Peter McGough is an icon, here is his take the Olympia
THERE’S ONLY ONE OLYMPIA
Keep that name exclusive to bodybuilding’s ultimate contest
By Peter McGough
Back in 1999 there was an idea to stage a Mr. Olympia-Europe in addition to the Mr. Olympia established by Joe Weider in 1965. To preserve the uniqueness of the Mr. Olympia the Europe Olympia idea was quickly shelved and the contest took place as the World Professional Championships. Fast forward to today and we have the Amateur Olympia and a series of contests bearing the Olympia moniker wherein a host of IFBB pro cards are on offer. I’ve received messages from overseas competitors saying they are “Doing the Olympia” when in fact it is one of the aforementioned contests. I’ve even heard winners in non-bodybuilding classes refer to themselves as Olympia champions. A personal opinion is that the title Olympia should be exclusive to the contest created by Joe Weider back in 1965.
As a resident old fart it’s educational to review other sports and their marquee contests and at the conclusion of this narrative discern what happens when a formerly unique franchise is diluted down and therefore loses it impact and prestige.
BACK TO THE ‘60s
By the 1960s every major sport had their own event, which determined who was the best in that particular field. Football had the Super Bowl. Baseball had the World Series. Basketball had the NBA Finals. Ice Hockey had the Stanley Cup. Golf had the Masters in Augusta. Fifty years later those events still stand alone, intact, as the Holy Grail of their sports. There has been no Superbowl-Europe, no Junior World Series, and no NBA Finals II. Their singularity as the ultimate achievement in their sports made those events timelessly iconic as they still are.
On the other hand, boxing was one of the most popular sports in the ‘60s and remained so until around the early ‘90s. The heavyweight champions of the world -- from Rocky Marciano, through Muhammad Ali, Joe Frazier, George Foreman, and Mike Tyson -- was always one of the most famous people on earth. Nowadays most people don’t know who the heavyweight champion is (there are several), and boxing is no longer the draw it used to be. Why? Because of diluting the prestige of what it meant to hold the ultimate prize -- a world title. In the early ‘60s there was only one federation and only eight weight divisions. At any one time there were only eight men who could call themselves boxing world champions. Over the years other federations were launched and more weight classes were introduced. Today there are four main federations and17 weight classes, meaning at any one time there can be 68 world champions. Thus world titles don’t carry the prestige they once had, the public can’t identify with so many champions, and boxing is no longer the attraction it once was. The reality is when there are so many world champions there is no real world champion.
There’s something to be learned by the recent history of boxing. That’s why I say there should only be one contest bearing the name Olympia. Keep the contest special and unique as the sport’s ultimate accomplishment.
