Derek Lunsford has done it and is now the king of Mr. Olympia 2023! Detailed results and report

The NFL has the Super Bowl, cycling the Tour de France and tennis Wimbledon. The ultimate event for all bodybuilding and fitness fans, however, is undoubtedly the Mr. Olympia competition, where the best bodybuilders on the planet compete every year. Just like previous years, we could look forward to a really great spectacle this year, which culminated in a competition that the whole bodybuilding world was waiting for without exaggeration. After yesterday's victory of Keone Pearson in the category up to 212 pounds, today, November 4, the professionals from the open category came on the scene. And how did it turn out? That's what we'll look at in this report.

What did it look like before the race?

Due to the rule changes for this season, it wasn't that easy to qualify for Olympia in the first place. The points ranking was completely abolished and only the winners of pre-defined races could qualify for this prestigious event. There were twenty-four athletes who finally fulfilled these conditions, but just like in the category up to 212 pounds, there were no competitors who could not make it. Among them, for example, was Egyptian giant Mamdouh Elssbiay, known as Big Ramy. Although he won the Olympia in 2020 and 2021, he showed poor form at last year's event and, after his subsequent failure at the Arnold Classic, had already announced in advance that he would not be attending this year's Olympia.

In addition, Ian Valliere, who retired at the age of 32, was also absent from the qualified competitors, as we informed you in one of our previous articles. Nick Walker was badly injured for a change and Nathan de Asha was unable to stay due to administrative problems in the United States. Thus, out of the originally qualified twenty-four athletes, only 17 of them actually took to the podium, but that certainly doesn't mean that there was nothing to watch.

Course of the race

Just like the category up to 212 pounds, the heavyweight competition started with prejudging, which we briefly informed you about in a separate report. For completeness, however, it's worth going through that phase again as part of this more comprehensive report. Already from the initial presentations of the competitors it was evident that even by the standards of the very good and well prepared competitors, the trio of Derek Lunsford, Samson Dauda and Hadi Choopan, who defends last year's title, stands out with its proportions.

No one could therefore be surprised that it was these three athletes who were given the most prestigious first call, standing in the middle of the line as the right candidates for victory. They were joined on the fringes by Andrew Chinedu, Hunter Labrada and Brandon Curry, who refuted situations about serious health complications and, after the approval of doctors and organizers, joined the race in very good shape. Derek, Samson and Snakes were constantly rotated during the call-ups and it must be noted that nothing was decided as each competitor was dominant in some ways and slightly behind in others.

In the second callout it was the turn of Slovak talent Michal Križánek, who posed in the middle of his callout. According to the preliminary speculations, this would have placed him somewhere in 7th place, but during the race he also got the opportunity to compare his strength with the competitors from the first callout. It is therefore safe to assume that Križo, who has shown absolutely fantastic form this year, will be in a tussle with Hunter Labrada for sixth place.

The last callout, which is of course the most watched except for the first one, was then closed by the old familiar trio of Derek Lunsford, Samson Dauda and Hadi Choopan, so the judges really had a number of opportunities to examine how the competitors look next to each other in the different poses. However, that was the end of the prejudging and we have to fast forward in time a few hours to see how the judges actually break this tie.

In the finals, the competitors were then given the opportunity to fight for the same number of points that were given out in the prejudging, but nothing major happened during the relatively short time period and the balance of power within the starting field was identical to the prejudging. Before the announcement of the winners, the competitors had the opportunity to show off their skills in free routines, which are of course very attractive for the spectators. There, Derek Lunsford earned huge support from the crowd, who deservedly took at least the fans' winner award for his preparedness at this point.

Then when it came to announcing the winners, nothing was clear of course. Tenth place was eventually taken by Charles Griffen, with Regan Grimes ninth and Tonio Burton eighth. The seventh place went to the Slovakian giant Križo, who improved his last year's position by 5 positions and if he continues this progress, he may well make his debut in the first call-up next year.

The sixth place went to the aforementioned Hunter Labrada, who the judges ended up favouring over Michal, the fifth place went to Andrew Chinedu and the fourth place went to Brandon Curry, who can consider this a fantastic result considering the fact that a few hours earlier he was in a hospital environment instead of being dedicated to supercompensation and so it was not at all clear whether he would be able to join the competition.

Then things started to get tough. Third place, somewhat as expected, went to Samson Dauda. It must be said, however, that this competitor has improved his result by 4 positions since last year and, perhaps more importantly, his physique looks much better. If he can maintain the same progress, he could very well be the next Olympia winner. Especially since his third place has already secured him qualification for the Olympia and he can indulge in enough off-season preparation.

When the judges subsequently announced Hadi Choopan in second place, it was pretty clear that the Sandow statue that is integral to winning the Olympia would have a new owner. For Hadi, the result may be a slight disappointment, even considering he showed the same first-class form as last year. This time, however, his age-old rival from the under-212lb category showed up and was so ready that it unfortunately wasn't enough.

First place went to Derek Lunsford, who became the first bodybuilder to win the under 212lb division and subsequently the open championship. And we have to say that it was completely deserved, as he showed some really incredible form on stage, which was a joy to watch.

You can see the final results once again in this table:

Top 10

And we have no choice but to say goodbye and congratulations to both Derek and the other competitors, including the famous Michal Krizanek, from whom we definitely have something to look forward to in the coming months and years, because he is a huge talent of Slovak bodybuilding.

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