JUSUP WILKOSZ; Germany’s best ever bodybuilder?
JUSUP WILKOSZ
Germany’s best ever bodybuilder?
By Peter McGough
Germany has produced a battery of fine bodybuilders over the years, but in terms of the one gaining the highest placing in the sport’s premier event – the Mr. Olympia – that accolade falls to Jusup Wilkosz by virtue of his third spot at the 1984 Big O in New York. But in many ways he seems to be a forgotten star of the ‘80s. (A listing of highest Olympia placings achieved by other top German bodybuilders is shown at the end of this feature.)
Jusup Wilkosz was born on November 8, 1948, in Heilbronn, Germany. At 6 feet and 240 pounds he was an imposing sight and soon earned the nickname The German Hercules, not only because of his dimensions but also due to his face being the only area he wasn’t cut. He was a national weightlifting champion before he turned from clean and jerk to abs and thighs. He made rapid progress and won the German and World heavyweight titles in 1979. The following year he won his pro debut at the World Pro Championships in preparation of which he trained with Arnold Schwarzenegger at World, Venice. In 1981 he finished 6th in his first Olympia and compiled a record competing at 17 pro contests (only twice being out of the top six) before calling it a day after a 12th place adjudication at the 1986 Olympia. He was 38.
I interviewed Jusup several times during the ‘80s. He was a very well educated man with many cultural interests outside of bodybuilding, but exercised a subtle sense of humor. He also told me he suffered with bouts of severe depression. He was always with his charming wife Ruth, who was the bubbly one of the pair, while Jusup was more subdued. Jusup was devoted to Rachel.When Rachel died from cancer in 1989 he sort of fell to pieces, lost his gym, and ended up on the street. I last saw him in 1994 when he came to the Weider offices during his prep for that year’s Masters Olympia. He clearly wasn’t well, and didn’t recall our previous meetings. He also wasn’t in shape for a contest and finally pulled out of the Masters. But thankfully after those series of traumas he slowly found his way back to normalcy and in recent years has been doing well.
WASSUP JUSUP?
To give you an idea of what sort of man he was, here’s some random thoughts Jusup Wilkosz spoke into my tape recorder back in the ‘80s.
On Being An Individual: “Each bodybuilder must cultivate his own persona and style. Tom Platz presents himself as the California beach boy but he was born in Oklahoma, which has no beach, but that persona works for him. John Brown does break dancing and all sorts of crazy moves in his routine. Some say it is not bodybuilding but I like what John Brown does – it suits him. I could not do what John Brown does: I would be laughed off the stage. You have to cultivate your own physique, style and personality. For the audience to identify with you, you have to be different from the rest. I grow this beard because with my weightlifting background and the rugged type of physique I have I’m building on the Hercules persona. You cannot be something you’re not. Sergio Olivia cannot become a Frank Zane and Frank cannot become a Sergio.”
On Weightlifting To Bodybuilding: “Why did I turn from the first-past-the-post logic of weightlifting where if you lift more weight than the other guy you are clearly the winner to the subjectivity of bodybuilding? In Olympic lifting emotion is minimal as you compete – the crowd are not shouting and screaming. You concentration approaching the bar is total. In weightlifting the fascination to the crowd is the bar you are about to lift. In bodybuilding the fascination is your own body and hoe with your mind you can change it. That’s why bodybuilding fascinates me.”
On Tom Platz: “When Tom Platz comes onstage the crowd goes crazy at his legs. Me? I’d give ten years of my life for legs like that.”
On Sex: “I have never been an athlete who lives an abnormal life in the weeks before a contest: i.e. Sexual abstinence. Sport should be first and foremost a pleasure and not something that dominates you and makes you a prisoner. Sports is part of life, not life itself. Such a life, 100 per cent devoted to sport would terrify me – and Ruth too. So don’t go overboard in pursuit of sporting glory at the expense of living a life. At least that’s my opinion. And I’ve always thought a lot of my opinions – which again is my opinion.”
GERMANY’S BEST OLYMPIANS
Jusup Wilkosz: 1984, 3rd.
Peter Hensel: 1986, 6th.
Frank Hillebrand: 1990, 7th.
Andreas Munzer: 1990, ’93 & ’94: 9th
Achim Albrecht: 1991, 9th.
Roland Cziurlok: 1996, 12th
Markus Ruhl: 2004, 5th
Gunter Schlierkamp: 2004, 4th
Ronny Rockel: 2010, 6th
Dennis Wolf: 2008, 4th
(Nasser El Sonbaty and Dennis James were born and brought up in Germany but chose to represent Yugoslavia and USA respectively.)