"I'm unbiased in this whole matter."
That was good for a laugh. As if saying that establishes that you are, indeed, fair-minded.
Well, good people of Getbig, everyone misses the forest for the trees. Some suggest the problem Bob has is the title of his position. Perhaps if he wasn't an athletes rep but merely a liaison officer people might accept what he does better.
The problem here is not that bodybuilders need to be represented or have a liaison officer but that the IFBB needs any such thing. How long has the IFBB been around? According to Ben it was way back before Steve Reeves won Mr America. Now that was the Golden Age of bodybuilding. Surely the IFBB know how to run and judge contests and treat bodybuilders properly and with respect? Why on earth do they need an athletes rep? Makes no sense to me unless they are not doing the right thing for the athletes.
Many of you people do not know some of the things that happened in the past in this sport. I recall long ago that Dave Draper was going to sue the Weiders for nonpayment of promised fees for photo shoots, etc. Dave, perhaps unwisely, accepted a deal without going to court. He probably knew it would cost him the earth to get that money so accepted what he could and saved himself any fees. Several years ago the Weiders sold their magazine empire for a reported $350,000,000! That is a lot of money. Joe and his family built up a very successful empire based on musclemen, fitness and beauty. Not very many bodybuilders made money from the sport. A few who did make money were not as successful as Joe. Arnold made some good money and invested it in real estate. He made most of his money in Hollywood.
Some bodybuilders have used their titles and fame to open gyms or supplement companies and a few have done well. The gym business is one which nowadays requires a large investment of money and time for a very low return. Joe Gold told Arnold not to own a gym because the most one could make in 1970 was about $30,000. No one at that time had any idea about franchising gyms. Joe Gold sold his gym and the name and it was resold several times and ended up a huge enterprise. I remember Joe saying his gym was for sale for $50,000 back in 1969 when I visited LA on my honeymoon. He declined my offer to buy it if he would finance me! Ah, what might have been.
Somehow I get the impression that it has been mainly take and not give by the Weiders and the IFBB. I knew that it cost Paul Graham $20,000 to stage the 1980 Mr Olympia contest. Today the fee was mentioned to be over $300,000. The promoter also has to pay the costs for the competitors, officials and judges. As you can imagine that can be costly if you are having competitors fly in from around the world. So the IFBB sanctions contests but they don't actually run the professional or amateur shows. Promoters do that and they take the risk. Lots of promoters have lost money staging contests. That is part of the reason the women don't have many bodybuilding contests. It costs too much to stage those shows and there is little interest so promoters cannot make a profit. This is true right up to the Ms Olympia.
Bob insists I am out of the loop and am senile so I should be ignored. Well, how come the IFBB have definite rules against the use of drugs and agents to increase muscle size? Testing was done occasionally and in one famous event Jay Cutler tested positive for drugs but was given the title and cheque back when he successful proved the lab used to test his sample was no longer an accredited testing lab. Well, I am not definite about the specifics there. Since that time virtually no testing for hormones has been done. Neither has anything been done about injecting substances directly into muscles to make them temporarily larger. Whether these substances are oil based steroids or other products is unknown. Several people have come to grief with that process and even Milos relates his misfortune in trying to make his arms synthetically larger.
It should be obvious to every thinking person that the uncontrolled use of banned substances has dire consequences for sports. In the Olympic movement and all other major sports drugs are forbidden. If you test positive you are suspended. If you retest you are kicked out of the sport. What happens if you use steroids in open bodybuilding contests? Nothing at all. I am not including drug-free contests here. Women know they can use steroids, etc., so that is exactly what they do. Both the men and women end up with unbelievable size and retain a lot of that size in competition shape. Some of the women today exceed national male title holders from the past! Who would have believed that was possible? In order to win titles the women have to shed heaps of bodyfat. The result is their boobs dry up and many have resorted to artificial enhancement which is very visible on lean bodies. I don't blame the women here but the buck has to stop at the officials of organizations running the sports. If they have rules they should be enforced.
In the good old days men used steroids to enhance their muscles. Most did not abuse this practice because there were concerns about side effects. Over the years it was found that the side effects weren't as bad as everyone thought and many of those were reversible. Thus, gurus have sprung up who became experts in drugs and how to get huge and then ripped for contests. In the good old days guys sought out a few doctors to get and supervise their drug use.
Several years ago politicians change the laws and made steroids and other drugs illegal in many countries. The result was that the athletes had to break the law or find a doctor who would prescribe those drugs. We have the peculiar situation where a former champion bodybuilder holds an annual contest in his name and now this man is a governor of a major state in America. Surely his contest is tested for illegal drugs and substances? Well, we all know the truth.
Those who know about the history of bodybuilding acknowledge that the top show for men used to be the NABBA Mr Universe contests in London. Other organizations have sprung up here and there but NABBA and the IFBB were the two big international organizations. In the USA the AAU Mr America used to be the biggest national contest. Times have changed and two people behind two organizations have died and the sport ended up with the IFBB being the dominant organization. Dan Lurie ran shows in the 1970s that directly competed with the IFBB and their titles sounded just as impressive. Dan even published a magazine. Joe and Ben outlasted everyone and kept publishing their magazines under the same ownership. Other magazines such as Hoffman's Muscular Development was sold to a supplement company, Ironman was purchased by John Balik, and other magazines ceased publication.
There was always a threat that if the IFBB didn't allow drugs then other organizations which didn't do testing would snap up those athletes. That remains true today. The PDI seems to embrace similar rules or lack of enforcing rules as the IFBB does. We all know what would happen if the IFBB introduced rigid drug and substance testing. Those who would fail such tests would have to compete elsewhere. Since this includes most of the athletes the risk is too great and the IFBB cannot afford to have the top men and women abandon the organization for a rival one. The bottom line has always been profit. The champions and place getters pose for photos and write stories about training.
The IFBB feared losing champions or income so they introduced professionalism to the sport. They had contracts that offered money in exchange for control of contests, photo sessions, endorsements, and appearances in public and magazines. Many professional bodybuilders finally had a means of support. They had to sell most of their souls to get this monetary security.
Vince McMahon tried to promote bodybuilders in the wrestling circus and held contests and recruited many top guys for very lucrative contracts. The IFBB lost Gary Strydom, Aaron Baker and several other champions. Those guys were punished by not being allowed to compete in the IFBB. When some were finally reinstated they did not do well in the IFBB contests. The lesson learned was to not abandon the IFBB because athletes will be sorry.
At the moment the PDI is holding rival bodybuilding contests. The IFBB doesn't like the competition so is forbidding contracted professionals to compete in those contests. Lee Priest was suspended for disobeying that rule. Most of the professionals fear losing the ability to earn money because pressure is put on those who go to the PDI to not be allowed to guest pose and get contracts with various magazines and supplement companies. It really is a very tight shop in the professional scene. The bodybuilders are going nowhere while the IFBB has so much power in the industry. Well, it is not only the IFBB but the AMI which owns magazines and the rights to certain contests. I am not definite of the specific deal between the Weiders and the people who own the former Weider magazine empire.
What should be obvious to one and all is that the IFBB is a business and the magazines and supplement companies are businesses. The athletes are controlled by various enticements and have to sign contracts which restrict them from earning money unless permitted by the organizations that control them. Whoever would have believed that musclemen could be led around like sheep!
Why should the IFBB or AMI need to have liaison officers if they are doing things right? Well, if these entities are benefitting and trying to limit costs then clearly there will be tension between the organizations trying to make more money and the bodybuilders who want more money. I can understand magazine publishers having contracts with various people for exclusivity. However, why should a purely sports organization require loyalty? Especially from professional athletes. In the old days if you saw a contest you wanted to enter you paid the required fees and joined the organization. It didn't matter if the organization was in England or a local one. Pay the fees and away you go. That is no longer good enough for the professionals in some organizations today. Can those controlling organizations claim they are acting in the best interests of the professional athletes? No. The majority of professional bodybuilders cannot make a living from the sport. A few are lucky to have various endorsement contracts and that brings in what prize money will never do. Only a few earn enough from prize money to not have to work another job.
Can anyone believe that the first several Mr Olympia contests awarded a silver plate and $1,000 cash? Well, Larry, Sergio and Arnold would have competed for the title alone. Things are very different today. We can only imagine what might be possible if athletes were drug free and popular with the general public. The public will not be interested while drugged physiques win contests. Everyone, including kids, know what is going on but the IFBB and other organizations are doing nothing about it.
We have debates here on Getbig about the athletes rep and issues about photos and other petty stuff. Many contests end up being way too controversial such as the Olympia and even the NY Pro. How on earth does this happen year after year? Can't the people running shows do anything to make contests less controversial? Surely judging can be better? Well, many have written about making changes but there is no way to introduce those changes into a virtually closed organization which until this year had a life president. If people cannot be removed things cannot be easily changed and it will be business as usual. If those running the sport are not bodybuilders or former bodybuilders can we expect them to do things for the improvement of the sport? I wonder.
We know that Ben and Joe tried in vain to get bodybuilding admitted to the Olympic movement. I so wanted Lee Haney to carry the Olympic torch and light the flame in Atlanta where he lived. Instead, they had a trembling Mohammed Ali do that honour. Did Ben stage the Mr Olympia in Montreal during the Olympic game in 1976 when they were held in that city? That is the headquarters of the IFBB. That surely could be something to look at in the future. All the press will be in those cities so having titles resembling the Olympics will get heaps of attention. They had better make sure drug testing has been carried out and during the off-season, too.
Well, there you are. Some supposedly well meaning people are doing their best in this sport but there remain controversy after controversy. Sure some issues will pop up now and then but there shouldn't be a succession of dubious contest decisions. That is plainly not good enough. When we think of what many champions do to prepare for contests they deserve nothing but the very best procedures and judges. Ben thought he could make the judging system like they have in other sports. So he reduced what NABBA had done and instead of 15 or more judges decided that 7 were sufficient. If you eliminate the top and bottom score for each competitor that means that 5 judges are used to see who wins. That is plainly not a large enough judging panel and is the main reason for so many controversial contests. We need at least 11 judges and perhaps as many as 21 judges. I doubt having the judges sit in the front row is the best position to judge contests. The angle just is not the best to compare and see the bodybuilders in their best light.
The IFBB decided to use rounds like they have in other sports. Thus, competitors are judged in each round and those votes tallied at the end to decide the overall winner. To make sure judges get a chance to correct scores they are given another chance via the posedown to give who they consider the winner another vote. This has to be something that should not occur. If the judging process was valid there should be no need to rejudge a contest when the competitors are moving around the stage and into the audience doing their own things. That is not how contests should be judged.
Another worrying thing about the judging process is the comparisons. Who decides who is going to be compared in the first call out? Well, a practice has evolved where at important contests the 3 eventual winners can be called out first and the preferred winner will stand in the middle like they do in the Olympic presentations. It will be obvious to all the judges that these three individuals should be first, second and third. That explains why so many contests see the judges giving so many the same scores. How can that happen in a sport where there are so many factors that are been assessed? How does one separate two individuals when they have different proportions, size and definition? Well, it is hardly an easy thing to do at all. When you have 15 or 20 competitors it is very difficult to do justice to them all and separate them properly. What usually happens is the top 3 get scrutinized thoroughly and the rest are just ticked off. Well, that might not be fair but I have seen how judges work because I used to run the judging process in several contests in NSW back in the early 1980s. Some of our initiatives are still not common in the sport. We published the judges results and distributed them to all who wanted them immediately after the trophies were awarded. That practice put an end to speculations about who the judges voted for. It helped everyone concerned. In the past the competitors would approach judges after contests trying to find out how they went and how they could improve. We can only imagine what they were told. With the results they could see how close contests were and who voted for each place getter. We treated the contestants with respect because without the bodybuilders there would be no show.
The fact that the IFBB is seen to be a despotic and unfeeling organization says heaps for those who set that business up and still run it. They have collected various people together and it is run from the top down. Clearly most of the positions are appointments and that is how they keep their loyalty. I wonder how Milos or anyone else can effect changes in the IFBB? It is not impossible but that ship doesn't seem to be capable of making major changes or even enforcing their own rules. Like Lee Priest says, why have rules if you don't enforce them? A good question that hasn't been answered by them. We know why. They fear the competitors will go to a rival organization that doesn't do drug testing. That is probably what would happen and the IFBB survived the organization war and do not want to lose their grip on the sport.
They need a liaison officer to buffer all the flack between the organization, officials, promoters, bodybuilders and fans. Someone has to be the whipping boy. The organization churns away behind the scenes and poor Bob C gets bagged time after time. He is so patient and explains obvious consequences designed to keep everyone loyal to the IFBB and whoever else is controlling the sport. Is he being a stooge? Well, maybe he is more like Moe in the Three Stooges who was the smartest one but he was as dumb as the others but just didn't know it.
