by Christian Duque
Let’s talk about the idea of the special invite. Because you guys know from my many articles over the years that I’m not a fan of the practice. I think the special invite waters down the playing field of a competition that is known as the Super Bowl of Bodybuilding. One of the few things that were real from Pumping Iron is that the Olympia was supposed to be the show where guys that had won the Universe, the World Championships, maybe the European Championships, would get together and battle it out to be the best of the best. That’s why it’s called the Super Bowl of Bodybuilding. It wasn’t supposed to be an event where guys could qualify through points as was the case up until recently.
Just a few years ago you could look at the Olympia lineup and see no less than 30 or 40 guys. Forget about first and second call-outs, there was a third and a fourth. I mean you had guys on there that hadn’t won a single show. Maybe hadn’t won a single show in their entire professional careers! But they were there because in one year maybe they took third place two times, 5th Place five times, and maybe if they were lucky took second place one time. Every place they got they would get points even if they never won. Some of the guys up there didn’t even get fourth place or third place or much less second place. They took 5th place at enough shows as to where they could get on the stage with the best of the best.
That was an absolute travesty. But then you look at the guy we’re talking about today. A guy who some say was robbed. A guy who has brought his A-game to every show he’s competed at. And then you start to look at the points system or the special invite and you wonder if these practices could be used to right a wrong.
Listen folks, we are not talking about my opinion only. Of course I could say that as the writer of this article I’m entitled to inflate my opinion or make my opinion louder than the rest because I’m the one putting pen to paper. But that’s not the case here.
Andrea Presti should have won the UK ProShow a week or two ago. You look at most of the bodybuilding commentaries that are viewed by people today and they are saying the same thing. Now let me delve a little bit deeper into that last statement. Because there is a real battle for viewership in the sport of bodybuilding. And I would say it’s a far more intense of a battle today than maybe even 5 years ago. I was kind of in the dark, and I’ll admit it, because I am a creature of habit. If I want bodybuilding content I’ll go to NS&P, Desktop Bodybuilding, or MuscleDiscord. I go to the channels that I know. But after doing a co-host spot on Muscle Discord just recently or maybe it was an interview – I don’t know but it was a lot of fun – I’ll tell you that there’s many lore out there. I became aware of at least a half a dozen really good independent bodybuilding platforms that are just absolutely killing it. And it’s those platforms that I’m talking about where there is great division over the fact that Andrea Presti should be going to the 2024 Mr Olympia.
But let’s also look at some of the old cats. And when I say old cats I’m not throwing shade by any means. What I’m saying is let’s look at the O.G.’s. Let’s look at the guys that have been involved in journalism and commentary and just being a part of this bodybuilding world for 10 or 20 years. Maybe more. Their opinion is very, very important. It doesn’t need to be said by me, But I’m going to go ahead and say it just the same. And I’m going to talk about Ron Harris.
Ron Harris is absolutely killing it. He’s got a fantastic YouTube channel, he’s coaching people, now he’s part of the Olympia. I mean the guy is just literally writing his own ticket. He went from working for Muscular Development and being at the helm of the last major magazine to totally hitting the ground running.
Ron pointed out to me that the special invite was always intended for someone who would be in the Olympia Top 6 and as such, no disrespect to Presti, but I got the sense Ron was saying Andrea wasn’t in that category right now. Definitely not to say he couldn’t get there one day, just not for the 2024 O. I also may have totally misunderstood as well.
I’ve been writing articles and I’ve been involved in the journalistic pursuit of bodybuilding probably for the last 15 years and I’m going to be honest with you folks because that’s all I know how to be, here, at Iron Magazine, I did not know that. I had no idea that the folks that got the special invite were folks that were considered to be top six material. And I’ll be honest with you, it makes sense at least from a historical standpoint. I mean looking back at the people that have received the special invite I could see where a case could be made for that case. But maybe not 100% of the time, though.
I mean Derek Lunsford was coming from another division. I don’t know that he was necessarily a guaranteed top six guy but probably so. The late great Cedric McMillan, again, I don’t know if he was a guaranteed top six guy but he was a former Arnold Classic champion – okay, fine.
BUT what if the special invite was used to bring a guy to the biggest stage on the planet because of judging that maybe wasn’t popular. I’m not going to say bad judging or shady judging or blame politics, but let’s just say it was a very close call.
I think we can all agree that it was a close call between Andrea and Bruno. I don’t want to take anything away from the guy that won. As I’ve always said in my articles and my videos and in my private thoughts, you never fault the athlete. The athlete is a competitor. They don’t have any say on what goes on to the scorecards. So you cannot fault a man or a woman for receiving a victory or top honors when maybe you’re of the opinion they didn’t deserve it.
Bruno 100% was in the top two in my eyes. Do I think he beat Andrea? No. But it was not by any means his fault or should he be on the receiving end of any hate for winning. To him I say congratulations. To him I say go to the Olympia and have a blast. But to the Federation I say, what would the harm be in giving Andrea a special invite?
And it’s not like anybody else has gotten one. Maybe they have someone else in mind, but if so, who? At the end of the day I think that the UK Pro Show decision split the bodybuilding fanbase almost in half. I think there was a lot of discussion. I think there was as much discussion about the results of the UK Pro Show as there was about the New York Pro. The difference there is that both guys were qualified. Martin was qualified beforehand because he won Detroit and Nick was qualified because he won New York. Even though I believe Martin should have won, they’re both going to the Olympia at the end of the day. The difference with the UK Pro Show is that neither guy was qualified beforehand, but only Bruno is going.
Now as I stated on my Instagram Live on this very topic, if Andrea had waited until the very last show and fell short – even if he deserved to win in the opinion of many bodybuilding fans – I would not be here on Iron Magazine writing an article trying to generate support for him getting a special invite.
Why?
Well, simply because he waited until the last minute and I don’t have a lot of sympathy for people that sit on their ass and decide to jump in at the last minute in a Hail Mary of sorts.
But that’s not the case with Andrea. This was not a one and done for him. He had competed on other stages and brought a great package. This was probably the last attempt of many to get to that Olympia stage and that is why I believe he should get a special invite because enough people think he should have won that it has created so much conversation in the sport that by giving him a special invite it would make the fans happy and it would make the show even better than what it already is.
See that is also something that needs to be said in bodybuilding. The fans oftentimes feel ignored. Doing something like this doesn’t really put the Federation out. What’s one more body on that stage? They’re not spending more money, they’re not incurring any debt, they’re just giving another guy a chance. But by doing that they could turn around and say “because we heard the criticisms on the message boards, on the Facebook groups, on Instagram and on bodybuilding articles, we wanted to act.”. They could save the day and it wouldn’t cost them anything. But the question is, will they do it? And the answer is, probably not.
So again all I can do is put my finger on the bodybuilding pulse. All I can do is try to write articles that echo your sentiments. Now I ask you after reading this article and after knowing what you know and feeling what you feel about the results at the UK Pro Show… Should Andrea Presti get a special invite to the 2024 Mr olympia?at say you?