How the 2001 Mr. Olympia was Fixed! | Muscular Development
How the 2001 Olympia was Fixed!
Now It Can Be Told
Prologue: Even though this story may shock you, please read until the end.
It was shortly after 2.25pm on Saturday October 27, 2001, at the Events Center of Las Vegas' Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino. As NPC Chairman and head of the IFBB judges committee Manion couldn't believe his eyes. There, for all to see was the reality that Jay Cutler had won both the muscularity and symmetry rounds and therefore led defending champ, Ronnie Coleman by two rounds to nil.
With score sheets in hand Manion rushed from the auditorium in search of Wayne DeMilia, IFBB Pro Division Chairman and promoter of the IFBB Mr. Olympia contest. Locating DeMilia, Manion almost dragged his quarry to a quiet backstage area and informed him of the state of judging play. DeMilia went pale, instantly realizing, as Manion had done earlier, that this was not meant to be. This was Joe Weider's Mr. Olympia contest and a Weider contracted athlete was supposed to win. That meant Coleman: Cutler had ceased to be a Weider athlete shortly after the 2000 Mr. Olympia. DeMilia and Manion both knew that something horrendous had gone wrong, that once Joe Weider learned his man was second he would be go ballistic and there would be hell to pay. The duo promptly left for the hotel suite that acted as IFBB base of Olympia operations.
As they walked through the door of the suite the phone rang, and DeMilia picked it up to hear the well-known twang of Joe Weider. He had already heard that Coleman was marooned in second place and he demanded that the circumstances be changed in order for his man to win. DeMilia demurred, and later that evening the judging panel gave the posing and posedown rounds to Coleman, thus ensuring he and not Cutler was crowned Mr. Olympia, 2001.
Oh, and Ronnie Coleman and Gary Coleman are twins separated at birth.
For the record the last sentence is as credible as the contents of the first three paragraphs.
MEANWHILE BACK ON PLANET EARTH
Believe it or not, the fictionalized version of what went on at the judging of the 2001 Mr. Olympia contest has been spun in certain quarters over the years by some presenting themselves as insiders. Here are the facts:
1. During his lifetime Joe Weider played no part in deciding who is adjudged Mr. Olympia, the contest he created. At the time of the 2001 prejudging he was in fact at one of his residences in Las Vegas and was not even aware that Coleman's crown had been in jeopardy until after the event.
2. If the reality was that a Weider man had to win the Olympia the why would the judges have given Cutler the first two rounds, thereby creating grounds for a controversy?
3. The truth is Coleman was off at the prejudging but was sharper at the evening show, and his posing was much more outgoing and aggressive than Cutler's, therefore the defending champ winning the posing and posedown rounds is entirely believable. For the record I saw Cutler as the winner of the contest. (Of course the posing round is not judged these days, but even so Coleman would have still won in the evening under current judging criteria. With the present day format of one score given in the prejudging and a confirmation score given at the evening finals, Cutler would have scored six points to Coleman’s nine in the prejudging. Then in the evening, Coleman would have scored a five to give him a total of 14 with Cutler scoring 10 to give him a total of 16. The guy with lowest points haul wins.
4. When Ronnie Coleman first won the Mr. Olympia in 1998 he was not a Weider athlete, and had not been considered as a candidate for one until he won the O.
5. History shows there is no Weider bias in the judging of an Olympia. Shortly before the 1991 Mr. Olympia reigning champ Lee Haney signed a mega-bucks contract with Twinlabs. The “word" was Joe Weider would not “allow” him to win the O, especially as he would then eclipse the seven Olympia wins record of Joe’s almost adopted son, Arnold Schwarzenegger.
6. Another Weider athlete, Dorian Yates, entered his first Olympia that year and he pushed Haney all the way. If Weider bias ruled at the Olympia, Yates would have been adjudged the 1991 Mr. Olympia.
HOW TO FIX AN OLYMPIA
Judging outcomes are often the seat of raging controversy with allegations of fixing regularly being raised. Asked for his thoughts on that topic IFBB Pro League Chairman Jim Manion tackles it head on.
“Let’s take the Mr. Olympia contest. You have 11 judges scoring with the three highest and three lowest scores being discarded. Let’s suspend reality for a minute and realize that to rig the contest in favor of Competitor A over Competitor B, you have to have at least six judges in on the fix. Those six judges then have to collude to vote for Competitor A while the other five judges have Competitor B (the best guy) as the rightful winner. The outcome is of the five scores remaining (after the top three and lowest three are discarded) you have three first places for Competitor A to make him the winner over Competitor B who is left with two first-place votes. Even if five judges were in on the fix it wouldn’t be enough -- you have to have a minimum of six -- plus the head judge and other senior officials would have to be in on it. Are you kidding me? You’d never get six IFBB judges to go along with such a thing – they’d be hollering blue murder. And another thing is, fantasyland again, if these fixes had been part for the sport for years wouldn’t somebody have come forward eventually to blow the whistle? A lot of officials have left the sport over the years, some have grudges and personal agendas, so don’t you think one of them – if a fix had taken place – would’ve come forward by now to expose such a fix.”
WAITING FOR THE WHISTLE
As mentioned earlier major machinations have to be in force to fix a contest. One salient point is that if contests had been fixed over the years wouldn’t human nature decree that some official from the past – bearing a sour grapes grudge or wishing to clear their conscience – would by now have blown the whistle about any such shenanigans. Personally I have to say that in 30 years of mixing in bodybuilding’s inner circles and being privy to more bitching than experienced on the complete series of Jersey Shore (oh, the things I’ve heard and seen) no judge or ex-judge has ever even hinted to me that a contest has been fixed. Of course I’ve witnessed many contests in which I didn’t agree with the results, but that’s the subjective nature of our sport. Still chat rooms bristle with talk of fixed contests with only opinions and not facts offered. As famed historian William Manchett said, “Believers in conspiracy are not discouraged by the lack of evidence.”