There is nothing like Friday night at the Olympia, and that was amplified at the 60th edition of Joe Weider’s Olympia Fitness and Performance Weekend. The Resorts World Theater in Las Vegas, NV was buzzing on Friday night, Oct. 11th as fans came in to see the best of the best in Fitness, Figure, Women’s Physique, Women’s Bodybuilding, Wellness, the 212, and the prejudging round of the Men’s Open contest. Here is a brief look back at the history that was made on the Olympia stage.
The main event of the weekend is the 60th edition of the Mr. Olympia contest. 15 of the best Men’s Open bodybuilders on the planet are competing in a two-night contest to determine the world champion for the Men’s Open division, including reigning titleholder Derek Lunsford and 2022 winner Hadi Choopan.
There was a lot of buildup for this competition around them as well as top contenders Samson Dauda and Andrew Jacked, but Martin Fitzwater was shocking the crowd by being placed among them in his Olympia debut. He appears to be in the running for a top five finish if things go his way.
However, the prejudging round was focused on Lunsford, Choopan, and Dauda – the top three from 2023. They were in their own final callout, and head judge Steve Weinberger gave the fans three comparisons by having each man stand in the middle of the group. No one in the audience was sure which way the judges were leaning. We will just have to find out tomorrow night.
You can also watch the Saturday night finals by going to www.olympiaproductions.com and ordering the 2024 Olympia pay-per-view livestream so you can see history be made at the 60th Olympia.
Missy Truscott ended the 2023 Olympia being attended to by medical personnel after suffering a horrific knee injury during her Finals routine. That was also the start of her road to redemption and recovery.
That road culminated on the 2024 Olympia stage when she returned and performed a Spartan-themed routine that helped her cap the comeback in the best way possible – as champion. Truscott is now a three-time Ms. Fitness Olympia and feels she is right back where she belongs. Jaclyn Baker stood alongside Truscott as the runner-up, and the bronze medal went to Taylor Learmont.
Cydney Gillon was already the most dominant Figure Olympia champion in history, but she was looking to join Olympia legends Ronnie Coleman, Lee Haney, and Iris Kyle as the only athletes with eight consecutive wins (Kyle has 10 Ms. Olympia wins, but eight were in a row.)
Gillon made that quest look easy as she dominated both prejudging and finals to score her eighth gold medal. The big story from this contest was what happened next during her interview with Bob Cicherillo, Gillon announced her retirement from competition, capping a reign that will be very difficult to match in the future.
Villegas Wins Fourth Women’s Physique Olympia Title
The Women’s Physique Olympia was very familiar to fans of the division. Sarah Villegas and Natalia Abraham Coelho have one of the longest running rivalries in the sport. Coelho was looking to regain the title while Villegas was looking to make her own history by tying Juliana Malacarne for the most wins in division’s young history.
The two champions once again stood in the middle of the stage awaiting the announcement and Villegas’ name was the one exclaimed as the winner. Sheronica Henton joined them in the top three.
Andrea Shaw was the queen of Women’s Bodybuilding ever since she won the Rising Phoenix and returning Ms. Olympia contest in 2020, but Angela Yeo cracked the foundation of Shaw’s reign by defeating her at the 2024 Rising Phoenix. Many fans felt that this was the start of a transition at the top.
However, Shaw committed seven weeks in Arizona and changed coaches to complete her Olympia prep, and those moves paid off. It was a close contest, but Shaw held off Yeo to win her fifth Ms. Olympia title. Rising star Ashley Lynnette Jones joined them in the top three.
The Wellness division has only been a part of the Olympia since 2021, and it has had one champion. Francielle Mattos was looking to keep it that way when she began her title defense in Las Vegas, but two-time runner-up Isabelle Nunes had a different level of confidence on both the prejudging and finals stage. It was as if she knew something no one else did.
That confidence was verified when Cicherillo announced “and new” for the first time of the evening. Nunes finally conquered her long-standing fellow Brazilian rival, and the division now has two champions.
Keone Pearson and Shaun Clarida have had a friendly but competitive buildup for the 212 Olympia title. Clarida wanted to win his third title while Pearson was determined to prove that his 2023 Olympia win was no fluke. Pearson was the bigger man of the two and had overall better shape, but Clarida was thick and very well-conditioned onstage. It was apples versus oranges in this matchup.
This was the final contest of the evening, meaning the winner would be the last to leave the stage for the night. That man was Pearson, who has now gone back-to-back. Angel Calderon Frias settled for third place.
