It was Haney again, of course. At the 1988 Mr. Olympia, Lee Haney, though far from his best, romped to his fifth of a record eight straight Mr. O titles. Nevertheless, this—the only Olympia staged in Los Angeles—is a fascinating snapshot of a shapelier bodybuilding era before the super-sizing of the ’90s. A whopping eight of the 20 competitors were making their Olympia debuts, including Shawn Ray, Brian Buchanan, Gary Strydom, Mohamed Benaziza, Mike Quinn, and crowd favorite Phil Hill. It was also a remarkably youthful show. With every member of the top seven in his twenties—which has never come close to happening before or since—it seemed like this could go on and on. Little did we know then it would be the final Olympia for several promising 20-somethings. “Sweet Child O’ Mine” is the new #1 song, and The Cosby Show, in Haney-like annual domination, is again the #1 TV series. Let’s journey to the Universal Amphitheatre on September 10, 1988, for the 24th Mr. Olympia.
1988 MR. OLYMPIA: WEIGH-IN
This being staged at Hollywood-adjacent Universal Studios, the preliminaries were somewhat cinematic. For the press conference two days before the main event, the 20 competitors were fitted in black Everlast robes. Each, in turn, shed his robe to stand on scales in posing trunks for the official weigh-in. It was as if this was a heavyweight fight with one champ and 19 contenders. But were they all heavyweights? Bodybuilders are notorious for exaggerating their body weights. Because this was the only time in Mr. Olympia’s history there was a public weigh-in, we learned the truth. (Competitors were weighed when there were two Mr. Olympia weight classes from 1974-79, but only to distinguish who was under or over 200 pounds.)
Champ Lee Haney was, as claimed, in the mid-240s. Top contender, Rich Gaspari, stepped on the scales 34 pounds lighter than Haney and at least 10 lighter than claimed. And Gary Strydom, after finishing second at a whopping 252 pounds in a small show only two weeks prior, panicked, over-dieted, and weighed in at only 229. Mike Quinn, who would finish a surprising sixth was only 204, some 20 pounds less than claimed. On the other end of the spectrum, 6’5″ German Ralf Moeller was 288 pounds, edging out Lou Ferrigno for the heaviest Olympia competitor ever—until the equally tall Ferrigno came in at 290 in 1992 and 315 in 1993, unofficially, of course.
All of the weights are included at the end of this report with each competitor’s placing. Only three were under-200 pounds (in 1979, the last year with weight classes, 10 of 15 were). Still, nine of the 20 could’ve made weight in the modern 212 division. Imagine a 212 Olympia with Rich Gaspari, Lee Labrada, Mike Quinn, Brian Buchanan, Samir Bannout, Mohamed Benaziza, Albert Beckles, and Shawn Ray. But then you’re just imaging the 1988 Mr. Olympia.
1988 MR. OLYMPIA: OUTSIDE THE TOP SIX
The Olympia results had three rings of prestige: top 10 (the bigger money places, although no one was making much), top six (posedown participants), top three (bronze, silver, and gold medalists). This year there were some familiar names outside the top six, including 1983 Mr. O Samir Bannout, 1985 Mr. O runner-up Albert Beckles, and two-time (1977-78) Mr. O runner-up Robby Robinson. But let’s turn to those who were not-so-familiar then. Let’s focus on four promising bodybuilders in their rookie professional years.
Britain’s Brian Buchanan had an invisible waist, leading to a show-stopping V-taper. From trunks up, his front double biceps was the best in the contest, but his legs trailed his upper half. Judge Jim Manion said: “Brian has one place to go, and that’s the squat rack. Once he fills out his thighs, he’s going to be hard to beat.” Unfortunately, we never got to see it. Seventh here and eighth in the next Olympia, Buchanan then, still merely 27, retired from the stage. He made brief comebacks in ’95 and ’98, long before there were classic physique or men’s physique divisions where he could’ve thrived.
Another eye-opener who seemingly rocketed out of nowhere: Mohammed Benaziza wasn’t just making his Olympia debut; this was his pro debut. Only 10 months prior, the 5’3″ Algerian had won the lightweight class of the Amateur World Championships, and here he was with an entirely new physique, an amazing 34 pounds heavier. Who is that dude? The bodybuilding world was about to find out. The next year, he leapt all the way to fifth in the Olympia, and the year after that he won seven of the eight shows he entered, even spoiling Dorian Yates’ pro debut. Tragically, Momo died in 1992 at 33. But back to 1988 when he showed so much, soon-to-be-fulfilled promise. Benaziza sported a wealth of dense muscle crammed onto his short frame, including a back chockful of ridges and valleys, and this virtual unknown barely missed the top 10.
With matching flat tops fades, Shawn Ray and Phil Hill entered professional bodybuilding together. Light-heavy winner Ray beat heavyweight winner Hill for the overall at the 1987 Nationals, but then Hill returned the favor at the 1988 Night of Champions (the second most prestigious show before the Arnold Classic arrived). New Jerseyite Hill won that contest just after finishing second in his pro debut, while Southern Californian Ray, in his pro debut, was fourth. So, here they faced off for the third time, and were as close as could be: Hill 12th, Ray 13th. Both were a little soft. It was easy to see the immense potential of the 22-year-old Shawn Ray with his stellar shape and proportions. His first year was his only “bad” one. After taking the following year off, he skyrocketed to third in the 1990 Mr. Olympia—the first of an unmatched 12 straight Olympias in which he placed in the top five, including two seconds.
Ray’s worst pro year was Hill’s best. Whereas Ray was a classicist, Hill was a modernist. With his Flex magazine cover on newsstands then, he was the talk of bodybuilding. The next big thing. Hill was cursed with narrow clavicles but blessed with round muscle bellies and a svelte waist. His arms resembled footballs, his legs were like beach balls, and he was a masterful poser, both elegant and avant-garde. His routine to “Music of the Night” from Phantom of the Opera is one of the best in Olympia history. “I want them to feel the music. I want to move them emotionally with my posing,” Hill said. The routine included mime moves, splits, and a wide-squat, calf-raise rear double biceps. Writing in Muscle & Fitness, Jeff Everson proffered: “He’s extended men’s posing to a new level.” The L.A. crowd ate it up.
Unlike Shawn Ray, it wasn’t easy to project Hill as a future Mr. Olympia with his narrow shoulders and lats, but like Tom Platz before him and Markus Rühl (“RÜÜÜÜHL!”) after him, the 24-year-old was a cult favorite. And, for those in attendance, his phenomenal routine sealed it around the time he left a kneeling pose by climbing an invisible rope. While Lee Haney was waltzing to a fifth straight title (b-o-r-i-n-g) and Rich Gaspari to a third straight second (b-o-r-i-n-g), the Universal Amphitheatre’s muscle fanatics were craving something new, and Hill delivered. So, they loudly voiced their discontent when he was announced as one of the 10 not in the top 10. The thunderous boos from the crowd of 6000 were soon replaced with a rhyming chant, drowning out other announced names: “PHIL HILL! PHIL HILL! PHIL HILL!” That loud incantation only turned into even louder cheers when the new people’s champ sprang onto the dais to strike a pose. Weirdly, the 12th-place finisher kinda sorta stole the show.
So, what happened to the next big thing? In sharp contrast to Ray, Hill never again competed in the Olympia. He flexed in a trio of Euro shows after the ’89 Mr. O, finishing near the top in all three. But he was near the bottom in his final two shows in 1990, and then, at only 26, he retired. And vanished. Word was, he worked as a prison guard. (Despite internet reports, we believe he’s alive.) Old photos of him still wow on social media today. He was a proto-Kai Greene, a singular physique with outsized parts displayed with utterly original posing. Four decades later, Phil Hill’s body and presentation from the Haney era still seem like modern art.
1988 MR. OLYMPIA: TOP SIX
Fourth the year before, Mike Christian made the posedown of all five Mr. Olympias he entered from 1985-90, and that string likely would’ve extended to six years if he had competed at Universal Studios, a few miles from his home. But, because of a skin infection, he had to watch this Olympia from the audience. Fifth the year before, 42-year-old Robby Robinson was blurry this time and dropped all the way to 17th. With Christian and Robinson nonfactors, there were two members of this year’s posedown who weren’t in 1987’s, and those newbies landed in the sixth and fifth spots.
Rookie Mike Quinn sported the only back in the contest wide and thick enough to almost hang with Haney’s, and he flexed the best arms in the top sextet. (If you came for a gun show, this wasn’t the posedown for you.) This 26-year-old’s upper body earned him this surprisingly high finish, but his lagging lower half prevented him from climbing higher. Quinn, who competed as late as 1999, placed high in a bunch of European shows just after this and was seventh in the next Olympia, but making the 1988 Mr. Olympia posedown out of the gate was his career highpoint. He passed away in 2023 at 61.
Gary Strydom had been hyped as a top contender for Haney’s throne after winning the 1986 NPC Nationals and then his pro debut at the 1987 Night of Champions. At 6’1″, he was taller than the 5’11” Haney, and he had body parts in the same size stratosphere as the champ’s: pecs, quads, arms. His abs may have been the best in the show. However, his lack of lat width was his greatest weakness, and it sharply contrasted with wide-body Haney’s greatest strength. What’s more, the 28-year-old Strydom had over-dieted for his Olympia debut, and, though peeled in the front shots, he’d shed some of his usual fullness. He placed high in a whopping 15 shows over the next two years, including three wins and seven seconds, but Strydom’s first Mr. Olympia was his last. He jumped to Vince McMahon’s short-lived WBF and won its initial championships in 1991, and he made one-contest IFBB pro comebacks in 1996 and 2006.
The promising Strydom going one-and-done at the Olympia, despite placing fifth when nowhere near his best, is one of the great Olympia anomalies. Could he have beaten Haney? Nope. But no one could then. Could he have taken home a bronze or silver medal in ’89 or ’90? Hell yeah. Those high places were wide open for a true heavyweight to grab (see Berry DeMey below). One contemporary observer predicted it. In his 1988 Olympia report for Muscle & Fitness, Jeff Everson wrote: “I think Strydom will move into the top three next year—maybe even second place.”
When it came to September 10, 1988, being his Olympia peak, Gary Strydom had a lot of company. In fact, Lee Labrada was the only competitor in the top 10 here who placed higher in a subsequent Olympia. Labrada was second the next two years. In his seven Olympias (1987-92), the aesthetic Texan never placed lower than fourth, where he landed this year. Although, at 176 pounds, he was the lightest competitor in the show and weighed 67.5 pounds less than Haney, his classical proportions, crisp conditioning, and masterful posing could not be denied. Of his remarkable Olympia run, the 5’6″ Labrada said: “I was often the lightest man on stage, giving upwards of a 25-50 pound ‘handicap’ away to my competition. That made it imperative that I hit my peak perfectly every time. So I focused on balance, conditioning, and posing. I worked on my posing as hard as I trained in the gym.”
When Labrada was announced in fourth place, Berry DeMey thrust his arms overhead with joy. It meant he had entered the final Olympia ring: the medalists. The 26-year-old Dutchman had made the posedown (sixth-fifth-sixth) in his only three previous Olympias, but that seemed where he’d remain. He sported a pleasing shape and excellent legs for a 6′ muscleman in the ’80s, but he lacked the fine detailing to move up into a medal position. Until this year. This frequent cover model may have been undersized at merely 229 pounds, particularly in regards to his back and arms, but he nailed his conditioning so well you rarely noticed, especially in his routine as he flowed through his trademark artistic poses. His back sported the best lumbar “Christmas tree” in the contest, splintering into fine branches. His obliques looked like piano keys. His quads were deeply ravined. No placing was applauded more vociferously than DeMey’s third.
Photos of Berry DeMey from the ’80s get compared today to another tall, aesthetic, big-wheeled bodybuilder: six-time Classic Physique Mr. Olympia Chris Bumstead. Unfortunately, despite his youth, this was DeMey’s final Olympia. Like Strydom, a big payday lured him to the WBF (he finished third in the championships Strydom won), and he made a brief comeback in the IFBB in the mid-’90s when guys were getting supersized and classic physiques were overshadowed (he finished last in his last contest, the 1994 Arnold Classic). You could argue DeMey was born either too late or too soon, that he walked so Bumstead could run. But at least on one drizzly September day in Los Angeles in 1988, he was in the right place at the right time. He ran. And the judges rewarded him. And the audience loved him.
This was the third and final Olympia in which Rich Gaspari finished second behind only his former training partner, Lee Haney. After coming in heavier the year before, the 25-year-old New Jerseyite stuck to the script this time and sported his trademark cuts, vascularity, and gnarly density. Four inches shorter and 34 pounds lighter than the champ and cursed with a boxy structure, it was never in the cards for Rich Gaspari to be Mr. O in the Haney era. Still, four decades later, his journey to very near the summit of bodybuilding remains an inspiring one for every not-so-blessed bodybuilder striving to fulfill their potential, whatever it is.
Here’s what Gaspari said of that year:
I was still the heir apparent to the Mr. Olympia throne, and now I wanted it more than ever. Recognizing that traveling wasn’t helping my chances, I decided to stop all of that at eight weeks out. Joe Weider had suggested that I train for the show out in L.A. so I would be available for more photo shoots. I left New Jersey and stayed at the Marina Pacific Hotel on the beach in Venice, and trained at both Gold’s and World Gyms. I was training around several other top contenders like Mike Christian and Berry DeMey and newcomers Mike Quinn and Gary Strydom. It was an exciting summer. I slimmed down as the judges had suggested, and it was good enough to take second place for the third year in a row to Lee. The real highlight of that season was the grand prix tour that followed. I entered seven shows all across Europe, and won four of them. It was a battle at each one between myself and Lee Labrada as we went back and forth beating each other from country to country: England, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, and two shows in Spain. It was an incredible strain on my body, and shortly afterward I got a call from Arnold Schwarzenegger inviting me to compete in his first Arnold Classic in March of 1989. [Gaspari won.]
What’s the most 1988 thing about this Mr. Olympia? Two choices. 1.) Comic actor Joe Piscopo, then deep into his bodybuilding phase, on stage rapping to a Fat Boys song! Yes, that happened. 2.) Lee Haney winning easily again. Haney was a phenomenal bodybuilder, combining mass with class. He sported one of the best torsos (chest, back, shoulders, waistline) of all time, and was untouchable when he unfurled his hang-glider lats. The worst you could say about him was his arms were a bit undersized. But he had the great good fortune to eclipse smaller, shorter runners-up year after year.
Lee Haney was beatable in 1988. He was blurry, especially from behind, a good 7-10 pounds too heavy. Of his eight Mr. Olympia victories this was his worst look—with the exception of 1990, the drug-tested Olympia when everyone was understandably off. But, beatable as he was, there was no one on stage at the Universal Amphitheatre to beat him. In fact, year after year, there was no one in bodybuilding to catch him on his worst day. No Jay Cutler to his Ronnie Coleman. No Kai Greene to his Phil Heath. Berry DeMey and Gary Strydom were a bit taller, so were Ron Love (9th) and Bob Paris (10th), and, clothed and watching this time, so was Mike Christian; but none had the breadth and 3-D density to dethrone the king, especially when he unfurled a lat spread or crunched a most muscular. It would be three more years before someone—that someone being Dorian Yates—could challenge Haney on his own terms. Meanwhile, Lee Haney hoisted his fifth Sandow trophy at the studio where they shot Back to the Future, and a very famous Hollywood superstar and seven-time Mr. Olympia seated in the front row of the Universal Amphitheatre had to know his record would fall.
1988 MR. OLYMPIA POSTSCRIPT
What to make of the 1988 Mr. Olympia today? Back then, it seemed like a snoozefest as Olympias go, same winner for the fifth straight year, same runner-up for the third straight year, same wide gap between them on scorecards. But in retrospect this, the only Los Angeles Mr. O, captured a moment when shape and presentation were at premiums, and it seemed like a new guard of 20-something upstarts were going to jostle for posedown positions—but probably not the title—for Olympias to come. Oh, but Gary Strydom, Phil Hill, Brian Buchanan, Berry DeMey, we hardly knew ya. It was truly just a moment. More was ending than beginning. Once upon a time in Hollywood.
1988 MR. OLYMPIA RESULTS
September 10, 1988 / Universal Amphitheatre / Los Angeles, California
1. Lee Haney ($60,000) [243.5 lbs.]
2. Rich Gaspari ($27,000) [209.5 lbs.]
3. Berry DeMey ($15,000) [227 lbs.]
4. Lee Labrada ($10,000) [176 lbs.]
5. Gary Strydom ($8000) [229 lbs.]
6. Mike Quinn ($6000) [204 lbs.]
7. Brian Buchanan ($5000) [210 lbs.]
8. Samir Bannout ($4000) [205 lbs.]
9. Ron Love ($3000) [222.5 lbs.]
10. Bob Paris ($2000) [226 lbs.]
11. Mohamed Benaziza ($1500) [188 lbs.]
12. Phil Hill ($1500) [222.5 lbs.]
13. Shawn Ray ($1500) [201.5 lbs.]
14. Mike Ashley ($1500) [189.5 lbs.]
15. Al Beckles ($1500) [200 lbs.]
16. Ed Kawak ($1500) [215 lbs.]
17. Robby Robinson ($1500) [216.5 lbs.]
18. Peter Hensel ($1500) [240.5 lbs.]
19. Luiz Freitas ($1500) [219.5 lbs.]
20. Ralf Moeller ($1500) [288 lbs.]
All body weights are from the official weigh-in at the press conference on September 8. The total prize money was $155,000.
