The scorecard; notice:
Akim Williams and Justin Rodriguez tied on points but that was “broken through relative scoring,” what’s “relative scoring?” Weinberger’s personal choice? Manion’s choice?
Johnnie Jackson placed 14th:
Where did you read that about "relative scoring"
Also, if anyone knows the answer to that question, I'd be curious to know. I think in 1990, Steve Weinberger's wife Bev Francis won a contest on points, the contest ended, and then when they were handing out trophies, Bev was announced in 2nd place. The issue there being that the points were objectively scored and recorded somewhere, and Bev had won...and then suddenly, she didn't.
I guess it's like voting fraud - we can never really fully prevent these sorts of things. It would be interesting if, in light of what happened to Weinberger's wife, that he would be responsible for breaking a tie like that. Bodybuilding is so fleeting as it is, with prize money so limited, that sort of thing [placing 2nd at a contest that you should have won] could be enough to make a bodybuilder quit. I think it was the 2012 World's Strongest Man contest where Vytautas Lalas placed 2nd to his fellow countryman Zydrunas Savickas...just the look in the eyes of Lalas showed that it was like he knew that for all the effort it took for him to get to that level, that he may never win the World's Strongest Man, and that this was the closest he would ever be...and he was so close, and still didn't win.
Of course, the Chicago Pro is not an equivalent contest - a better example might be the 1987 Mr. Olympia, when Mike Christian placed 4th, and Mike was flabbergasted, which meant that at the VERY LEAST, he expected to beat Lee Labrada - but regardless, picking a winner in bodybuilding which is subjectively-judged as it is, and EXTREMELY hard on the bodies of top pros, is one thing...to then make it overtly political is even worse.
I can't help but to feel sorry for Justin Rodriguez...to understand how he felt, one would need to watch the movie BOOGIE NIGHTS, or at least the part towards the very end [picture reference below].
On that note, lastly [and similar to the pornography business, speaking of Boogie Nights]...reading this thread during the era of Covid-19, at a point in time where I'm not even sure if I'll be living in a functional society in 18 months from now has made me realize just how fleeting bodybuilding is.
I can't help but feel bad for some of the players of this game. Some can look back on great careers and land in the second chapters of their lives, relatively unscathed...and some of its most prominent players [much like WWE pro wrestlers] don't have a second chapter at all.
I was strongly involved in the bodybuilding world behind the scenes between 2002 through to 2012, and still follow it on a regular basis, and am familiar with many of the pros, and the winners of contests, different supplement companies, industry tragedies, and things like that. I don't even know how many words I've written about bodybuilding over the years, but it would certainly total in the millions.
But I have to say...I want to move on to being involved with a project in the second half of my life that seems less vacuous. Even though truly EVERYTHING is fleeting, and just about everything is more popular if it looks better...I want to devote my massive writing energy to something that just seems nobler. Even though I know my logic is faulty.
Maybe the years of seeing competitors die, more than one of whom I met personally in real life, or met and interacted with online, has weighed on me somewhat.
Of course that is easier said than done in the era of Covid-19...but that is how I feel right now.
