1989 Mr. Olympia winner Lee Haney in Rimini, Italy
The winner of the 1989 Mr. Olympia was never in doubt. Lee Haney won his sixth of a record eight consecutive Mr. O titles. And he did so convincingly. What was surprising was who placed second and, in his Olympia debut, who was third. And for that matter who was fourth and fifth. It’s the last September of the ’80s, two months before the Berlin Wall falls, three months before The Simpsons premieres. The summer blockbuster Batman is still raking in dough. Put on your parachute pants and turn on your Walkman. Let’s journey to the beach resort city of Rimini, Italy, for the 1989 Mr. Olympia.
1989 MR. OLYMPIA: BACKSTORY
This, the 25th Mr. Olympia, was held near the end of a 15-year-stretch (1979-93) in which the contest was staged in a different location each year. To date, it was the only Olympia in Italy and the next-to-last time it was out of the United States. It was also the first Olympia staged over two days, with the prejudging on Friday evening and finals on Saturday evening (a format which became standard for the Mr. Olympia this century). Italian-born two-time Mr. Olympia, Franco Columbu, at 48, struck shirtless poses on Saturday.
The most notable absentee was Gary Strydom, who had placed fifth in the Mr. Olympia the year prior. After finishing third in the 1989 Arnold Classic in March, he probably knew he was unlikely to improve on fifth in Rimini and might miss the posedown. So, instead, Strydom leapt into the second week of the Euro Tour after the 1989 Olympia, competing five times around Europe. With the Mr. O top four not Euro Touring past the first week, Mike Christian and Gary Strydom dueled, going one-two five times, with Christian winning thrice and Strydom twice (Mohammed Benaziza placed behind them all five times). The enigmatic Strydom never again competed in the Olympia.
Two rookie pro bodybuilders who made the long trip to Rimini were unable to compete: Nimrod King (shoulder infection) and Renel Janvier (illness). So, there were 21 competitors, 15 of whom failed to make the six-man posedown. Those left out included 1983 Mr. Olympia Samir Bannout, still very good but no longer great; a rapidly fading Bob Paris; Ron Love, who competed 13 times that year (!); Brian Buchanan, celebrated for his miniscule waist; and the late Mike Quinn, who, as a rookie, was sixth the year before and visibly disappointed to fall out of the posedown this time. Notable for his high-def conditioning was Andreas Münzer, making his pro debut. Another Olympia rookie, the classically constructed Francis Benfatto, was destined to leap six places to sixth the following year, when the Mr. Olympia was drug-tested.
MR. OLYMPIA POSEDOWN
In his five Olympia entries from 1985 to 1990, Mike Christian never missed the posedown and yet he was never really a threat to Lee Haney. That’s because Christian’s legs always lagged his upper half. At 6’1″ and 247 pounds, he was both smooth and flat in Italy. Sixth was his lowest Olympia placing.
The Algerian Mohammed Benaziza stood only 5’3″, but he crammed a lot of muscle onto his compact frame and sported a superb set of abs and panoply of cuts. His rear double biceps (the most crucial pose) was the best in the show, featuring a deeply separated back, vertical blind hamstrings, and striated glutes. Overlooked the year prior in his Olympia debut, he wasn’t this time, though a good case can be made that he deserved at least fourth. The following spring, Benaziza defeated Dorian Yates in Yates’ pro debut, making him, with Lee Haney, one of two people to beat Yates on a pro stage. Tragically, he died in 1992 at age 33.
After finishing second behind Haney the previous three Olympias, Rich Gaspari (still only 26) thought this would be his year to take the title from his old training partner. He suffered a pec tear earlier in the year, but it wasn’t a great flaw. In fact, he still won the 1989 Arnold Classic. Noted for his grainy conditioning, the 5’7″ New Jerseyan had been staying by a lake in the Alps since June, training in a tiny gym, going back to basics. He came in at 219, 12 pounds more than the year prior, but the added size came at the expense of his trademark deep cuts. Just after the contest, he said: “I really don’t think the weight hurt me. It was because yesterday I was just so much psyched to win, anxiety hit, and I held a little water. But today everyone said I was more ripped, so that wasn’t a problem [on Saturday].” He was stunned by the fourth place finish, though scorecards said he was closer to ninth than he was to third. It was the beginning of the end for the former top contender, who was fifth the next year and then never a factor again.
Vince Taylor was even more stunned than Gaspari when the latter was announced fourth. He threw his hands up and bounced about with glee, because it meant he’d cracked the top three in his maiden Olympia. Little did he know then that he nearly made the top two. The 33-year-old was in his only his second pro contest, having won his debut, the Night of Champions (now the New York Pro), that spring. It’s hard to believe that at 5’9″, he weighed merely 208 pounds in Rimini, but then he’d turned pro the year before as a light-heavyweight (under 200 pounds). Taylor would later fill out to 230 (his arms especially would expand) and win a lot of pro shows over a stellar career that lasted into his 50s, but he had enough to wow in his O debut: the crisp conditioning, the aesthetic shape (including the contest’s best calves), the masterful posing.
When there were only two bodybuilders left on stage, both named Lee, promoter/emcee Wayne DeMilia dragged the announcement of the last name long enough to create a murmur in the crowd: “In second place is Lee…Labrada!” Lee Haney was a phenomenal bodybuilder, but he had the great good fortune to reign mostly during the 1980s, post-Arnold and pre-Yates, when he was the only big man truly in contention for the Sandow trophy each year. Lee Labrada did all he could, presenting a classical physique with better proportions and conditioning than the champ. But at 5’6″ and 175 pounds, he was five inches shorter and a whopping 81 pounds lighter than the king. He won all three Euro Tour contests he entered just after the Olympia, besting Taylor in each. From 1987-93, Lee Labrada was always in contention at the Mr. Olympia, never placing lower than fourth and finishing runner-up this year and the next (a contest which he narrowly lost to Haney but many thought he should’ve won), yet the judges never deemed him big enough for bodybuilding’s biggest prize.
Twenty-nine-year-old Lee Haney at 256 pounds was at his biggest but not his best. He lost cuts, especially in his lower body, which was smooth from behind. Still, his strengths were even stronger—back width, chest thickness, deltoid density, V-taper—allowing him to simply overpower challengers in pose after pose. Afterwards, Haney said:
“We always worry. The sixth time around, I think the judges were looking for some improvements. I came in roughly seven pounds heavier than last year, and I felt I did make some improvements as far as muscle size is concerned, but then this is a very tough contest, especially [against] smaller competitors like Lee Labrada. So there I was a mountain and these were molehills that was ripped to pieces. So it was a matter of choice.”
The choice was easy. The mountain won again, for the sixth time in a row, tying Arnold Schwarzenegger for most consecutive Olympia wins. For many, Haney’s reign had grown boring, but it continued two more years while, in a dingy dungeon in England, another mountain grew.
1989 MR. OLYMPIA RESULTS
September 8-9, 1989 / Sala Dei Congressi / Rimini, Italy
The overall prize money was $170,000 (up from $150,000 the year prior). Individual prizes were not announced, but Lee Haney received $55,000 the year before, so he likely received more this year.
1. Lee Haney — 23
2. Lee Labrada — 44
3. Vince Taylor — 50
4. Rich Gaspari — 95
5. Mohammed Benaziza — 101
6. Mike Christian — 105
7. Mike Quinn — 117
8. Brian Buchanan — 119
9. Samir Bannout — 127
10. Ron Love — 143
11. Bertil Fox — 165
12. Francis Benfatto — 179
13. Andreas Münzer — 196
14. Bob Paris — 201
15. Albert Beckles — 218
The following competitors did not place and are listed here alphabetically.
Armando Defant
Premchand Degra
Pavol Jablonický
Juan Marquez
Tom Terwilliger
Dean Tornabene
