Mr. Olympia’s contest of 1969 has a lot of history attached to it which acts as a primary reason why the competition encompasses relevancy even after more than five decades of its origin. In addition to being fondly remembered for the birth of Modern Bodybuilding, Mr. Olympia 1969 is also recollected by fans around the world for being the only season when legendary bodybuilder Arnold Schwarzenegger had tasted defeat in the history of the coveted competition.
Schwarzenegger, who was all of 22 at the time, had participated in Mr. Olympia for the first time that year. Eager to leave a mark in his first year itself, even Schwarzenegger had to wait for another season of the competition to be crowned Mr. Olympia.
In fact, if truth be told, the final bout of 1969 Mr. Olympia was nothing more than a one-sided contest between the finalists. While Schwarzenegger’s defeat wasn’t much of a big deal back in the day, it increases one’s curiosity to know more about the only bodybuilder on this planet who defeated him whilst being in his prime.
Who was the last man to defeat Arnold Schwarzenegger in Mr Olympia?
Cuban-American bodybuilder Sergio Oliva was the one who defeated Schwarzenegger in Mr. Olympia 1969. Having already won the competition twice, Oliva had become the first bodybuilder to register a hat-trick of Mr. Olympia titles at that time.
Having said that, less did Oliva or anyone else would have thought about Schwarzenegger’s stunning comeback the next year. Nicknamed “The Austrian Oak”, Schwarzenegger not only defeated Oliva in 1970 but also defeated him for the second time in three years in 1972. Schwarzenegger’s hat-trick was followed by another hat-trick as he became the first bodybuilder to win six Mr. Olympia titles in a row between 1970-1975.
However, as far as 1969 is concerned, Schwarzenegger had himself admitted that he had stood no chance in outperforming Oliva in that particular season.
“It was as jarring as if I’d walked into a wall. He [Sergio Oliva] destroyed me. He was so huge, he was so fantastic, there was no way I could even think of beating him,” Schwarzenegger wrote in his first autobiography titled ‘Arnold: The Education of a Bodybuilder’.
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“I admitted my defeat and felt some of my pump go away. I tried. But I’d been so taken back by my first sight of Sergio Oliva that I think I settled for second place before we walked out on stage.”
