The 2018 Olympia has gotten pretty interesting.

For years now the fans have made their voices heard. Time and again they’ve disagreed with the judges calls as to who the rightful winner of the Olympia should be. Last year, an overwhelming majority of fans believed that Mamdouh “Big Ramy” Elssbiay deserved the win over reigning champion Phil Heath. Despite that fact, Heath still secured victory and won his seventh straight Olympia.

But it seems all that is about to change.

Now it appears that the possibility of crowning two champions per competition is becoming a possibility. That’s right, fans will be able to vote on who they believe deserves the win at the Olympia. If the fan vote differs from that of the judges then the bodybuilder chosen by the fans will be named the People’s Olympia Champion.

This is a major shift in doing things, but ultimately what effect will it have on proceedings? The problem with this new voting system is that while an Olympia Peopple’s Champion may be a nice consolation, ultimately it’s just an empty title with no real weight. It could eventually lead to officials perhaps changing their perspective on how they judge competitions, but until then it’s just something to keep the fans pacified. Still, it’s a pretty interesting development that adds a bit more intrigue to events and adds another layer to be considered. For now, we’ll just have to see how it pans out this September at the 2018 Olympia.

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