Jay Cutler wins his second Mr. Olympia. / Muscletime: Raymond Cassar
It’s there, always. You can’t always see it or feel it, but then suddenly you do because one man wins and another doesn’t. It’s at the heart of bodybuilding, for bodybuilding is a journey to literally and figuratively make something more of yourself. When you experience in words and photos what I witnessed and felt at the 2007 Mr. Olympia, you’ll know the Mr. Olympia, and indeed bodybuilding itself, is—at its very best with the very best—a quest for so much more than merely more mass or cuts or a check or a trophy. It’s reaching for the ultimate, as high as you can reach. And for the very best that’s as high as forever.
MORTALITY
I can’t say he looked old when he placed second to Jay Cutler four times last fall, nor did Ronnie Coleman look old in the photos that trickled in from guest-posing spots this year. Indeed, with new hair atop his long-bald dome, he appeared younger than he had in years. The days of arid back conditioning were behind him, but he competed at nearly 300 pounds last year, and, for sheer bulk packaging, he may still have been the most impressive bodybuilder on the planet.
Coleman didn’t look old, but he looked worn. You could clearly see the gym battles he’d lost as well as those he’d won. His left lat and triceps were diminished by trauma, and eyes settled on what wasn’t there and not merely what was. Still, his legions of fans hoped he could go out on top at age 43, that he could break his tie with Lee Haney and establish the record for most Olympia titles ever, that he could somehow fend off time.
DYNASTIES
Since the creation of the Mr. Olympia, bodybuilding has been a sport of dynasties: Scott to Oliva to Schwarzenegger, Zane, Haney to Yates to Coleman. At least two consecutive Sandows are required but three is ideal for establishing extended dominance. And so it was for Jay Cutler. After seven years and four heart-breaking seconds, he finally joined bodybuilding’s most exclusive fraternity in 2006, but the moment he did he began viewing his future legacy in a new light. The old pressure was gone. Meet the new pressure. Could he keep it going? Could he shut up the haters by doing it again when everyone was gunning for him? Could he leave the one-and-out club and launch the Cutler dynasty?
At the athletes’ meeting two days before the 2007 Mr. Olympia and again at the press conference one day prior, Jay Cutler said he didn’t want to diminish the accomplishments of one-time Mr. Olympias Samir Bannout and Chris Dickerson by saying he had to win another Sandow or his one would be regarded as a fluke. “Last year, I was the greatest bodybuilder in the world. And all the Mr. Olympias when they won they were the greatest bodybuilder of that year. To be Mr. Olympia is an incredible honor.” Still, to be Mr. Olympia twice is to launch a dynasty, and in the hours before he finally falls asleep on September 27, he will contemplate that historical reality.
BACKSTAGE, 2007 MR. OLYMPIA
At the evening of September 28, competitors lie on their backs on the gray carpet, elevating their feet on chairs. Michael Wenger and Andy Steiner of Stronghold Ministries offer prayers and support. In the dressing room down the hall, Eddie Abbew comically complains about his number: 13. At 6:37, competitor #1, Dennis Wolf, peels off his warm-up suit to undergo a glazing from the ProTan workers. After a heated exchange at the previous day’s press conference, Quincy Taylor and Gustavo Badell declare a truce and shake on it. As the top of the hour approaches, backstage is a flurry of activity—oil is applied, dumbbells and weight plates rise in improvised exercises, cameras click, expediters bark, competitors pose, pump, primp and pray, and Bodybuilding.com and FLEXOnline.com make final preparations for transmitting video, photos, and text around the globe.
Amidst the chaos, #22, Ronnie Coleman, sits alone. He’s fully clothed. A bandana covers his recently shaved head. He’s reading a note in a greeting card from a friend, and he’s crying, touched by how much he’s touched so many others over the 15 years since his first Olympia. The final competitor, #24, the reigning Mr. O, arrives just before 7:00 and just before #1 steps on stage as the first to display himself in the eight compulsory poses.
1ST CALLOUT
It’s last year’s top four: Jay Cutler, Ronnie Coleman, Victor Martinez, Dexter Jackson. But it’s apparent before head judge Jim Rockell calls the first pose that they won’t finish in the same order this time. Cutler’s magnitude eclipses the others in the rear lat spread, but Martinez’s crisper conditioning and superior lines win out in the back double biceps. In side shots, Martinez has the best leg delineations, but from the front he still lacks deep quad separation; his wheels are also somewhat undersized in relation to the wide V of his upper body. Cutler doesn’t need more legs, but his muscles are neither as full nor as separated as the previous year. His front and rear bi shots are nearly devoid of details. This is going to be a war.
Meanwhile, Dexter Jackson is the same, perpetually sharp Blade as always. He’s not in his best-ever conditioning, but he’s the leanest member of the foursome. Minutiae like his piano key obliques will place him in the top three, just as his scarcity of width will keep him from the title.
2ND CALLOUT
As each name is called in numerical order, the thrill and the relief register on the faces of Dennis Wolf, David Henry, Melvin Anthony, and Silvio Samuel. As their expressions attest, they’re each virtually assured of a top 10 finish and now contending for the posedown. Each lacks something, but each also brings unique qualities. Samuel, he of the ridiculously round muscle bellies, needs more back meat, but he’s in the shape of his life. Henry is again showcasing the spaghetti lat and pec striations that went M.I.A. earlier in the year, yet his lower half still trails his torso. Anthony too regained lost cleaves, and his back double bi is phenomenal if you look only from his wispy waist to his neck, but his legs lag in both size and separation.
Samuel and Henry stay on stage, joined by Johnnie Jackson, Gustavo Badell and Ronnie Rockel. Badell has lost size and cuts, especially in his thighs. Jackson, like Henry, has regained the definition he couldn’t locate earlier in the year, but, also like Henry, his lower body, despite obvious gains, still trails the high standards of the upper level. Rockel could’ve been sharper from behind, but now that his back has nearly caught up to his front his is the best proportioned physique in the contest.
4TH CALLOUT
As the final name is called, a collective “Oohh!” erupts from the audience, as when everyone cringes in unison after witnessing a particularly devastating punch to a beloved boxer past his prime. Ronnie Coleman is asked to join Dennis Wolf, Dexter Jackson, and Melvin Anthony and instructed to stand next to Wolf. This is an eight-time Mr. Olympia who at his peak was so far superior to the rest of the field he was called out mostly as a courtesy to the paying audience. Now, not only is he not in contention for a ninth Sandow, but he is struggling to stay in the top six. In the final pose, he indisputably loses a most-muscular for the first time in at least a decade, and it is to Wolf.
I too cringe at the body blows Coleman takes this evening. What wasn’t true before is now glaringly obvious. He got old. His legs have stunningly deflated, his back is smaller, blurry and lopsided, his left triceps has withered, his abs are absent. He fights on in pose after pose—sometimes, even if you have to squint, glimpses of what was are revealed—but I can’t help but think of Michael Jordan’s comeback with the Washington Wizards when he was still an All-Star but no longer the star, no longer the one player in the world elevated above all others, and some nights some wide-eyed 20-something who grew up idolizing him—some Wolf—would take him to the hoop and dunk on him, beat him the way he used to beat everyone, and if you watched, even if you cheered, a part of you cringed. You remembered what was and what will never be again. Even the greatest who ever lived can’t stop the relentless march of time.
5TH CALLOUT
This one is most notable because Melvin Anthony joins Cutler, Jackson and Martinez, and because with each pose the reigning Mr. O seems to be filling out.
11TH CALLOUT
The final callout is the same as the first, except Melvin Anthony is invited in, making it a five-man clash. Jay Cutler continues to fill out and sharpen up. He wins some poses with mucho mass; Victor Martinez takes others with deeper crevices and a more aesthetic silhouette. As the prejudging comes to a close, Ronnie Coleman savors his last dance, playing to the crowd, pumping his fists in the air and crunching out poses. Some things, including the certainty that no one will win a ninth Sandow this time or, likely, for a long time, are settled. But the biggest question, who will take this year’s title the next day, is in great doubt. Martinez trails Cutler by merely two points.
BACKSTAGE, 2007 MR. OLYMPIA
In contrast to prejudging, the atmosphere the next day just prior to the finals is relaxed. Competitors sit instead of lie. They chat. They smile. They line up to shake hands with Joe Weider. For most of them, their fate is already sealed. But not Jay Cutler. An illness disrupted his final days of preparation. He planned to come in at 275, but his weight fell to 265 and was five pounds less than that after prejudging.
“I’m about 267 tonight,” he states before the finals. “I carbed up all day and replenished some fluids. I need to be full in my chest to look impressive, and when I lose my peak, I smooth out in my upper body. My legs are never a problem. I wasn’t at my best at the start yesterday, and I knew it, but I won’t be flat tonight.”
Victor Martinez, like Cutler, says he didn’t look at photos, but he too knows it’s close. “I felt great about how things went,” he avers. “I played it cool. I didn’t put too much into my poses, but I saw [Cutler] shaking next to me he was squeezing so hard.” He good-naturedly laughs. “I’m prepared for what happens tonight either way. I’ll do all I can, but really it’s out of my hands.”
ROUTINE DEVELOPMENTS
Best Music Choice Accentuating his flowing lines and dramatic presence, Dennis Wolf strikes classical poses to classical music, and a great many in attendance cry “Wolf.”
Wildest Routine Will Harris frees all inhibitions, stalking, mincing and gliding about in a manner that feels something like a rave on Halloween.
Best Routines Two of the sport’s posing maestros, Melvin Anthony and Darrem Charles, don’t disappoint. They each drop surprises into their always crowd-pleasing assortment of hip-hop dance moves and vigorous pantomime.
Cutler vs. Martinez Neither man battling for the title has a particularly impressive routine, but Jay Cutler showcases fullness and hardness he lacked the day before. Still, the judges award the round 7-8 to Victor Martinez, who then trails by only a single point with the final round to go.
POSEDOWN: 2007 MR. OLYMPIA
“It was close all show until we started comparing them again, and then it was over,” judge Steve Weinberger informs me later with typical bluntness. This is because Cutler has sharpened considerably from the prejudging. He’s been leaner and/or fuller in prior years, but the newly excavated lines, especially in his chest and abs, as well as the additional roundness, appear all the more dramatic because of the dearth of those qualities the previous day. Just when 11 judges and 10,000 fans in the sold-out Orleans Arena and countless thousands more around the globe are glaring at his physique and wondering if he’s worthy of maintaining the title of Mr. Olympia, wondering that and comparing him to the man who then trails him by only a digit, the champ does indeed deliver.
After Jim Rockell shouts “Posedown!” the music kicks in and the other five jockey to trade poses near Cutler. At one point, following Cutler across the stage, Martinez mimes reeling in a fishing line, as if to say he’s catching the champ. When Wolf unfurls a front lat spread and most muscular next to Cutler, the reaction proves Wolf is, at least for a weekend, the people’s champ. Coleman duels to the end, standing onstage at the Mr. Olympia for a record 15th and final time, squeezing out poses and loving every moment. [Dexter Jackson now holds the record for Mr. Olympia entries at 21.]
AFTERMATH: 2007 MR. OLYMPIA
After the howls when Wolf comes in fifth and after Coleman is announced fourth and 10,000 men, women, and children stand in unison to give him a rousing ovation that makes lumps grow in throats and tears well in eyes, and after the eight-time Mr. Olympia tells his fans what they, Jesus, and bodybuilding mean to him, and more lumps grow in throats and tears well in eyes, and after Dexter Jackson places third in the Olympia for the second time, Jay Cutler is again declared champion of the bodybuilding world and Victor Martinez feels the agonizing sting of runner-up like Cutler did four times before—so close (four points separated them in the end) and yet so far away.
And after that, while the two-time Mr. Olympia is on stage posing for photos and then speaking to the audience, Martinez slips into his sweatsuit in the pump-up pen. Referencing a quip about Cutler he made at the press conference two days prior, he says, “They chose a Picasso this time, not a Michelangelo. But you can’t let this get you down. I got work to do next year. Things will go my way too one day.” A moment later he adds with a weary smile, “Next year.” [After blowing out his knee and undergoing surgery, Victor Martinez did not compete in 2008, and he never finished higher than fourth in the Mr. Olympia again.]
RESPECT
But this day this year things went Jay Cutler’s way. When he makes his way backstage, medallions jangling about his neck, Sandow trophy in hand, he’s barraged with requests for photos for 30 minutes, and afterwards he slumps in a chair, gulping down Pepsi when no Gatorade is found fast enough. I ask him what his second O means to him. “It means you can’t make fun of me anymore, saying I have to win two for it to matter. Last year, I think I came in here with a little more dominance. I pretty much won the show on Friday. This year I think I had to prove myself again tonight. I also got to savor it a little more this time onstage afterwards.”
Of the close contest he says, “Of course the champion is held to the highest standard, so I get some criticism for not coming in at 100% on Friday. A win’s a win whether I take it by one point or 20 points. The Sandow’s still sitting on my mantle when I get home.”
Of Ronnie Coleman, he reaffirms his utmost respect and says it was great to see him go out like a champion with a standing ovation. And of Victor Martinez, he offers his congratulations for making it to the top two in the world, but he has little sympathy for the sting of a close call. “This was only his first second at the Olympia. Try getting second four times. That’s when you start really feeling the pain. He’ll be back. And I’ll be waiting. He’ll have another chance next year.”
IMMORTALITY
Still later when workers are tearing down the stage and almost everyone but the cleanup crew has cleared out of a backstage that was stuffed with congratulators in the immediate aftermath of the 43rd Mr. Olympia, the man who, with Lee Haney, has won more Sandows than any person ever, is still sitting on a chair in the pump-up pen, alone, dressed only in his posing trunks. One of those damn lumps forms in my throat as I approach Ronnie Coleman for what I know will be the final time as a Mr. Olympia contestant. His red eyes are wet but he smiles. “I don’t want to leave,” he explains, his voice cracking. “I just want to soak it up, and sit backstage at the Olympia this one last time.”
I ask him about the standing ovations, the one after his routine and the even longer and louder one after his placing was announced. “I can’t even explain that. That’s almost like winning my first Olympia. Some things that happen to you in life you just get so overcome with joy you can’t find the words to express it and that’s one of those. Getting a standing ovation by the biggest crowd probably ever at a bodybuilding contest, that’s something I’ll treasure for the rest of my life.
“I was a guy who got into a sport just for a free membership at a gym, and it turned out to be the best thing that ever happened to me. You never know where God’s going to lead you. I just followed the path I was led to and He led me here. And now it’s time to move on. But I’m not leaving bodybuilding.” He chokes back tears. “I won’t be doing the Olympia anymore, but I’ll still be here.”
When I leave, Ronnie Coleman is still there, sitting backstage, in his posing trunks, soaking in the Olympia experience, remembering the seven times he didn’t win and the eight times he did. He is no longer alone, for two-time Mr. Olympia Jay Cutler has collapsed on the carpet behind him, arms outstretched, eyes closed, soaking it all in too, feeling relieved and exhausted and jubilant, and maybe feeling just then like he’ll never lose again. And when these two men, bodybuilding’s greatest rivals, really focus on what it means to be Mr. Olympia not for merely a year but for all the years to come, they’ll understand the truest meaning of it all is to live forever, for in a way they will. Ronnie Coleman wipes away a tear, and he smiles.
2007 MR. OLYMPIA RESULTS
September 28-29, 2007 / Las Vegas, Nevada
1. Jay Cutler ($155,000)
2. Victor Martinez ($90,000)
3. Dexter Jackson ($60,000)
4. Ronnie Coleman ($48,000)
5. Dennis Wolf ($38,000)
6. Melvin Anthony ($30,000)
7. Silvio Samuel ($18,000)
8. Gustavo Badell ($17,000)
9. Johnnie Jackson ($16,000)
10. David Henry ($14,000)
11. Ronny Rockel ($4000)
12. Darrem Charles ($4000)
13. Hidetada Yamagishi ($4000)
14. Toney Freeman ($4000)
15. Will Harris ($4000)
The last nine competitors did not place. They are listed alphabetically.
Eddie Abbew ($4000)
Paco Bautista ($4000)
Mark Dugdale ($4000)
Marcus Haley ($4000)
Markus Rühl ($4000)
Sergey Shelestov ($4000)
Quincy Taylor ($4000)
Vince Taylor ($4000)
Bill Wilmore ($4000)
2007 MR. OLYMPIA SCORECARD
In a slightly different form, this article appeared in the December 2007 issue of FLEX magazine under the title “Double Take.”
To read about what happened next year, check out: The 2008 Mr. Olympia
And the year after that: Jay Cutler Quad Stomp: The Full Story
