I have nothing against you MCWAY, so I'm not trying to be a jackass but you don't have personal experience within bodybuilding circles from what I understand. You don't have experience with drugs not of those who use thrm in large quantities nor of competitors. Do bodybuilders in general think Ronnie was "natural natural", as in no hormones whatsoever? Mostly no, most will say "everyone is full of shit." They laugh and sometimes play along. On this forum and others I've been accused of being a jealous bitch for not believing in various tales told by bodybuilders. IRL t's more like, "come on Van, don't be naive."
I don't have personal experience with anabolics; the closest I've come was andro back in the late 90s (and that was after I'd already weight 245 lbs). My experience with other bodybuilders is limited, namely a handful of amateur bodybuilders, some of whom readily admitted their past anabolics use.
Your statement further reinforces my point. What's the point of those guys wanting/having to "play along", especially in this online day and age? Continuing to push a facade usually requires a motive. Has Levrone been under some blood oath for the last 30 years to keep maintaining that Coleman was natural early in his career?
It's a bit hard to say they respect Ronnie for how far he took things on the one hand, while saying on the other hand they've known from the jump that he wasn't drug-free early in his career.
In bodybuilding there is an incredible amount of trashtalk privately, some publicly. An incredible amount of malicious gossip. Some are better targets of trashtalk for various reasons. Ronnie is not. I feel there are a lot of psychological factors involved, in how these guys carry themselves, whether or not others become antagonistic to them. Ronnie didn't talk shit about others in a public way or was antagonistic so the industry just wants what's best for him. Plus everyone respects how far he took his bodybuilding. No one even talked shit about his training style, there were only some murmurs out of concern for him.
Basically, you're claiming that, simply because Ronnie went about his business and didn't bug anybody (even though he eventually started beating the Levrones, Wheelers, Rays, and El Sonbatys of the world...costing them Sandows and prize money), they kept his not-so-secret-secret.....a secret.
Chris Cormier would have at least one ASC title under his belt, were it not for Coleman's breaking tradition and competing in that show as the reigning Mr. O. You'd think there'd be a bone or two to pick there.
If you saw the video I posted earlier, Coleman was the LAST guy any of the elites of the late 90s thought were true contenders for the Olympia title. Even after the whole vodka thing in Russia, Levrone beat Coleman one last time in the San Francisco Pro show in 1998.
At the end of the day, it boils down to how big (do you think) Ronnie was BEFORE he started taking anabolics. I'm just not of the belief that he was a crackhead (i.e. Chris Rock's "Pookie" character from
New Jack City) and started his syringes the instant he picked up a cement-filled weight.
Did he compete at the local or state level drug-free? Did he compete at the Nationals? We know he was drug-tested to qualify for the Universe and drug-tested after he won his class there. He has also competed in the American Drug-Free Powerlifting Association (ADFPA).
I'm fully aware people try to beat drug testing, sometimes successfully. But that leads back to a question I asked earlier on different threads: With pro cards being as rare (especially compared with today) as they were, why wouldn't some of the other heavyweights try their luck at the Universe, if the steroid tests are so easy to beat? Unless, I'm mistaken, Ronnie is the only one who took the test to go the U.
Again, it all goes back to how big he was before he started performance enhancers, or as he humourosly called them, "Vitamin A, Vitamin C, Vitamin D...."
