The history of Mr. Olympia is incomplete without the inclusion of legends like Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sergio Oliva, Frank Zane, and so on. Schwarzenegger often recalled the rivalry he shared with Oliva and recently spoke about it in his newsletter.
In 1969, he faced one of his most prominent onstage rivals, in the form of Oliva, at the Mr. Olympia championship. After tasting defeat from Zane at the Mr. Universe in 1968, he was slowly learning and working his way up the ladder. When the time came, he knew that he had to one-up the Cuban at some point in his career.
As a part of a Q&A session in his newsletter, a fan asked him if he had other sources of motivation to train harder apart from Rocky star Sylvester Stallone. To this, he denied, stating that his drive to stay on top of the box office at least, came from Stallone alone.
However, when it came to bodybuilding, no one could replace Oliva as a source of motivation for him to present his best on stage. After he lost to the Cuban in 1969, Schwarzenegger didn’t give up on his dreams. Admitting his outlook on the situation, he told the fan:
“…in bodybuilding, it was Sergio Oliva. I only need one villain in my mind to push me.”
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From 1970-1975, Schwarzenegger went on to dominate the Olympia stage before retiring to focus on Hollywood and returning for one last title. Yet, he did not downplay his rivals throughout his career and always made sure to prepare enough to have the upper hand. Even in Hollywood, where he and Stallone ruled the era with their action-packed movies, he confessed:
“Stallone was really it for me. He was King Kong. I didn’t worry about anyone else.”
Eventually, he retired and became best friends with many of his competitors across different fields. But his relationship with Oliva had always been unique. He often talked about how the 1969 Olympia had changed his perception of winning and succeeding, all because of an “extraordinary Cuban”.
Arnold Schwarzenegger once admitted to analyzing his mistakes after his loss against “The Myth”
For 22-year-old Schwarzenegger, getting to contest beside the reigning champion, let alone come close to beating him in his first-ever Olympia competition, was significant. While the loss would’ve upset other bodybuilders, he decided to take time to do his homework and find out how he could match up to Oliva’s prowess.
Conditioned to the finest details and having always flaunted well-defined muscles, Oliva was always seen as the perfect picture of a Mr. Olympia title-holder. It wasn’t until Schwarzenegger came in 1969 that even the audience was charmed by the young star’s charismatic presence. But to him, it was a year of lessons and learning, and he admitted that in a conversation on the ‘Pardon My Take’ podcast.
Instead of accepting loss and beating himself up for it, he knew that a real champion would see their mistakes and failures and learn from the hurdles to become better. That’s how Schwarzenegger sees life even today as a constant source of failures and lessons learned.
