arnold /1980 olympia

**vector** · 06-22-2002, 03:12 AM

I know this question was asked a thousand times but who should have won the 80 olympia in your opinion?

I have never seen the video and there are serious knowledgeable guys here, that's why I ask.

**testprop** · 06-22-2002, 04:38 AM

arnold

**berry** · 06-22-2002, 05:41 AM

anyone got any pics of that event?

**Kärnfysikern** · 06-22-2002, 07:02 AM

Arnold.
Atleast in Total Rebuild it looks like Arnold deserved the victory no doubt about it.
To bad thou that Arnold's complete posing routine was focused on like 3-4 poses. I would like to se more back poses and atleast one Leg pose.

**The French Curler** · 06-24-2002, 04:57 PM

Arnold of course.

**cube** · 06-25-2002, 11:29 AM

i saw a video about 5 years ago (like a 5minute excerpt of the olympia taken from an australian tv news item on the olympia), so if my memory still holds, i'd say dickerson or maybe mentzer. to be honest, any of the top 5 could have taken it, it was pretty close - but no way arnold was the top guy there. i know the actual video is difficult to get hold of (but easier and cheaper than pumping iron) , but if you look in arnolds encyclopedia, there are actually a couple of pictures from the 80 olympia. in those pics arnold is not cut at all, his legs look real weak and lack definition. the other strange thing is that all the other pro's did magazine covers in 1980 - apart from arnold. not sure if that was cos he didn't announce he was going to compete, or if he was trying to avoid people making comparisons. i could be (very) wrong about that, but i don't remember seeing arnold on any covers that year.

cube.

**goldenFloyd** · 06-30-2002, 01:05 AM

good point. mentzer looked wayyyy ahead of his time as far as muscle definition and "hardness" in 1980. The pic in this month's ironman shows menzter next to arnold and although Arnold is god, menzter looked like he was in better condition.

**Mentzer's Ghost** · 06-30-2002, 06:41 AM

Q: I would like to turn back 20 years and ask you about the most controversial Mr. Olympia in history. I am talking, of course, about the 1980 Mr. Olympia that took place in Sydney. Everybody thought at that time that the winner would prevail after a strong battle between you and Frank Zane, as it had happened exactly 1 year before in the 1979 Mr. Olympia. Surprisingly, you finished 5th and Mr.Zane finished 3rd. What do you believe really happened that day?

Mike Mentzer: The 1980 Mr. Olympia was definitely fixed. The promoter of that contest was Paul Graham, a very, very close friend of Arnold's. As it turned out, while the rules stated that individuals had to officially enter their application to compete one month before the contest, the IFBB bent the rule and let Arnold enter the day before! He waited that long because by that point he knew who the judges were. CBS, who was there to film the event for future televising, was convinced it was fixed and discovered that a majority of the judges had either close personal or financial ties with Arnold. Well, so convinced - and pissed off - was CBS Sports that, despite the time, money and effort required to send a film crew half way around the world to Australia to film a sporting event, they refused to air that contest.