Ronnie Coleman had always maintained his title of being the king of bodybuilding. After all, he is the only other man apart from Lee Haney who can call himself an 8x Mr. Olympia – a record in itself. But all GOATs start from somewhere, and Coleman’s beginnings were humble too.
After entering bodybuilding while working on his day job as a police officer, the bodybuilding legend toured nations, flaunting his physique and locking horns with fellows for the title. However, it wasn’t until one particular show that changed the trajectory of his career and the way other bodybuilders saw him.
Elite bodybuilders Milos Sarcev, Chris Cormier, Dennis James, and Paul Dillett sat down to reminisce about the good old days and Coleman’s transformation on The Menace Podcast. They recalled how the Russian Grand Prix in 1997 came to be a huge turning point in bodybuilding history.
“Ronnie’s on the tour eating his rotten chicken…was so quiet…we were the boys back then. I’d be like ‘man come sit with us…'”
Giving way to the perfect underdog story, Coleman went from quiet and broody to jaw-droppingly shredded. Cormier, Dillett, and Sarcev recalled their utter shock when they saw the legend quickly scale up on the ranks when no one expected him to.
“That body I do remember like ‘hold on a second I’m supposed to be competitive’. Like we were close in ’96 you know…because I was like ‘this guy, the left side of him smokes me'”
Going from a rookie on the roster in 1996 to a suddenly jacked monster the next year, Coleman quickly made his name well-known among the masses. The rest is history – he won his first Mr. Olympia title in 1998 and held the throne till Jay Cutler took over in 2006.
His passion for the sport is what made him one of the most poignant personalities in the bodybuilding world. Although he went on to suffer multiple health issues, there’s no denying that Coleman’s spirit alone took down many of his competitors. But did the legend consider anyone who came close?
Ronnie Coleman revealed his toughest competitor
Throughout his career, Coleman saw many bodybuilding icons who came close to going head-to-head against him. However, none of them could match up to his level of conditioning with his monstrous size. His reign ended eight years later, with Cutler taking over. So did he consider any of his fellows as one of the toughest to compete with?
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Turns out, Coleman never believed in comparing himself with others. The idea was to take his physique a notch higher than what he built the previous year. This, he believed, made him his own toughest competitor. And it’s because of a champion mindset like this that Ronnie Coleman won the hearts of everyone.
