The Olympia stage is where dreamers become contenders, contenders evolve into champions, and champions transition to legends. The 60th edition of Joe Weider’s Olympia Fitness and Performance Weekend featured all the above and then some. Fans that watched the action live on pay-per-view or in attendance from the amazing Resorts World Theater were fortunate enough to see past champions be honored, present champions own the big stage, and future champions were inspired by all of the above. Many things stand out about the 2024 Olympia, but here are some of the biggest takeaways from Las Vegas.
There is nothing that could be written here about Chris Bumstead that hasn’t already been said by many others. The now six-time Classic Physique Olympia champion has been his division’s version of Michael Jordan, who also has six championships in his sport. Bumstead has transcended the sport and had become a part of mainstream culture.
Thousands of fans are willing to wait hours in lines to see him, college age kids and even older fans have mustaches because of him, and many people around the world see the man from Canada as the true number one ambassador of the sport. He announced that the 2024 Olympia was the end of his run on top of his division, but his impact will remain for decades to come.
The culmination of the weekend was Samson Dauda being crowned the 2024 Mr. Olympia as well as the 19th champion in the division’s history. 2022 winner Hadi Choopan placed second, and last year’s winner Derek Lunsford placed third.
Prior to 2020, no decade saw more than four champions be crowned. The 2020’s already has four, and we are only halfway through the decade. Lunsford and Choopan showed that they could certainly reclaim the title, but there are plenty of athletes looking to snag the Sandow for themselves, including Nick Walker, who was out of this contest, fourth-place finisher Martin Fitzwater, and Andrew Jacked, who rounded out the top five.
The fans that enjoy bodybuilding now will be able to tell their kids and grandkids that they saw the most competitive era in the sport’s history, and clearly that is not going to change anytime soon.
Fans who were in Las Vegas can confirm that bodybuilding is no longer a sport that resides in the shadows. It has become a part of mainstream culture. If you need proof of this, look no further than the World Fitness Expo stage, where NFL legends Shannon Sharpe and Shawne Merriman were watching the Classic Physique Olympia prejudging.
Stars from other strength sports were in Las Vegas as well, including four-time World’s Strongest Man Brian Shaw, powerlifting legend Ed Coan, and many more. Add in some of Sin City’s most notable local celebrities and influencers, and you get a weekend that has become a must-see event.
It is easy to associate the Olympia with bodybuilding thanks to a six-decade legacy of greatness, but those that were in the Las Vegas Convention Center can confirm that the Olympia is now about more than the sport, it has become a gathering of the entire fitness community.
The 2024 World Fitness Expo was so big that it needed two floors to hold all the action, including events like Grid League, Sumo Wrestling, Pickleball, powerlifting, strongman, the 2024 Olympia Model Search, and much, much more. It was impossible to leave Las Vegas without being inspired by what you saw at all the competitions and events.
Jake Wood has faced several challenges since becoming the owner of the Olympia, yet he has found ways to not only make the Olympia successful but memorable. The 2024 edition was the fifth under his leadership, and Wood’s team did an incredible job of paying tribute to the legends of the past, in the former of Mr. Olympia championship rings, providing a proper stage for the stars of the current era to showcase their greatness, and giving future generations incentive to be a part of the growing sport of bodybuilding.
All of that was capped when he came onto the stage in the final moments of the Mr. Olympia to announced that the new prize money for the Men’s Open winner was bumped up from $400,000 to $600,000, and the second-place finisher would get $250,000 as well. The recipients of those checks were Dauda and Choopan. It will be difficult to top the standard that the 60th Olympia set, but Wood, Olympia President Dan Solomon, and the rest of the team will very likely find a way.
The Olympia Press Conference is an annual tradition, but it has been knocked for not having enough entertainment value in the past. That is no longer the case. The Pavilion at Resorts World had over 1,500 fans jam packed to see what the stars had to say before the weekend began. There was no shortage of chatter and buzz about it, either. The athletes showed they had more than impressive physiques; they had powerful voices, and the fans were hanging onto every word.
There was a lot of drama around the latest edition of the Ms. Olympia. Champion Andrea Shaw had lost the 2024 Rising Phoenix to Angela Yeo, who was the 2023 Ms. Olympia runner-up. Several people in attendance thought Yeo was going to pull off another win in Las Vegas, but Shaw ultimately left the stage last as the five-time Ms. Olympia.
Shaw and Yeo were the two leading stars of a lineup that featured 15 awesome athletes, including bronze medalist Ashley Lynnette Jones, the great Helle Trevino, and others. The fans were watching every pose with bated breath, wanting to see who would move up the placings. It’s clear that Women’s Bodybuilding is seeing a new level of success, and fans still want more.
The 2024 edition of the Wheelchair Olympia had a very common conclusion. Harold Kelley won his sixth title in Las Vegas, and he got redemption following his 2023 loss to Karol Milewski.
This event was different than the others, though. That is because 12 men were in the lineup, a new record. Wheelchair Bodybuilding chairman Nick Scott has been working tirelessly to grow this division, and it has paid off. There are now pro qualifiers and OIympia qualifying shows all over the world, and “The Beast” has led the charge. Seeing so many champions on one stage was both inspiring and entertaining, and it will likely get bigger and better in the future.
The 2024 Olympia were the final competitive appearances of two bona-fide legends. Eight-time Figure Olympia champion Cydney Gillon was the most dominant competitor in her division’s history. Prior to her run, the record for most wins was three by Nicole Wilkins. Gillon nearly tripled that mark, and she joined Ronnie Coleman, Lee Haney, and Iris Kyle as the only competitors to win eight consecutive Olympia’s (Kyle has 10 overall and nine in a row). Whoever becomes the new champion will have a tall task filling her heels,
You can look at any of the 11 IFBB Professional League divisions and see two common themes. The athletes on that stage both deserve to be there and show that bodybuilding is an international sport unlike any other. The sport is also growing at a pace never before seen in its history, which means that there is much more success to come. The 60th edition of Joe Weider’s Olympia Fitness and Performance Weekend is now behind us, but 2025 is not that far away, and that means we can now turn our attention to what lies ahead for next year. No one knows what the next Olympia Weekend will look like, but we do know that athletes will be training for it, fans will be watching for it, and those at the top will try to push the bar one more time to achieve new heights.
The road to the 60th has ended. Here’s to the start of the 61st.
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