From memory the testing back then was similar to the ifbb universe where you could get around it using test and HGH just had to time your levels with testing which wasn't random. Strydom just reacted well to test and high levels HGH. Back in those days HGH was expensive the bigger your contract the more you could use and Strydom was on the largest contract. What we saw were guys where that combo didn't work for them or they didn't have Garys budget.
Dr. Mauro Dipasquale claimed his protocols were much stricter than that. His test reportedly could detect Clenbuterol, HCG, dihydrotestosterone (DHT). Dipasquale also mentioned doing hormonal profiles to detect the use of exogenous testosterone, even when it's not detectable in urine. That sounds a lot stricter than the Universe protocols.
Side note - I've asked this question when the subject of Ronnie Coleman's early years pops up: If the Universe drug tests are so easy to pass, why didn't all these top amateurs (who just couldn't quite nab the USA, North American, nor Nationals) simply go to the Universe, win his class there, and turn pro the way Ronnie did? Matt Mendenhall, Edgar Fletcher, Dave Palumbo, Rory Leidmeyer, Dean Caputo, and (until 2000, Bob Chicherillo) plus a litany of NPC bridesmaids could theoretically have gone that route to snatch that elusive IFBB pro card.
I trained in the same gym with a lot of these guys in the same era and have watched many Olympias and pro shows always from up the front just behind the judges. McWay would have to be Gary to think he could hang on the level of Haney and Yates. Even Stevie wonder could see that Gary was a good pro, Haney was a legend, but Yates was unbeatable.
Bodybuilding not back building are you serious. 
Indeed! It's about the whole body. But every time someone even mentions Gary Strydom, here comes the deluge of rear-double-bicep and rear lat spread shots, especially from 1988......as if Haney and Yates didn't have weaknesses on their physiques.
Strydom looked like a relative crackhead in 1988 yet placed 5th at the Olympia. Yet somehow you're claiming that much BIGGER and fuller Strydom couldn't hang with Yates or Haney just three years later? That makes no sense. Strydom would be larger at 265 than either man in their respective 1991 forms in the 240s.
To me, it's not different than when some people talk about Arnold Schwarzenegger and pretended that the way he looked in 1974 is how he looked at every single Olympia he won.
