Mr. Olympia

Mr. Olympia, annual bodybuilding competition sanctioned by the International Fitness and Bodybuilding Federation (formerly the International Federation of BodyBuilders). It was first held in 1965 in Brooklyn, New York, but it has grown into a global contest hosted by cities around the world and featuring athletes from many countries. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who won the competition seven times between 1970 and 1980, is the best-known Mr. Olympia, though other bodybuilders have since surpassed his record.

Early bodybuilding competitions

Brothers Joe and Ben Weider founded the International Federation of BodyBuilders (IFBB) in Montreal in 1946, when the sport of bodybuilding was experiencing a postwar boom. However, bodybuilding and contests judging the male physique were nothing new. Athletes in ancient Greece and China practiced bodybuilding by competing to lift heavy stones; in the 19th century strongman (and strongwoman) acts toured the vaudeville and circus circuits in Europe and the United States and were popular with audiences.

The first male bodybuilding competition in the United States took place in New York City in 1903 and was staged by physical culturist Bernarr Macfadden. Its winner, vaudeville performer and Harvard University graduate Albert Treloar, was named “The Most Perfectly Developed Man in the World.” In 1939 the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) of the United States introduced the Mr. America bodybuilding contest. Winners John Grimek (1940–41) and Steve Reeves (1947) parlayed their success into a Mr. Universe title. Reeves also enjoyed a Hollywood acting career, playing the mythical Greek hero Hercules in two films in the late 1950s, among similar action-movie roles.

The first Mr. Olympia

Bodybuilding soon grew even more popular, such that the period from roughly the 1950s through the 1970s is sometimes called the “Golden Age of Bodybuilding.” From the success of Mr. America sprang Mr. Olympia, which arose as Joe Weider and the IFBB’s answer to a rule that forbade former Mr. America winners from reentering the competition, which was instituted by the AAU after Grimek’s consecutive wins in the 1940s. Although the IFBB handed out awards to the winners of its own Mr. America and Mr. Universe contests, the AAU and other organizations had pioneered those titles. The Mr. Olympia competition was therefore an entirely novel way for winners—whether IFBB or AAU—to continue earning money from their physiques.

Mr. Olympia debuted on September 18, 1965, at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Also on the docket that evening were awards for the IFBB’s Mr. Universe, Mr. America, and Miss Americana competitions, the last of which was a beauty pageant for women. It was a night of “muscle/beauty” contests of which the bodybuilders of the previous decade could have only dreamed. Instead of a cash prize the inaugural winner was anointed with a gold crown lined in red velvet with leopard-print trim. Muscle Builder, a magazine published by Joe Weider, described the historic moment when the first winner, Idaho-born California transplant Larry Scott, was chosen:

[E]ven before Larry Scott came out the fans chimed, “We want Scott…we want Scott!” As soon as he stepped out of the wings the auditorium exploded with thunderous applause.…The roar became a deafening hum and the floor actually trembled from the pounding of feet. The crowd went wild—mad with excitement and enthusiasm…and it was clear that Scott was the winner—that he had been unanimously declared the world’s greatest bodybuilder…the first of the great bodybuilders—the first MR. OLYMPIA.

Arnold Schwarzenegger and other champions

Soon Mr. Olympia surpassed the Mr. America contest in popularity. (The AAU finally abandoned its Mr. America competition in 1999.) In 1970 the contest found its first major celebrity: Austrian-born bodybuilder and future action-movie star Arnold Schwarzenegger. Schwarzenegger won Mr. Olympia six years in a row, from 1970 to 1975, then surprised audiences by returning to the contest in 1980 after a four-year break and winning again. His record of seven wins remained unbroken until 1991, when Lee Haney of South Carolina won his eighth consecutive title. Ronnie Coleman of Louisiana also won eight consecutive Mr. Olympia titles between 1998 and 2005, and Phil Heath of Seattle tied Schwarzenegger with seven wins between 2011 and 2017.

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The annual competition, called Olympia Weekend, features contests for female bodybuilders and bodybuilders who use wheelchairs and has the largest pay-per-view audience of any bodybuilding event. Mr. Olympia winners typically take home $400,000, the largest purse of all the competitions held over Olympia Weekend, from a total prize package of more than $1 million spread out over several events.

Steroid use

From the first Mr. Olympia some contestants have used performance-enhancing drugs. Anabolic steroids had been part of the bodybuilding scene since at least the early 1960s, and their prevalence only grew as the sport became more popular. In 2005 Schwarzenegger told ABC News of his Mr. Olympia career, “At that time [steroids were] something new that came on the market, and we went to the doctor and did it under doctors’ supervision. We were experimenting with it. It was a new thing.” Four-time winner Jay Cutler (2006–07, 2009–10) admitted to Men’s Health in 2022 to using performance-enhancing drugs while competing in both Mr. Olympia and the Arnold Classic, a bodybuilding competition named for Schwarzenegger.

The IFBB banned the use of performance-enhancing drugs in the late 1980s and in 2004 adopted the World Anti-Doping Code, which regulates antidoping policies and maintains a list of banned substances in sports. At least some Mr. Olympia participants have undergone drug testing each year since 1990, though implementation is random, and it is unclear how frequently tests are performed. Many health experts, judges, trainers, and athletes argue that the physique required for professional bodybuilding is impossible to achieve without steroid use. However, natural, or “natty,” bodybuilding—meaning, bodybuilding without the use of performance-enhancing drugs—has evolved into its own genre of competition.

Mr. Olympia winners