The beginning of an era.
If there’s one thing you can say for an Olympia champion it’s this: they all got to the top through a trial by fire. What does that mean exactly? Well, there isn’t one Olympia champion who hasn’t experience defeat on the posing stage. Whether is was because they needed to improve their physique or simply had horrible conditioning, all of them had suffered a setback in their careers.
But the thing that sets champions apart is not that they lose, not that they stumble, but that they pick themselves up and try again. The mark of the champion is how well they take those defeats and what they do to ensure that they taste victory the next time. It’s undoubtedly what led greats like Sergio Oliva, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Frank Zane, Franco Columbu, and Lee Haney to becoming the champions we know and respect today.
Dorian Yates is among one of the most well respected champions in the history of the sport. After losing to eight time Olympia champion Haney in the mid 80s to early 90s, it would seem that Yates would never have an opportunity to win the O, perhaps becoming one of the fabled “Men who deserved to win the Olympia”. But in 1992, Yates would take to the Olympia stage and prove the world wrong with one of the most impressive showings to date.
Yates has been known as the man who changed bodybuilding into the modern show that it is today. He was no doubt the first of the mass monsters that had both a mammoth size to his physique as well as remaining completely shredded. These days it’s what most pro bodybuilders aspire to if they wish to win the title of Mr. Olympia. But it was that 1992 physique that started off Yates’ title run and is still considered to be one of the most impressive physiques to be seen on a posing stage. In between the classic form of the Golden Era and the age of the Mass Monsters, Yates was well proportioned, heavily muscled, and extremely defined. Take a look at the form that won him the 1992 Olympia.
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