Arena pump-up pen. Every few minutes after that, another competitor shuffles in. They lay on their backs on the gray carpet, elevating their feet on chairs, the better to maximize the blood flow to their upper bodies. Michael Wenger and Andy Steiner of Stronghold Ministries offer prayers and support. In the dressing room down the hall, Eddie Abbew comically complains about his number: 13. At 6:37, competitor #1, Dennis Wolf, peels off his warm-up suit to undergo a glazing from the ProTan workers. After a heated exchange at the previous day’s press conference, Quincy Taylor and Gustavo Badell declare a truce and shake on it. As the top of the hour approaches, backstage is a flurry of activity - oil is applied, dumbbells and weight-plates rise in improvised exercises, cameras click, expediters bark, competitors pose, pump, primp and pray and Bodybuilding.com and FLEXonline.com make final preparations for transmitting video, photos and text around the globe.
Amid the chaos, #22, Ronnie Coleman, sits alone. He’s fully clothed, a bandanna covers his recently shaved head, he’s reading a note in a greeting card from a friend, and he’s crying, touched by how much he’s affected so many others over the 15 years since his first Olympia. The final competitor, #24, the reigning Mr. O, arrives just before 7:00 and just before #1, steps onstage as the first to display himself in the eight compulsory poses. And then it’s on.
FIRST CALLOUT It’s last year’s top four: Jay Cutler, Ronnie Coleman, Victor Martinez, Dexter Jackson. But it’s apparent before head judge Jim Rockell calls the first pose that they won’t finish in the same order this time. Cutler’s magnitude eclipses the other in the rear lat spread, but Martinez’s crisper conditioning and superior lines win out in the back double biceps. In side shots, Martinez has the best leg delineations, but from the front he still lacks deep quad separation; his wheels are also somewhat undersized in relation to the wide V of his upper body. Cutler doesn’t need more legs, but his muscles are neither as full nor as separated as the previous year. His front and rear biceps shots are nearly devoid of details. This is going to be a war.
Meanwhile, Jackson is the same perpetually sharp Blade. He’s not in his best-ever conditioning, but he’s the leanest member of the foursome. Minutiae like his piano-key obliques will place him in the top three, just as his scarcity of width will keep him from capturing the title.
SECOND CALLOUT As each name is called in numerical order the thrill and relief register on the faces of Dennis Wolf, David Henry, Melvin Anthony and Silvio Samuel. Last year, Wolf, in his first O, and Henry, in his second, failed to make the top 15. Anthony was fifth then, but he is now coming off a humbling fourth in the Atlantic City Pro, and Samuel is on bodybuilding’s biggest stage for the first time. As their expressions attest, they’re each virtually assured of a top-10 finish and now contending for the posedown.
Each lacks something, but each also brings unique qualities. Samuel, he of the ridiculously round muscle bellies, needs more back meat, but he’s in the shape of his life. Henry is gain showcasing the spaghetti lat and pec striations that went MIA earlier in the year, yet his lower half still trails his torso. Anthony, too, regained lost cleaves, and his back double bi is phenomenal if you look only from his wispy waist to this neck, but his legs lag in both size and separation.
As for Wolf, high lat attachments hurt him in some poses and help in others, his calves are colt-like and he could’ve etched in more striations, but the totality of his physique - the jaw-dropping hips-to-delts differential, the flaring, flowing parts, the combination of classic lines and modern mass - stir the crowd and perhaps the judges. If he’s not in contention for the top spot this time, he will be next time and many more times.
THIRD CALLOUT Samuel and Henry stay onstage, joined by Johnnie Jackson, Gustavo Badell and Ronny Rockel. Badell has lost size and cuts, especially in his thighs. Jackson, like Henry, has regained the definition he couldn’t locate earlier in the year, but, also like Henry, his lower body, despite obvious gains, still trails the high standards of the upper level. Rockel could’ve been sharper from behind, but now that his back has nearly caught up to his front, his is the best-proportioned physique in the contest.
FOURTH CALLOUT As the final name is called a collective "Oohh!" erupts from the audience, as when everyone cringes in unison after witnessing a particularly devastating punch to a beloved boxer past his prime. Ronnie Coleman is asked to join Wolf, Jackson and Anthony and is instructed to stand next to Wolf. This is an eight-time Mr. Olympia who, at his peak, was so far superior to the rest of the field that he was called out mostly as a courtesy to the paying audience. Now, not only is he not in contention for a ninth Sandow, but he is struggling to stay in the top six. In the final pose, Coleman indisputably loses a most-muscular for the first time in at least a decade, and it is to Wolf.
I, too, cringe at the body blows Coleman takes this evening. What wasn’t true before is now glaringly obvious. He got old. His quads have never been deeper delineated, but his legs have stunningly deflated, his back is smaller, blurry and lopsided, his left triceps has withered, his abs are absent. He fights on in pose after pose - sometimes, even if you have to squint, revealing glimpses of what was - but I can’t help but think of Michael Jordan’s comeback with the Washington Wizards when he was still an All-Star but no longer the star, no longer the one player in the world elevated above all others, and some nights some wide-eyed 20-something grew up idolizing him - some Wolf - would take him to the hoop and dunk on him, beat him the way he used beat everyone, and if you watched , even if you cheered, a part of you cringed. You remembered what was and what will never be again. Even the greatest that ever lived can’t stop the relentless march of time.
FIFTH CALLOUT This one is most notable because Anthony joins Cutler, Jackson and Martinez, and because, with each pose, the reigning Mr. O seems to be filling out.
SIXTH CALLOUT Call these the "surprise comparisons." Jackson and Henry are joined by woefully smooth Toney Freeman, whom most prognosticators expected to crack the posedown this year; Darrem Charles, who has lost leg meat he couldn’t afford to lose; and the show’s two biggest positive surprises: Hidetada Yamagishi, whose dense flesh has more cuts than sushi chef, and enigmatic Will Harris, whose lats hang so low thy seem at risk of dragging on the ground.
SEVENTH, EIGHTH AND NINTH CALLOUTS These four callouts bring out the remaining nine competitors (destined to miss the top 15 and the opportunity to perform their posing routines the next evening), as well as some in the 10-15 range we’d seen before. Of those who fail to place, I’m most impressed with Sergey Shelestov, who needs to be drier but nonetheless exhibits pleasing proportions and two of the contest’s widest wheels. Markus Rühl’s continuing downward spiral is noteworthy for the opposite reason, as he’s a medley of parts missing (hamstrings, triceps) and misshapen (back, chest, delts, biceps).
10TH CALLOUT This is a five-man comparison of Wolf, Henry, Badell, Jackson and Samuel. Wolf’s superior size has won the crown in a manner reminiscent of another blond from Germany: Günther Schlierkamp at the 2002 Mr. Olympia.
11TH CALLOUT The final callout is the same as the first, except Anthony is invited in. Cutler continues to fill out and sharpen up. He wins some poses with mucho mass; Martinez takes other with deeper crevices and a more aesthetic silhouette. As the prejudging comes to a close, Coleman savors his last dance, playing to the crowd, pumping his fists in the air and crunching out poses. Some things, including the certainty that no one will win a ninth Sandow until at least 2014, are settled, but the biggest question - who will take this year’s title tomorrow - is in great doubt. Martinez trails Cutler by a mere two points.
BACKSTAGE NOTES In contrast to prejudging, the atmosphere the next day just prior to the finals is relaxed. Competitors sit instead of lie. They chat. They smile. They line up to shake hands with Joe Weider. For most of them, their fate is already sealed. But not Cutler. An illness disrupted his final days of preparation. He planned to come in at 275, but due to his illness, his bodyweight fell alarmingly to 259 pounds by the night of prejudging.
"I’m about 267 tonight," he states before the finals. "I carbed up all day and replenished some fluids. I need to be full in my chest to look impressive, and when I lose my peak, I smooth out in my upper body. My legs are never a problem. I wasn’t at my best at the start yesterday and I knew it, but I won’t be flat tonight."
Martinez, like Cutler, says he didn’t look at photos, but he, too, knows it is close. "I felt great about how things went," he avers. "I played it cool. I didn’t put too much into my poses, but I saw [Cutler] shaking next to me, he was squeezing so hard." He laughs good-naturedly. "I’m prepared for what happens tonight either way. I’ll do all I can, but really, it’s out of my hands.
ROUTINE DEVELOPMENTS
Worst music choice In sharp contrast to his aesthetic physique and amiable personality, Rockel’s strengths are overshadowed by a viciously hardcore metal song.
Best music choice Accentuating his flowing lines and dramatic presence, Wolf strikes classical poses to classical music, and a great many in attendance cry "Wolf."
Wildest routine Harris frees himself of all inhibitions, stalking, mincing and gliding about in a manner that feels something like a rave on Halloween.
Most improved Previously, Henry and Samuel each transitioned awkwardly between their shots, but, with flair here, they demonstrate the positive results of countless hours of practice.
Best routines Two of the sport’s posing maestros, Anthony and Charles, don’t disappoint. They each drop surprises into their always crowd-pleasing assortment of hip-hop dance moves and vigorous pantomime.
Cutler vs. Martinez Neither man battling for the title has a particularly impressive routine, but Cutler showcases fullness and hardness he lacked the day before. Still, the judges award the round 7-8 to Martinez, who then trails by only a point with the final round to go.
POSEDOWN It was close all show until we started comparing them again, and then it was over," judge Steve Weinberger informs me later with typical bluntness. This is because Cutler has sharpened considerably since the prejudging. He’s been leaner and/or fuller in prior years, but the newly excavated lines, especially in his chest and abs, as well as the additional roundness, appear all the more dramatic because of the dearth of those qualities the previous day. Just when 11 judges and more than 7,000 fans in the sold out Orleans Arena and countless thousands more around the globe are scrutinizing his physique and wondering if he is worthy of maintaining the title of reigning Mr. Olympia, wondering that and comparing him to the man who then trails him by only a digit, the champ does indeed deliver.
After Jim Rockell shouts "Posedown!" the music kicks in and the other five jockey to trade poses near Cutler. At one point, following him across the stage, Martinez mimes reeling in a fishing line, as if to say he’s catching the champ. When Wolf unfurls a front lat spread and most-muscular next to Cutler, the reaction proves Wolf is, at least for a weekend, the people’s champ. Coleman duels to the end, standing center stage at the Mr. Olympia for a record 15th and final time, squeezing out poses and loving every moment.
AFTERMATH After the howls when Wolf comes in fifth, and after Coleman is announced fourth and more than 7,000 men, women and children stand in unison to give him a rousing crescendo of an ovation that makes lumps grow in throats and tears well in eyes, and after the eight-time Mr. Olympia tells his fans what they, the Olympia contest and bodybuilding mean to him, and more lumps grow in throats and tears well in eyes, and after Dexter Jackson places third in the O for the second time, Jay Cutler is again declared champion of the bodybuilding world and Victor Martinez feels the agonizing sting of runner-up like Cutler did four times before - so close (four points separated them in the end) and yet so far away, for second best in the world is still a loss.
And after that, while the two-time Mr. Olympia is onstage posing for photos and then speaking to the audience, Martinez slips into his sweatsuit in the pump-up pen. Referencing a quip about Cutler he made at the press conference two days prior, he says, "They chose a Picasso this time, not a Michelangelo. But you can’t let this get you down. I got work to do next year. Things will go my way, too, one day." A moment later he adds with a weary smile, "Next year."
RESPECT But this day, this year, things went Jay Cutler’s way. When he makes his way backstage, medallions jangling about his neck, Sandow trophy in hand, he’s barraged with requests for photos for 30 minutes, and afterward he slumps in a chair, gulping down Pepsi when no Gatorade is found fast enough. I ask him what his second O means to him. "It means you can’t make fun of me anymore, saying I have to win two for it to matter," he says. "Last year, I think I came in here with a little more dominance. I pretty much won the show on Friday. This year, I think I had to prove myself again tonight. I also got to savor it a little more this time onstage afterward."
Of the close contest, he says, "Of course the champion is held to the highest standard, so I get some criticism for not coming in at 100% on Friday. A win’s a win, whether I take it by one point or 20 points. The Sandow’s still on my mantel when I get home."
Of Coleman, he reaffirms his utmost respect and says it was great to see him go out like a champion with a standing ovation. And of Martinez, he offers his congratulations for making it to the top two in the world, but he has little sympathy for the sting of a close call. "This was only his first second at the Olympia. Try getting second four times. That’s when you start really feeling the pain. He’ll be back. And I’ll be waiting. He’ll have another chance next year."
IMMORTALITY Still later, when workers are tearing down the stage and almost everyone but the cleanup crew has cleared out of a backstage that was stuffed with congratulators in the immediate aftermath of the 43rd Mr. Olympia, the man who, with Lee Haney, has won more Sandows than any person ever, is still sitting on a chair in the pump-up pen, alone, dressed only in his posing trunks. In this sport that is all about visual impact, it is the most poignant sight I’ve ever witnessed. One of those damn lumps forms in my throat as I approach Ronnie Coleman for what I know will be the final time as a Mr. Olympia contestant. His red eyes are wet, but he smiles. "I don’t want to leave," he explains, his voice cracking. "I just want to soak it up, and sit backstage at the Olympia this one last time."
I ask him about the standing ovations, the one after his routine and the even longer and louder one after his placing was announced. "I can’t even explain. That’s almost like winning my first Olympia. Some things that happen to you in life, you just get so overcome with joy you can’t find the words to express it, and that’s one of those. Getting a standing ovation by the biggest crowd probably ever at a bodybuilding contest, that’s something I’ll treasure for the rest of my life.
"I was a guy who got into a sport just for a free membership at a gym, and it turned out to be the best thing that ever happened to me. You never know where God’s going to lead you. I just followed the path I was led to and he led me here. And now it’s time to move. But I’m not leaving bodybuilding." He chokes back tears. "I won’t be doing the Olympia anymore, but I’ll still be here."
When I leave, Ronnie Coleman is still there, sitting backstage in his posing trunks, soaking in the Olympia experience, remembering the seven times he didn’t win and the eight times he did. He is no longer alone, for two-time Mr. Olympia Jay Cutler has collapsed on the carpet behind him, arms outstretched, eyes closed, soaking it all in too, feeling relieved and exhausted and jubilant, and maybe feeling just then like he’ll never lose again. And when these two men, bodybuilding’s greatest rivals, really focus on what it means to be Mr. Olympia not for merely a year but for all the years to come, they’ll understand the truest meaning of it all is to live forever, for, in a way, they will. Coleman wipes away a tear, and he smiles.
