Lee Haney & Dorian Yates

Their 1st Meeting & the Day the Shadow Retired

HANEY AND YATES FACE-TO-FACE

 It was November 1987 and I was promoting a Lee Haney seminar at my local gym in Redhill, Nottingham, England. Just a couple of weeks previously the Awesome One had won his fourth Olympia title, so everyone was anticipating he’d be in great shape. Which was why – little tinker that I am – I told the emcee when introducing Lee to say that the champ had come down with a virus and wanted to apologize for not being at his best. With the lights down low on came a figure in red trunks who weighed all of 120 pounds. It was an 18-year-old black kid who had just started training. I thought the audience would get the joke immediately, but they remained silent and stunned, like they’d just heard that chicken breast were now a banned substance. They retained their funeral mood until, 20 seconds later, the real Lee Haney came on from the other side of the stage.

 Anyway, like Donald Trump’s do in a wind tunnel we’re getting a bit ahead of ourselves here. Earlier in the evening Haney was backstage preparing for his guest spot and asked if anyone had any carbs, “To help me get a pump”. No one had so I went into the auditorium and asked a few of the local bodybuilders present if they had any carb produce. One stepped forward and said, “I have some apples – will they do?”

 I took him backstage to see Haney who said the apples would work fine. As the young man left the dressing room, I said, “Thanks Dorian.”

 Glancing up, Haney shouted after him, “Yeah, thanks a lot Dorian.”

 The incumbent Mr. Olympia was not to know that the next time he met Dorian it would be at the 1991 Mr. Olympia and it would be for all the apples.

THE SHADOW RECEDES

 It now the stuff of legend that on September 19, 1997, Dorian won his sixth Olympia crown three weeks after tearing his left triceps. With his triceps literally hanging by a thread from the tendon it was his ultimate blood and guts performance.

 A month after that contest he had the triceps operated on. Recovery was slow and in May 1998 he was still not able to train at 100 percent capacity, and so he announced he would not defend his title but was hopeful he would be back in 1999.

 However a month before the 1998 Mr. Olympia being staged in Madison Square Garden, New York, he took the decision that he would retire and would announce it to the New York crowd. At the start of the evening finals, dressed in a dark suit Dorian duly told the Madison Square throng that they would never see him compete again. The realization of what he was saying drew a collective gasp from the 5,000 attendees and he left the stage to deafening applause.

Moments after his speech Dorian, his wife Debbie and I found ourselves alone in a backstage recess with others keeping a respectful distance. It was a poignant moment. We sort of looked at each other, spoke of this being the first Olympia since 1990 that Team Dorian had not been in action, and recalled other incidents from the past. Debbie summed up our collective mood when she said, “Only us three were in it from the start [1985]. Only we know how much Dorian gave to win those Sandows.” I hugged her. Then I looked at Dorian. You should know that we Brits are a pretty stoic lot and in the previous 13 years of accompanying Dorian on his rollicking ride to bodybuilding immortality, our only congratulatory contact had been a handshake. I looked at a man who I respect above all others as a bodybuilder, at a force of nature whose drive was unsurpassed, at an athlete who truly had the heart of a lion, and said, “I’m proud of you mate. Thanks for your friendship.” Then we hugged. As of this coming July we’ve been friends for 30 years and supported each other through our individual ups and downs.

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