Three of the top four in the 2026 Mr. Olympia were easy to predict as soon as we found out perennial top contender Hadi Choopan wouldn’t be there. Derek Lunsford, Samson Dauda, and Andrew Jacked were in the top four at the 2025 Olympia (with Choopan). But who would join them? Martin Fitzwater was fourth in 2024 and fifth last year. But the always unpredictable Nick Walker, last a top contender in 2022—an eternity ago in bodybuilding—had transformed his physique to answer at least some of the criticisms and yet remain a true Mutant. And he’d finished second behind Jacked at this year’s Arnold Classic. It was clear from the first callout Walker was going to push for not just a top three medal but the ultimate prize of the Sandow trophy. He would indeed grab that prize, but this one was topsy-turvy from third to first, from Friday to Saturday, and from start to finish.
2026 MR. OLYMPIA: OUTSIDE THE TOP FOUR
The 2026 Mr. Olympia was all about the top four and, ultimately, the interchangeable top three. However, the man who was potentially the best bodybuilder in this contest was not only not in the top quartet, he wasn’t in the lineup; he wasn’t even in the United States. It wasn’t for lack of trying. About a month before the contest, the inability to secure a visa forced Iranian Hadi Choopan to withdraw. There were three previous Olympia champs in this lineup: 2019 winner Brandon Curry, 2024 winner Samson Dauda, and 2023 and 2025 winner Derek Lunsford. Choopan would’ve been the fourth, having won bodybuilding’s ultimate title in 2022. Choopan had competed in seven Mr. Olympias (2019-25) and never finished lower than fourth. He was second the previous three years, with many observers feeling he deserved more wins, especially over the similarly-shaped Lunsford. Including his victory, that makes four straight O’s in the top two, a string that came to an end this year. No one since the reign of Phil Heath has consistently placed as high in the Mr. Olympia as the Persian Wolf. What could’ve been?
In his previous 11 Olympia appearances, William Bonac, who finished second in 2019, never failed to place. But age catches up with everyone, and the 44-year-old, diminished by a torn triceps, earned the dreaded DNP here. The man who won that 2019 Mr. O, Brandon Curry, turns 44 in a month, but he cracked the top 10 for the 10th straight Olympia. Edges are blurring, as happens in middle age, but Curry is maintaining his roundness, especially in his arms and delts.
Iranian Behrooz Tabani Abarghani secured his visa, and the 33-year-old made a strong showing, landing in eighth place in his second Olympia (he was 11th last year). With his elegantly shaped physique crisply conditioned, he deserved a slightly higher finish (he was sixth on Saturday). Back is his strength, and his front and rear lat spreads were his best poses. In contrast, Abarghani’s legs thin out in the side shots. Another 33-year-old, Regan Grimes, was in his sixth Olympia (the first was in the Classic division), and seventh here is his highest placing. The Canadian Grimes was strong in the rear shots, but chest and ab shallowness harm him in the front shots.
With Choopan absent and Fitzwater a nonfactor, two familiar physiques were in the all-important first callout for the first time: American Tonio Burton and Slovakian Michal “Krizo” Krizanek. Neither made a big leap. Krizo was seventh in his previous Olympia (2023) and Burton eighth last year. It was more a matter of who wasn’t there this time. Krizo flexes great arms and quads, but his severely lagging back prevents him from climbing into Olympia contention. Burton is missing nothing, but may be maxing out his potential at fifth place. His lat breadth is exactly what Krizo needs. But he was the smallest of the first callout crew, and it will take a substantial size upgrade for the 39-year-old to crack the top three of a future Olympia.
2026 MR. OLYMPIA: TOP FOUR
The final callout of prejudging made it abundantly obvious. There was a clear top four, but there was also a definitive top three with their order to be determined. The top quartet were put through the eight compulsory poses three times, in the following configurations (left to right). First: Jacked, Dauda, Walker, Lunsford. Then: Jacked, Dauda, Lunsford, Walker. Finally: Jacked, Walker, Lunsford, Dauda. So, Dauda, Walker, and Lunsford each struck 16 poses next to each other in the all-important middle spots.
But Andrew Jacked never moved, telling us he was the odd man out on judges’ scorecards. The self-proclaimed “Mona Lisa of Bodybuilding” brought his usually impressive X-frame, and, from the waist up, he won poses. His hang-glider rear lat spread was the best in the contest, as long as you don’t focus on his glutes and hams. Judges do, of course. The lack of detailing there and the shallowness of his hamstrings in side shots, remained his greatest weaknesses. Andrew Jacked turns 42 next year. Can he still fulfill his immense promise and become the 21st Mr. Olympia before times runs out?
The top three places were a tale of two nights. On Friday evening, Walker and Lunsford were battling for the title, each nabbing first- and second-place votes. Dauda had straight thirds, as firmly in the three-spot as Jacked was in the four-spot. But on Saturday, 24 hours later, the Nigerian-Englishman steamrolled back and earned straight firsts to Walker’s straight seconds and Lunsford’s straight thirds. It was enough to overtake Lunsford but not quite catch Walker. (Note: We discuss a scoring discrepancy with the scorecard at the end of this article.)
The reigning champ Derek Lunsford was on, most evident in his vertically striped glutes and horizontally striped hams. But he’s piled a lot of muscle on his short frame, so it’s not particularly aesthetic. And at this level one can nitpick: shapeless biceps, shallow pecs, widish hips. Still, a similar physique was good enough to win him two Sandows. This was a very close apples-or-oranges-or-pears top triumvirate, and Lunsford ended up the odd man out.
2024 Mr. Olympia Samson Dauda spent a year since his humbling fourth at the 2025 Olympia in his private gym in rural England trying to reconfigure a physique worthy of the title once again. Part of this meant packing even more meat on his 5’11” frame, more than shorter competitors could match. At his heaviest he was over 340 pounds, so big critics wondered if he could ever go high-def in time. And, in fact, on Friday he was a little off, lacking the fine detailing of Lunsford and Walker in the rear shots. But he had the thickest chest in the top four, which he, unlike the others, displayed in a crab most muscular (others went for the less-chest-centric hands-in-front pose). And despite his size, he sported the slimmest middle among the top guys. Then on Saturday, Dauda brought the extra cuts he was missing on Friday and nearly flipped the script entirely.
Sometimes there are bodybuilders, not blessed with the ideal structure, who, nevertheless, fulfill all their potential. Rich Gaspari was that guy in the ’80s. Branch Warren was that guy from 2006-12. Both clawed and climbed their way to second in Olympias, even as critics trashed their blockiness, their freakiness over prettiness. Today, that guy is Nick Walker. When you self-title yourself “The Mutant,” you’re leaning into the fact that yours is an unabashedly un-classic physique. So be it. There’s room for all types on the Olympia stage. But could or should a mutant be the world’s ultimate bodybuilder? Should is up for debate. And the close scores and night-to-night reversal indicates the judges, too, were debating. But could was answered affirmatively on September 26, 2026.
Nick Walker was third in this contest in 2022, and in his only subsequent Olympia, last year, he fell to sixth. But despite last year, he’d been toiling hard over the past four years to improve weaknesses, streamlining his middle and growing his legs, while maintaining all the things that made him a freak. He flexed the best arms in the contest, and his deeply divoted hamstrings drew your eyes in rear shots, allowing him to hang close with Lunsford in the all-important rear double biceps. He won the abs and thighs pose with both deep abdominals and separated quads. He won the front biceps. He won the side triceps. Lunsford won both rear shots. Dauda won the front lat spread, side chest, and most muscular. All of which goes to show you how close it was in real time and on scorecards.
In victory, Nick Walker, the 20th Mr. Olympia, stood next to a previous critic, emcee Bob Cicherillo, with the oversized check and the Sandow trophy at his feet, and the Mutant stated to the Orleans Arena crowd: “I’ll say this, and I want everyone out there to learn this lesson. Don’t ever believe any of the negativity that you hear. Don’t ever believe the bullshit that people tell you. If you truly believe in yourself and have the confidence, then you guys can do whatever you want. And I did that tonight.”
2026 MR. OLYMPIA RESULTS
September 25-26, 2026 / Orleans Arena / Las Vegas, Nevada
1. Nick Walker ($600,000)
2. Samson Dauda ($250,000)
3. Derek Lunsford ($100,000)
4. Chinedu “Andrew Jacked” Obiekea ($50,000)
5. Tonio Burton ($30,000)
6. Michal Krizanek ($20,000)
7. Regan Grimes ($16,000)
8. Behrooz Tabani Abarghani ($14,000)
9. Brandon Curry ($12,000)
10. James Hollingshead ($10,000)
11. Jordan Hutchinson ($2000)
12. Martin Fitzwater ($2000)
13. Leandro Sencini Peres ($2000)
14. Edward Kargbo ($2000)
15. Sasan Heirarti ($2000)
The following seven competitors did not place. They are listed here alphabetically.
William Bonac ($2000)
Sergey Danilov ($2000)
Quinton Eriya ($2000)
Mohamed Foda ($2000)
Damian Kuffel ($2000)
Patrick Moore ($2000)
Andrea Presti ($2000)
* Nick Walker also won the People’s Champ Award ($10,000), voted on by fans.
2026 MR. OLYMPIA SCORECARD
There are nine judges. The top two and top three scores for each competitor are thrown out. So the middle five judges’ scores are counted.
The scorecard below is wrong, because Walker and Lunsford’s total scores in round one should be 15 (5 firsts, 5 seconds), not 17. Was it 7-8 or 6-9 for Walker? Either way, it doesn’t change the final result. There is a scenario in which 8-9 is correct, but Dauda’s score would then need to be 13, and that changes everything! Dauda ultimately would’ve tied Walker (and he surely would’ve won the tie-breaker on Saturday)! But that point combination is very unlikely: Walker [1,1,2,2,2], Lunsford [1,1,1,3,3], Dauda [2,2,3,3,3], in regards to Lunsford, and surely the judges’ would’ve noticed such a major mistake. So, while awaiting an official explanation, let’s assume the placings are correct but the points are a bit off.
