December 1, 2005

Gustavo Badell Beats Ronnie Coleman at the 2005 Mr. Olympia – Was There a Conspiracy?

It is very likely that everyone who watched the 2005 Mr. Olympia, whether on pay-per-view or live at the event center, will agree that it was one of the most poorly produced bodybuilding shows in recent memory. Whether it was the 1015-pound bench-press attempt that opened the show that went terribly wrong, the backstage interviewers with microphones that never seemed to work, the scoreboard that never seemed to show the score right, or the guy with the hat and the clipboard who kept walking onstage and at one point even took the microphone from the MC and said something to the audience that I couldn’t understand (and no one I’ve talked to since could either), there were so many embarrassing moments that I’m sure that had film critic Roger Ebert reviewed the 2005 Olympia presentation, he would have undoubtedly given it a big "thumbs down."

However, amidst the mayhem, something quite remarkable happened – Gustavo Badell beat Ronnie Coleman and Jay Cutler in the Challenge Round portion of the event, but at the end of the real competition, the actual Mr. Olympia competition, Badell ended up in third place, Jay landed in second, and Coleman took home the crown. My question is, How does a guy get first one moment and third the next? In fact, it’s not only my question – many others have asked the same thing and wonder if, perhaps, it points to some sort of conspiracy that will be remembered for years to come.

To understand the meaning of what happened during the Badell-Coleman shootout, one has to first understand the Challenge Round, the origins of which trace back to only 2004 when it was implemented to replace the age-old posedown in order to spice up the show. That inaugural year, though, the Challenge Round actually meant something – it was judged by the IFBB judges, and the points earned from it were factored into the total score to determine the Mr. Olympia winner.

Going into the Challenge Round in 2004, Ronnie Coleman was leading, Jay Cutler was in second place, Dexter Jackson was in third, Gustavo Badell was in fourth, and Gunter Schlierkamp was in fifth. Each man then posed against another according to the rules of the Challenge Round, and when the dust settled Coleman, Cutler and Schlierkamp retained their original positions, but Jackson slid into fourth and Badell inched his way into third.

Controversial? Sort of – particularly if you’re a fan of Dexter Jackson, who afterwards appeared to feel that he was flat-out robbed of third place, along with the prize money and glory that went with it. In fact, Jackson skipped this year’s Mr. Olympia competition, although he’s not saying that it was a direct result of the 2004 Challenge Round fiasco. Still, I doubt it’s a coincidence. Badell, though, was as happy as can be. He went from being a fourth-place also-ran to one of the top three bodybuilders in the world because of this new round.

Nevertheless, response to the 2004 Challenge Round seemed mixed. It was supposed to add excitement to the show, but, frankly, it didn’t seem to do that at all. All it did, really, was add confusion to the competition – and nobody likes that, especially if you’re trying to put on a professionally run event.

So, this year there seemed to be a compromise. The posedown was brought back, and it would count again. The Challenge Round would also return, but it wouldn’t count toward the final placings. Instead, the Challenge Round would become its own little "mini event," have its own prize money, and would be judged not by the IFBB judges who judge the Mr. Olympia competition, but by five former Mr. Olympias!

However, with the Challenge Round not counting toward the real prize – I’m talking about the real Mr. Olympia title – many asked this simple question: Why bother? In fact, I was one of them. I mean, why do it, particularly with a different set of judges? Aren’t you just asking for trouble? But, obviously, somebody did think the idea had merit and the Challenge Round went forth in 2005, positioned in the schedule immediately before the final posedown.

This year’s Challenge Round featured Ronnie Coleman, Jay Cutler, Gustavo Badell, Gunter Schlierkamp, and Victor Martinez – the top-five competitors from the Mr. Olympia judging to that point and, basically, the same group as last year, minus Jackson and with Martinez. And the guy who benefited most this time? Once again it was Gustavo Badell!

When the dust settled this time, Badell, who was in third place going into the Challenge Round, ended up tied with Coleman, who was in first, obviously. So forget about his moving one place ahead – suddenly he moved two! And where was Jay Cutler? As far as the Challenge Round goes, he was in third place, and likely feeling as happy about that as Dexter did the previous year. Badell, of course, was delighted. And Coleman? Well, he seemed perturbed, and just a little annoyed that Badell, a third-place finisher, had just ended up in a tie with him.

I not sure that the organizers were banking on any tie happening in the Challenge Round; I suspect most thought Coleman would just win. But Coleman didn’t, so they had a "mini posedown" with Badell and Coleman to determine who the winner would be. Honestly, I think everyone, wherever they were watching, figured Ronnie would just stomp out Badell with some "lights out" pose as he did with Cutler in the previous year when it all came down to one final pose. But no, Coleman wouldn’t be that lucky again. After the two-man posedown finished and the judges’ scores were tallied, Badell was announced as the winner – to the shock of almost everyone who watched this thing unfold.

If Coleman had looked perturbed before, now he looked downright angry. In fact, Ronnie’s backstage interview (where the microphone actually worked!) was cut short after he said a few choice words about not seeing it the way the judges did, and then he indicated that he just wanted to get on with the show – the real show – and left. Ronnie, I’ve noticed, doesn’t take losing all that well. Badell, though, was all smiles and happy to talk to the interviewers. After all, he just beat Mr. Olympia! Unfortunately, he couldn’t talk too long because he had to get back to business – to the Mr. Olympia competition with IFBB judges and scores that actually count.

After the Challenge Round, the regular posedown commenced. Then shortly after, the scores from that round were tabulated with the previous round’s (but, remember, not with the Challenge Round) and when the winner was announced it was, of course, Ronnie Coleman’s name this time, with Jay Cutler second and Gustavo Badell third.

So, one moment a third-place finisher beats the first-place guy, and the next moment he’s slapped right back into third place. Was there a conspiracy? It's hard to really say, but here are the five best theories (some conspiracies, some not) that I’ve heard since that strange, confusing, and memorable moment when Badell beat Coleman at the 2005 Mr. Olympia.

Theory 1: Gustavo wasn’t actually tied with Coleman at all. During the debacle with the scoreboard that didn’t seem to work right, Coleman wasn't given two points for one of the poses which he won. Had Coleman gotten the correct number of points there would have been no final posedown between him and Badell, and he would have won.

This one, if true, should be quite easy to prove – simply review footage from the contest and re-count the points. Unfortunately, I don’t have a copy of the competition on tape, and neither does anyone else – at least anyone I know of – who actually wants to count the points awarded and see if they add up. Too bad, because if someone did that and they found out Coleman wasn't awarded the correct number of points, would they take Gustavo’s first-place trophy away and make him give Ronnie the money he got for first place?

Theory 2: The judges didn’t have enough time to properly assess the competitors’ physiques, and if they did have enough time, Coleman would have won.

As far-fetched as this sounds, I actually believe this theory holds some water. In fact, it’s not so much a conspiracy as a "judging issue."

One of my friends, a very high-level judge, told me that it takes a considerable amount of time to properly assess high-level physiques like those at a contest such as the Mr. Olympia. He went on to say that the first few minutes of judging are actually extremely confusing and it’s tough to get oriented as to who should be in first, who should be in second, and so on. On the other hand, the judges for the Challenge Round were basically plunked into their chairs as quickly as possible, and were assessing physiques and assigning scores within seconds! Would the results have been different if they had had more time? Perhaps – but it’s too late to do anything about it now.

Theory 3: The judges didn’t know what they were doing.

Depending on whom you talk to, this is entirely credible, or it’s complete B.S. From my point of view, both sides might have a point.

You have to realize that the people judging the Challenge Round weren’t the regular IFBB judges who were judging the rest of the competition – they were former Mr. Olympias. From my understanding, they were Larry Scott, Sergio Oliva, Samir Bannout, Frank Zane, and Dorian Yates. As well, from what I know of these former Mr. Olympias, none of them is a real bodybuilding judge. Who picked this group of judges? Were they even qualified to judge in this event? Is it fair for the best bodybuilders in the world to be judged by a group of former competitors with no judging track record to speak of? On the other hand, if you discount the credibility of the Mr. Olympia-based judging panel, does that mean that the IFBB judges are the only ones who can ever be counted on to pick the winners correctly?

Theory 4: The judging panel was made up of former Mr. Olympias who were jealous of Ronnie Coleman’s winning streak and wanted to shut him down by picking Badell as the winner instead.

I have to admit, this crossed my mind too. After all, you have five former Mr. Olympias, none with the record number of wins that Coleman has, judging the current Mr. Olympia and the up-and-coming Mr. Olympia wannabees. Samir Bannout, for example, only won the event once, while in 2005 Coleman was going for his eighth straight win. Is it possible that there was bias? Is it possible that more than a few of those Mr. Olympias picking their winners said, "I don’t want Ronnie to win anymore"? Obviously, only the judges on the panel will know for sure if that kind of jealousy swayed their decisions, and you can be absolutely sure they’ll never admit it if it did!

Theory 5: There is no conspiracy; Badell deserved to win.

Actually, this last one isn’t a conspiracy theory at all – providing you’re not a fan of Coleman. This, too, crossed my mind because Gustavo Badell looked really good at this show! Did you see his front-double-biceps pose? To me, he certainly looked better than Cutler during this pose and was close to as good as Coleman. How about the side-chest pose? Again, better than Cutler and comparable to Coleman. The side-triceps? Same thing. The back poses? Coleman beats them all. Turn to the front, though, and do the abdominal-and-thigh pose and Badell probably wins that one over all three.

Coleman’s certainly not unbeatable, at least not anymore. His calf development is poor overall, and his left calf doesn’t match his right one; his biceps are huge, but his triceps are rather flat; and his abdominal and thigh pose is only impressive if you look at his thighs and arms and forget about the midsection, which is still rather bloated to the point of being obscene. Don’t get me wrong, Ronnie’s great, and I believe he deserved to win this year, but gone are the days of everyone saying that no one can touch him.

So, if I had been judging the show – I’m talking about the Mr. Olympia competition and the Challenge Round, too – I’d certainly have had Badell in second-place over Jay Cutler, who, despite the fact that he looked as if he had improved this year, still has far too many flaws and doesn’t pose very well either. And I’d have had Badell behind Coleman. Badell has flaws, too, but he knows how to cover them up and show himself off to his best advantage with far superior posing. As a matter of fact, if there’s another conspiracy to be talked about, it’s why Jay Cutler and Gustavo Badell weren’t directly compared in the prejudging. Doesn’t that seem strange to you? It certainly seems strange to me that the guy that the majority of the judges had in third wasn’t put beside the guy whom they had in second. The only time it seems they were directly compared was during the Challenge Round, which is probably the only good thing about this segment of the show – it forces each competitor to face off against another, whereas in the prejudging that obviously doesn’t always happen.

Regardless, the Challenge Round is over, the Mr. Olympia is done, and Ronnie Coleman ended up tieing Lee Haney’s winning streak with eight straight wins. All eyes are now on 2006, and who the winner will be is anyone’s guess. The only thing I’m betting on is that after what happened in 2004 and 2005, we’ll never see the Challenge Round again. Show organizers don’t like confusion, and they don’t like conspiracy theories, either.

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

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