How I Won the First Arnold Classic

'The Dragon Slayer' Remembers ASC Victory

With the annual Arnold Schwarzenegger Classic just around the corner, I was asked to talk about how I came to be the first Arnold Classic Champion back in 1989.

Arnold and Jim Lorimer had been promoting pro bodybuilding shows in Columbus for years, including a Mr. Olympia plus an event of their own called the Pro World Championships. I had won that contest in 1986. In September of 1988, I had taken second at the Mr. Olympia for the third year in a row, and then proceeded immediately afterward to a whirlwind series of seven grand prix events in Europe. I won four of the seven, and Lee Labrada won the other three. I was taking a break after that in October when Arnold himself called me. He told me he was putting on a prestigious new event that would be invitation-only, and that I was the very first athlete he was inviting to compete in it. Furthermore, the cash prize for first place would be $55,000, which was more than double what the winner of Mr. Olympia received at the time. Arnold felt I had an excellent chance of winning, but the real incentive for me was the chance to become part of bodybuilding history by becoming the very first Arnold Schwarzenegger Classic Champion. To me, that was on par with being the first Mr. Olympia, like Larry Scott had been. I was in!

It was clear pretty soon that Arnold was very serious about making his show something very special. He arranged for myself and Mike Christian to appear as guests on “The Tonight Show” with Jay Leno, where we posed off to the cheers of the studio audience. Mike had been invited and was also one of the top-ranked pros of the time, but he wound up not doing the show.

I had been competing in both the spring and the fall for several seasons already as a pro, so I treated my contest prep for the first Arnold Classic the same way I always did. After allowing myself to fully recover mentally and physically from the eight contests I had done in September, in November I started hitting it hard again in the gym. Since I had stayed in good shape, it was really a matter of increasing my training intensity. Still, being in full diet mode over the holidays wasn’t a lot of fun! By then I knew that Robby Robinson, Gary Strydom, Samir Bannout and Bob Paris were also going to be in the show. There had been rumors that Lee Haney was contemplating the Arnold for the big payday, but he didn’t do it. Lee Labrada’s name was also being thrown around, but ultimately Lee wasn’t on stage in Columbus either. I knew a lot of people didn’t think I would be able to be at my best so soon after doing so many shows and being in peak condition, but I was determined to prove to them and more importantly, to myself, that I could win this thing.

The only real hitch I had getting ready for the Arnold Classic was at eight weeks out, when I thought I had the flu; but it turned out to be a nasty stomach virus. That put me out of commission for a week right in the middle of my prep. I couldn’t train and I could hardly eat, and I lost about 6-7 pounds. That forced me to have to “eat into the show” in an attempt to regain what I’d lost. In the end I was about 205 and sliced to ribbons at the Arnold, compared to the 209-212 I had been at the ‘88 Olympia and grand prix shows.

The only guy who was really on my radar as far as being a potential threat was Robby “The Black Prince” Robinson. Robby was unpredictable. Sometimes he would show up not at his best and he’d be somewhere around seventh or eighth place. Other times he would come in ripped, with those peaked biceps and vacuum waist, and he’d be deadly. Just in 1988 for example, he had won the Niagara Falls show, but later in the season he was 17^th place out of 20 at the Mr. Olympia. Robby came to Columbus ready to win, and he did give me a great fight. I was able to beat him thanks to my superior leg development and overall presentation.

For first prize, Arnold presented me with a check for $55,000, which at that time was the single largest cash award ever given at a bodybuilding competition. In addition to the money, winning the first Arnold Classic got me lot more publicity in the magazines. I also became highly in demand for guest posing and appearances, especially in Europe. For a couple of years there, it seemed like I spent almost as much time there as I did here in the USA.

It’s also been exciting watching the event grow over the years. When the Arnold started out, it was just the men’s pro show and the women’s Ms. International. Everything was at the Veterans Memorial Auditorium. There was no expo, just a few vendor booths in the lobby. Since then it’s grown into The Arnold Sports Festival, with dozens of different sports, tens of thousands of athletes, and 200,000 people flocking to Columbus the first weekend of every March. The expo takes up the entire Greater Columbus Convention Center, with well over 400 booths. Having athletes from so many other sports in attendance is perfect for Gaspari Nutrition, because it lets us make them aware of our excellent products that can help them perform better in their chosen sport.

Speaking of Gaspari Nutrition, our first booth was in 2000, and that’s all it was— a 10 foot by 10 foot space with a table. The company grew just as I had as a bodybuilder, and every year we increased the booth spaces to two, four, six, eight and so on. I always took advantage of the opportunity the exposure the Arnold Expo provided to launch new products and make the industry aware of them. Some of the products we introduced first at the Arnold included SizeOn, Halodrol, Cytolean V2 and MyoFusion. The “booth” has grown into something so large that it’s basically its own section of the expo. It contains a fully stocked retail store. One thing I’ve always done is to offer the new products at a huge discount at the Arnold, so as many people as possible could have a chance to try it out.

In the last couple years, we’ve also run a live broadcast on Facebook from our booth, with interviews of industry notables and celebrities all weekend long. This lets fans all over the world who weren’t able to make it to Columbus experience the expo as if they were there.

I’m also proud that Gaspari Nutrition has also become a presenting sponsor of the contest, and we now sponsor the Arnold Amateur event. This features the best amateurs from all over the world, with the winner being awarded IFBB pro status. Having watched a few of these now, I can tell you that the best athletes from the Arnold Amateur are just as good if not better than the top bodybuilders in the NPC USA and Nationals.

It’s hard to believe it’s been nearly 30 years since I won the first Arnold Classic. The event has come a long way and grown tremendously since then, just like I have with my company. I’m excited to still be a part of it, and I’m looking forward as always to that awesome weekend in Columbus!

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