Dan Solomon shares his thoughts & predictions on the Mr. Olympia 2002 pre-judging.
Last night held day one of the Olympia 2020 weekend. While this held a wide variety of finals and results – it also held the Mr. Olympia 2020 pre-judging for the Men’s Open. With numerous changes and drop outs vastly changing the landscape of the division, fans were eager to see how the pre-judging would play out.
The pre-judging process is our first chance to really see the athletes physiques in full form. It’s also our first time seeing them side by side during the comparison and callout rounds. While many athletes dropped out – such as Roelly Winklaar, Flex Lewis, Cedric McMillan, and Nathan De Asha among others – we still had the return of Big Ramy and Phil Heath. How would this effect the Mr. Olympia 2020?
We now finally have an idea and everyone has their own opinions as to who looked better than expected and who looked worse. Generation Iron had an opportunity to quickly chat with Dan Solomon after the Mr. Olympia 2020 pre-judging.
Dan Solomon is the Chief Olympia Officer and is a large part of the reason the event was even able to still be held this year amidst various hurdles due to the virus. He has also been involved in the Olympia event for a very long time. That’s why we wanted to get his insight into what we saw on Friday night.
During the Mr. Olympia 2020 pre-judging, Dan Solomon was most impressed with Phil Heath, Brandon Curry, Big Ramy, and Hadi Choopan. Big Ramy, in particular, has come in incredible conditioning alongside his size. This is a relief to fans who saw him come out of shape in 2018 and not show up at all in 2019. Could this be his final form and elevation to Olympia champion status?
It’s a tough call and Dan Solomon doesn’t know who will be able to get ahead edge-wise amongst these four competitors. In his opinion, anything can happen. That’s how close these four competitors are against each other.
It’s rare for a Mr. Olympia competition to be this close among so many competitors. Normally it might be a fight between two individuals or a complete blow out. This year, despite so many changes in the lineup, we ultimately have a very competitive and exciting competition.
This will also come to a relief for fans who were somewhat disappointed by the competition last year. There was some loud criticism of the state of the physiques. This year, the competitors look more conditioned and perhaps even bigger in muscularity.
Fans feared that the virus would make the Mr. Olympia 2020 another asterisk for the prestige competition. It seems this year, despite all odds, we have a true full force Mr. Olympia battle on our hands.
As Dan Solomon said, anything can change between the Mr. Olympia 2020 pre-judging and tonight’s finals. With a whole day in between, competitors can improve or fade in an instant. It will certainly be an exciting finals tonight.
You can watch Dan Solomon’s comments about the Mr. Olympia 2020 pre-judging in our latest GI Exclusive above!
