July 20, 2006

Gunter Schlierkamp Wins the Crowd at the 2002 Olympia

In 2001, Jay Cutler stepped onstage and stood beside the reigning Mr. Olympia, Ronnie Coleman – the audience gasped, and then went wild. To make a long story short, Jay looked better than Ronnie, and, as the day wore on, he beat Ronnie so thoroughly that Ronnie was beginning to look punch-drunk. I know, because I was sitting in the fourth row from the front. By the end of prejudging, Coleman, who had won the show four consecutive times, clearly looked as if he wouldn’t win it for a fifth time. During the final set of poses, Coleman appeared deeply concerned, as the crowd was chanting, "Jay, Jay, Jay…." For Coleman, it looked like his reign was over.

In the end Coleman won, despite the fact that Cutler was ahead after the prejudging. How did he win? I really have no idea, but remember, this is a subjectively judged sport. Some said that Ronnie looked better at the night show, and two rounds are judged then, but I saw otherwise. I believe – firmly believe – that the judges didn’t want to take the crown away from Coleman that day. They simply gave him a gift in the form of a fifth straight title with the hope that he would return in better shape in 2002.

In 2002, then, everyone was waiting for the Coleman-Cutler showdown, but Cutler announced quite early in the year that he wouldn’t be competing at the Olympia – he decided to compete in just the Arnold Classic instead. As a result, there was no showdown, and the 2002 Olympia was gearing up to be a giant nothing. In fact, I almost stayed home.

However, when October came, I still went on my annual trek to the Olympia. Kevin Levrone tried earnestly to demolish Coleman the way Cutler had the previous year, but Coleman had improved over his dismal 2001 showing and Levrone simply wasn’t better. Ronnie won the competition quite easily, but I don’t even remember who got third or fourth place.

But I do remember who was in fifth place – it was a German giant called Gunter Schlierkamp, probably the biggest competitor onstage simply by being the tallest and heaviest. Amidst this giant nothing of an event, this German giant, who sounds a lot like Arnold Schwarzenegger when he talks, ended up being the real highlight of the competition – he received a standing ovation so long and so loud for getting fifth place that it caused veteran journalist Garry Bartlett to lean over to me and say, "I haven’t seen anything like this in all the years I’ve covered bodybuilding shows." In fact, that ovation didn’t end until Gunter walked over to the microphone and spoke to the audience, explaining to them how their response was better than actually winning. It was only then that the applause died down. In 2002, Gunter went from being just another competitor to being a bodybuilding superstar.

So what had happened? What was it that made this German giant so popular at this show? And how did it all happen when he got only fifth place? I know of a couple of things which I’ll explain.

Before this show, Gunter wasn’t a serious threat to anyone. For example, in 2001, the year Cutler was kicking Coleman’s butt all over the stage, Gunter got fifteenth place. It was pathetic – competitors like Craig Titus, Markus Ruhl and Nasser El Sonbaty were all beating Gunter. In 2001, Gunter was going nowhere; in 2002, something had changed.

One of the things that changed was Schlierkamp’s physique. Although Gunter’s blessed with great size, he doesn’t possess great shape – his shoulders are a little too rounded, his waist is too wide, and his physique lacks "sweep." But regardless of those flaws, he was better in 2002 than he’d ever been – quite a bit better, and the crowd obviously liked what Gunter brought to the Olympia that year. Gunter, though, brought more.

What the new-and-improved Gunter still lacks in terms of his physique, he makes up for in charm and charisma. This isn’t unlike Arnold Schwarzenegger, the legendary bodybuilder-turned-actor-turned-governor whom many consider the greatest bodybuilder who ever lived, despite the fact that other competitors like Sergio Oliva and Lou Ferrigno had greater physical potential. Schwarzenegger used his charisma to his advantage too.

Like Arnold, Gunter has a larger-than-life presence and gregarious personality that comes through when he interacts one-on-one with fans and when he stands in front of an audience. This can actually make an athlete look better onstage, and it’s a lesson Gunter knows and many competitors, even pros, still need to learn. For Gunter, though, I think it comes naturally.

I don’t know Gunter Schlierkamp at all, but I have seen him a number of times at the competitions, and I’ve taken an interest in how he interacts with his fans, even when he was a nobody in fifteenth place. Unlike the plethora of pros these days who seem to have no personality whatsoever, Gunter has enough for everyone, and then some. Furthermore, he’s friendly to everyone he meets, generous with his time, and he possesses a trait quite rare among the top competitors these days: he’s a gentleman. As well, he always seems happy, and he’s also not afraid to make jokes about himself. There’s nothing to dislike about the guy – he’s got a great personality. As Jules said in Pulp Fiction, "Personality goes a long way."

As a matter of fact, I think that personality, coupled with the improvements in his physique, accounted for what happened at the Olympia that night.

Basically, the thousands in attendance at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino saw one of the true gentlemen of bodybuilding go from fifteenth place in 2001 to being called out with the top six finalists when the posedown commenced in 2002. Nobody in the audience saw it coming, not even Gunter. As result, you couldn’t help but cheer for the guy – the German giant was making this giant nothing of a show into something quite spectacular. After that, Gunter could do no wrong. In the posedown, there was Gunter Schlierkamp and there were the five other guys whose names are tough to remember.

When it came to awarding the final placings, I don’t think anyone in the building thought that Gunter would win. After all, Cutler clearly beat Coleman in 2001 but still wound up in second place. Nevertheless, many in the audience probably wondered, "What if Gunter makes the top three?" I admit I did too. But it didn’t happen.

Instead, Gunter got fifth place and the audience treated him better than Coleman who got first. What happened to Gunter Schlierkamp that night transformed the 2002 Mr. Olympia contest from being one of the most ho-hum competitions I’d been to, a giant nothing, into something better than any Coleman-Cutler showdown would have been – something truly memorable.

...Doug Schneider, Publisher
das@seriousaboutmuscle.com

Doug Schneider is the publisher and chief photographer for SeriousAboutMuscle.com, BodyBuildingLive.com, and SeriousAboutFitness.com.