Mr. Olympia 2020 - the super-powerful Mamdouh Elssbiay is the new king of professional bodybuilding!

This year's Joe Weider Olympia Fitness & Performance Weekend is now history, and quite possibly one of the most exciting moments in the history of the sport! The circumstances that preceded it, and that its organisers had to deal with, will hopefully never be repeated!

This year the whole world, and not only the sporting world, has been affected by the Covid-19 pandemic, which has completely changed the established order! As far as the IFBB Jim Manion Professional League is concerned, a number of competitions this season did not take place, many of them changed their dates or venues. This fact did not escape this bodybuilding festival, which had to be moved to December and, due to the fear of cancellation, had to be held in Florida instead of the usual and time-tested Las Vegas!

Many fans are then convinced that it is only because of the new owner of Joe Weider's Olympia Fitness & Performance Weekend, Jake Wood, that this year's event even took place!

It would have been much easier, certainly cheaper, and no doubt understandable if this entire event had been scrapped, and all efforts and efforts shifted towards the upcoming year. However, neither Jake Wood, the team around him, nor Olympia Weekend President Dan Solomon were willing to admit that, and even with five weeks to go before the event had to make the decision to move it from the traditional Las Vegas to Florida, they didn't hesitate one bit, and in a literally gallows deadline, managed what they normally have six months to do!

Those who would expect some virtue out of necessity could not, in view of the facts surrounding this year's Olympia Weekend, be even slightly reprimanded for their attitude. It would be perfectly understandable. However, the largest ever prize money, the largest ever podium, the presence of European athletes in spite of the pandemic politics of the USA, this is something that will surely put this year's Olympia Weekend in history in bold, indelible print!

But now let's turn our attention to the 56th Mr. Olympia. Because it too will surely go down in history! Although it was marked by a number of no-shows, with the likes of Roelly Winklaar, James "Flex" Lewis, Nathan DeAsha, Cedric McMillan, James Hollingshead and Rafael Brandao dropping off the start list for whatever reason, there was much more competition on the stage than there was at last year's event!

Sixteen heavyweights were on stage, including seven-time champion Phil Heath, who proclaimed he was going for his eighth title! However, Friday's semi-final bout already showed that Phil won't have it easy at all, and what's more, a new star may be born!

The aforementioned semi-final clearly indicated that the fifth place would be contested by the pair of Akim Williams and William Bonac, the fourth place would be occupied by the "Persian Wolf" Hadi Choopan, and the trio of Phil Heath, Mamdouh Elssbiay and Brandon Curry would fight for the top 3.

Seven-time Mr. Olympia titleholder Phil Heath, however, did not come into the semi-final bouts in a form worthy of a champion even after a two-year break from competition, and that did not change on the day of the final bouts! Lack of abdominal muscle control, the proverbial 3D look and muscle plasticity who knows where were the attributes that cost him his eighth straight title in 2018 against Shawn Rhoden. And unfortunately, history repeated itself!

Last year's champion Brandon Curry in particular benefited from this fact, as he was even sharper on stage at this year's event than he was last year. This made his strengths stand out, which are his perfect build and wasp waist. Brandon was looking forward to the fight with Phil, as he looks up to this bodybuilding icon, moreover, he wanted to prove that he is a real champion despite the opinions that he won the Mr. Olympia title only due to the weak competition at last year's edition.

But the wind was taken out of his sails, and completely, by the super-powerful Egyptian Mamdouh Elssibay, who was only on the stage by special invitation!
"Big Ramy", as his very apt nickname made him, was not only the most massive monster on stage, but he was clearly in the form of his life!
Even during the semi-final battles, his confident demeanour showed that he was quite aware of what he was really fighting for this year!

As for the final itself, Phil has visibly improved since his semi-final performance. While he did regain a little bit of the fullness and plasticity of his muscles back, it still wasn't enough for the Curry, Elssbiay pairing!

When the foursome of Phil Heath, Brandon Curry, Mamdouh Elssbiay and Hadi Choopan came together during the last final call-up, Phil dominated in only one single pose, and that was a double biceps from behind! That's just not good enough for the title!

Brandon dominated the double biceps from the front and thigh-belly poses. Even that wasn't enough to defend last year's title!

All the other poses were dominated by Mamdouh Elssbiay, who proved that even at 131.5 kilograms of live weight, you can do excellent form! This time it wasn't the unsightly box we've become used to with him, but thanks to excellent final preparation combined with extreme volumes, this was a fighter who steamrolled his opponents!

The competitors worked up a good sweat during the semi-finals and finals as head judge Steve Weinberger left them with nothing to lose, spinning them in one invocation after another! Most of the fighters thus spent a really considerable amount of time on the stage, which resulted, quite understandably, in fatigue and, in many cases, loss of control over their muscles while striking the various poses!
However, this did not apply, in the slightest, to "Big Ramy"! He, even with his super strength, had no problem at all with striking poses, and what's more, he was the first to enter many of them, and the last to leave them! This not only showed his confidence, but also gave the judges enough time to be convinced that he was worthy of the title of champion!

So it happened, and Mamdouh "Big Ramy" Elssbiay fulfilled a lifelong dream! At the end of the 56th edition of Mr. Olympia, he was named the 16th winner of the title for the best professional bodybuilder in the world!
Many are convinced that if "Big Ramy" continues to compete in this form, if not better, he will set a whole new standard for the Mr. Olympia champion! One that, given his proportions, may not be attainable for many of his opponents! He himself then stated that he would very much like the Sandow statue, the trophy for the best bodybuilder on the planet, to last a few years in his hands.

Just for the record, since 1997, when Dorian Yates won the Mr. Olympia title, he is the first Mr. Olympia titleholder not from the USA!

The second place went to the defending champion Brandon Curry. It was a bittersweet performance for him. Sweet because he was able to beat seven-time Mr. Olympia winner Phil Heath, which many considered impossible and kept telling him it was, and bitter because he couldn't defend last year's victory.
As he said himself, although it's a big loss for him, it's still only one loss out of many, and that certainly won't stop him. He now plans to take some time off to relax and spend time with his family. But then he'll get back to training with the goal of winning the championship back!

The seven-time Mr. Olympia Phil Heath, who was going for his eighth title, did not make it at all, and although the third place is certainly a big disappointment for him, he can be happy about it! There's not much left of what he was at the very beginning of his reign! The question now is whether he will ever aspire to return to the throne, or rather decide to leave the competition stage without any major damage to his reputation.

In a great fourth place was Hadi Choopan, who, if only the final performance was judged, would have come second! His semi-final didn't go so well in terms of form, but he came into the final several levels better! The fact that he had a pretty hairy time with his visa and arrived in the USA at the last minute must have had something to do with it. So he didn't have time to acclimatize sufficiently. If this had not been the case, and he had had enough time, surely this would have been the second sensation of the evening!

Hunter Labrada, the son of two-time Mr. Olympia silver medalist from 1989 and 1990 Lee Labrada, achieved an excellent result of 8th place in his second start among professionals. While he didn't offer the kind of form he did in his debut triumph at the 2020 Wings of Strength Tampa Pro, even so, he has nothing to be ashamed of, and has tremendous potential to challenge the best of the best in the future!

Dexter "The Blade" Jackson said goodbye to his incredibly successful career with a 9th place finish at Mr. Olympia 2020, the exact same as his debut at this event in 1999, and will always be remembered as a legend of the sport!
92 professional starts, 29 professional triumphs, 5 triumphs at the Arnold Classic, 21 starts at Mr. Olympia, one of which, in 2008, turned into the Mr. Olympia title, is something that hardly anyone will ever surpass!

Certainly a very good result in the form of the 11th place will take home from Florida to the Czech Republic the excellent Lukáš Osladil, who competed in this most prestigious competition in the world for the fifth time in a row!
In the context of last year's performance, when Lukáš finished in a great 8th place, it may seem disappointing, but it is not! This year there was a very strong competition of much more powerful fighters than Lukáš, but this time our fighter showed that the final preparedness is his domain, as he was clearly one of the best prepared fighters of the whole starting field! For this Lukáš was rewarded with the second best result in his Mr. Olympia starts.

Results:

1. Mamdouh Elssbiay - qualified for Mr. Olympia 2021
2. Brandon Curry - qualified for Mr. Olympia 2021
3. Phil Heath - qualified for Mr. Olympia 2021
4. Hadi Choopan - qualified for Mr. Olympia 2021
5. William Bonac - qualified for Mr. Olympia 2021
6. Akim Williams
7. lain Valliere
8. Hunter Labrada

9. Dexter Jackson
10. Luis Rodriguez
11. Lukas Osladil
12. Seung Chul Lee
13. Max Charles
14. Antoine Vaillant
15. Regan Grimes
16. Juan Morel

1. Mamdouh Elssbiay

2. Brandon Curry

3. Phil Heath

4. Hadi Choopan

5. William Bonac

8. Hunter Labrada

9. Dexter Jackson

11. Lukas Osladil

Other competitors

More photos from the semifinal fights can be found HERE, on Npcnewsonline.com.

Source:
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