Bodybuilding at the Olympic Games? Sounds crazy, but there were once serious plans.
Bodybuilding at the Olympic Games
Bodybuilding at the Olympic Games. When I first heard about it, I had to laugh. I could already imagine the first doping controls. Researchers staring in disbelief as the first results come in.
Absurd values and not just among Russian athletes.
Researchers frantically calibrating all their research equipment because this must surely be a technical error?
And yet there was a chance that we would see bodybuilders at the Olympic Games in 2000 in Sydney or 2004 in Athens.
NAGANO, Japan — Sumo wrestling, body building, speedboat racing and motorcycle racing gained provisional recognition from the International Olympic Committee today, the first step toward acceptance as Olympic sports…
…Recognition of the four federations is valid for a two-year trial period. After that, full recognition can be granted by the IOC. Then, the sport becomes eligible for Olympic status.
According to The Washington Post on January 30, 1998 [1]. Confirmed once again the next day by IOC President Juan Antonio Samaranch [2]:
It is my pleasure to inform you that the Executive Board of the International Olympic Committee decided yesterday, in its meeting in Nagano, to grant recognition to the International Federation of BodyBuilders (IFBB) as a Recognized Federation, pursuant to Rule 29 of the Olympic Charter. Further, I should like to take this opportunity to congratulate you for all the efforts made in order to reach this goal, and to welcome you into the Olympic Family.
The man who saw his life’s work crowned with these words? That was Ben Weider, who as co-founder of the IFBB had been fighting for over 30 years to make bodybuilding an IOC-recognized sport.
However, the joy was short-lived. In 2001, the recognition was withdrawn [3,4]. The reasons were the same as those expressed in the 1970s[5].
- The widespread use of anabolic steroids among bodybuilders
- The subjective nature of judging
- “Bodybuilding is not a sport”
Doping
12 years before the temporary recognition in ’98, Ben Weider proudly stands before the 47 delegates of the IFBB gathered in Tokyo. It’s an exciting moment. “History is being made,” as the IFBB later writes about it [2]. Ben is about to announce the results of the first doping tests. Doping tests conducted in accordance with the rules of the IOC.
The funny thing is, I can’t tell you those results. My source doesn’t report them, and I couldn’t find other sources on this point either. But strictly speaking, it wasn’t about the results. It was about the fact that the IFBB did what could be expected to detect and prevent doping use.
From what we have been told, the abuses and excesses of drugs were caused by outside elements and not caused by the federation. We know the federation is doing a lot to eliminate drugs and to have its sport clean.’
Washington Post
“Is Phil Heath natural?”
You’d probably laugh out loud at the above question. “You can’t be the best bodybuilder in the world for four years in a row without using steroids, growth hormone, and other substances.
So, I always had huge question marks in my head while reading about the efforts of the IFBB to make bodybuilding “drug-free.” How can there be strict controls when it’s common knowledge that every pro bodybuilder is “on the juice”? Dorian Yates, Mr. Olympia from 1992 to 1997, has repeatedly admitted to use among pros [6]. This was in the years immediately preceding the temporary recognition granted in ’98. He talks about his use in an interview with Shawn Ray and Kevin Levrone [7]. Kevin Levrone, who is making his comeback at the Mr. Olympia this year.
But I was mistaken. Olympic recognition for bodybuilding only concerned amateurs [8]. Although nowadays only amateurs are allowed to compete in the Olympic Games in boxing, that was mandatory until 1982. After that, the federations could decide for themselves. I can imagine that the IFBB wanted to make a distinction between amateurs and professionals. All the tests mentioned to realize the Olympic aspiration were conducted on amateurs.
That doesn’t mean pros aren’t tested. This happens, albeit sporadically and only at competitions. It also doesn’t mean that testing amateurs yields a clean sport. A bodybuilder does the majority of their work before the competition. Knowledge of things like the half-lives of certain testosterone esters and how long they’re detectable has been available for years. Knowledge that amateurs also use.
Furthermore, it would be very expensive to test all athletes for all possible substances and to set up a system of unannounced, interim checks. You’re talking about a few hundred to a few thousand euros per athlete to be tested, depending on how many substances you want to test for.
It’s no wonder that the last pro (that I can remember) to be disqualified due to a positive test, Jay Cutler, former four-time Mr. Olympia. It was in 2001 when he was disqualified for using diuretics. Probably due to a few deaths from dehydration that had occurred shortly before. Jay was caught alongside Markus Ruhl, but Jay’s disqualification was memorable because he finished second after a close battle (Markus finished 14th). Jay then threatened legal action, leading to the disqualification being overturned. The lab that conducted the test was said to not be IOC-certified. Noticeable because for amateurs, only WADA-certified labs would be used. So why not for the pros? I’ll come back to that.
Subjective Judging
I referred to Phil Heath as “the best” bodybuilder, but opinions differ on that. Even with his four Olympia titles, there lies a problem of bodybuilding as an Olympic sport. The factors that determine the winner would not be objectively measurable enough.
You can point to other judged sports such as figure skating and diving. Even in gymnastics, you don’t entirely objectively determine who was better with two identical routines. At the speeds at which those sports are performed, small differences can be magnified. Think of a fall in figure skating and gymnastics or a big splash in diving.
You can debate this all you want. You can refer to the efforts the IFBB has made to make scoring the athletes as objective and transparent as possible. However, you can also note that controversial results are unfortunately just as inherent to bodybuilding as the use of steroids. Moreover, there are frequent accusations of political interests playing a role in judging. 1980 will be an illustrative year in that regard for connoisseurs. Arnold, after a five-year absence, won back the Mr. Olympia title.
“Bodybuilding is not a sport”
You can cite countless definitions of “sport,” but you’ll have to make considerable effort to find one that excludes bodybuilding. The same goes for the criteria of the IOC itself [9].
It’s not about the degree of physical exertion, as evidenced by the fact that there are IOC-recognized mind sports. The problem is that the physical exertion itself should not be demonstrated in the competition, but its result. Perhaps the birth of bodybuilding was not possible without Eugene Sandow believing that his muscles alone were impressive enough for his circus act as a strongman. However, as soon as he threw away the weights and bodybuilding emerged, the chances that his successors would ever wear Olympic medals plummeted.
It’s no wonder that legendary titles like Mr. America and Mr. Universe disappeared in the 1980s to be replaced by national and world championships [8]. This was not only the result of a power struggle between federations but also to give bodybuilding less of the image of a beauty pageant. After all, you wouldn’t call a Dutch swimming champion Mr. Holland.
Bodybuilding at the Olympic Games. What does it add?
A podium for naturals. In an ideal world, 100% testing would create the possibility of a clean “sport.” So, I should applaud that. A personal reason for not competing in competitions was not wanting to compete as a natural against users (or at least having that suspicion). I would welcome the strictest controls if they could prove 100% that I am clean myself and also the ones I compete against. In an ideal world where every potential bodybuilder is already tested from the moment they first touch weights. Because otherwise, you could already build chemical mass for ten years before deciding to become an athlete and subject yourself to controls. Impossible in practice.
And if it were possible, it would still be the “bodybuild-lite version.” Just like boxing, the only federation that still doesn’t allow pros to participate in the Olympic Games. If the real world top is missing, what are you actually watching? I only started watching Olympic basketball when the first Dream Team appeared instead of the amateurs. Those were the men I really wanted to see, the real top. If you’re an Olympic bodybuilding champion but smaller than someone in the men’s physique class in the pros, that’s a bit odd.
No Olympic Games but Olympia-bound
So, bodybuilders will probably never go to the Olympic Games. A consolation prize is that we’ll go to the Olympia next month. Not the Greek Olympia, birthplace of the classical games, but the Olympia in Las Vegas. The Mr. Olympia, which, according to tradition, owes its name to a bottle of beer from the Olympia brand that happened to be on the table when the event was conceived. Perhaps the creator, Joe Weider, knew that his brother Ben would never get closer to the Olympic Games than that.
Sources
- washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/sports/longterm/olympics1998/sport/articles/newsports.htm (temporary recognition ’98)
- ifbbpro.com/wp-content/uploads/image/remembering/antidopinghistory.htm
- medifitbiologicals.com/olympic-approval/ (recognition revoked 2001)
- staff.washington.edu/griffin/bb_olympics.txt
- Littman, Jean. “Bodybuilding And The Olympics: An Ongoing Controversy”. Retrieved 2008-08-19.
- express.co.uk/sport/othersport/596022/EXCLUSIVE-Dorian-Yates-on-steroid-use-drug-testing-and-rivals-in-bodybuilding
- musculardevelopment.com/articles/chemical-enhancement/14337-the-lowdown-on-drugs-part-3-kevin-levrone-shawn-ray-dorian-yates-speak-out.html#.V6yl0JOLRsM
- Mr. America: The Tragic History of a Bodybuilding Icon. John D. Fair
- stillmed.olympic.org/Documents/Commissions_PDFfiles/Programme_commission/2012-06-12-IOC-evaluation-criteria-for-sports-and-disciplines.docx.pdf
