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Dorian Yates' First & Last Times On the Olympia Stage
1991: Orlando, FL
I’d won my first professional contest in May of that year, the Night of Champions. In the eyes of many, I was already a legitimate contender for the Mr. Olympia title based not so much on that win, but on the improvements I had made since my pro debut the previous May when I took second place to the late Momo Benaziza at the NOC. The Mr. Olympia represented a mental hurdle for me in the sense that Lee Haney was someone I had looked up to and respected my entire career. I’d started training in 1983, and he had held the title since 1984. So he was the champion the entire time I had been competing. Now it was time to realize he was a human being, and I was going to do my best to beat him. I was confident because I knew no one trained harder or was more dedicated than me. The show itself that year took place inside of Disney World, at the Walt Disney Dolphin Hotel.
Seeing that I was still relatively inexperienced as a competitor, with only four amateur shows and two pro shows thus far, my stage color was still an aspect I hadn’t perfected. One friend in the USA from New York applied color to me that looked truly awful. Once I saw it, I was very concerned it would negatively affect me on stage. Luckily, another friend from California had brought a different tanning product along. I washed off the nasty crap and applied the new stuff, which looked just fine, thankfully. I got some bad advice from the New York guy about Lee Haney. He told me Lee was a real bully onstage, that he would elbow the other guys and step on their feet. It was all bullshit, of course. But I got so hyped up that I was elbowing Haney before he had a chance to do it to me! The event itself went very well. Lee and I were called out to do a two-man comparison, which was almost unheard of, but the crowd wanted it. Lee won the symmetry round, I won the muscularity round (mandatory poses), and he won the posing round with a more polished presentation. Never before had Lee been faced with someone his own height and weight with a similar structure. At 29 years old, I was pleased with my first time at the Mr. Olympia.
1997: Long Beach, CA
My final Mr. Olympia six years later was regrettably, not as pleasant an experience. In fact, it was by far the toughest prep I ever had, both physically and mentally. At six weeks out, I was hospitalized with broken blood vessels at the top of my stomach going into my esophagus, and required two blood transfusions. It turned out that the anti-inflammatory medication my doctor had prescribed for me was so harsh that it wasn’t meant to be taken for more than six weeks. I’d been using it for two years. Being from the UK and not the USA, suing for medical malpractice didn’t really occur to me. My wife at the time, Debbie, brought my meals to me in the hospital, so I was able to stay on my contest diet. Still, my hemoglobin levels didn’t return to normal by the time of the contest, which may have affected my condition in some way, perhaps my fullness. At three weeks out, I suffered an almost complete detachment of my triceps while doing pullover and presses. As a result, I wasn’t able to train at all for those final three weeks. The tendon had already been badly inflamed, and I should have taken some time off from training, but I had put self-imposed pressure on myself to keep pushing hard to stay on top of the food chain as the reigning champion. I’d also had a cortisone shot in that elbow to manage the pain and inflammation, which only weakened the tendon further and contributed to the tear. So at three and even two weeks out, I wasn’t even sure I would be able to do the show. The night before, I had 15-20 ml. of fluid drained from that swollen elbow.
In the end, it was the look I was least happy with of all my appearances on the Olympia stage. But I went out on top, with six titles. Eventually after I’d had surgery and was able to return to training, it was clear that the strength and stability in that triceps would never be the same again. My competition days were over. I now see it was a blessing in disguise. Competing was more of a job and a chore, and I wasn’t enjoying it at all anymore. And I did learn that there was far more to see and do in life beyond the stage.
1991: Orlando, FL
I’d won my first professional contest in May of that year, the Night of Champions. In the eyes of many, I was already a legitimate contender for the Mr. Olympia title based not so much on that win, but on the improvements I had made since my pro debut the previous May when I took second place to the late Momo Benaziza at the NOC. The Mr. Olympia represented a mental hurdle for me in the sense that Lee Haney was someone I had looked up to and respected my entire career. I’d started training in 1983, and he had held the title since 1984. So he was the champion the entire time I had been competing. Now it was time to realize he was a human being, and I was going to do my best to beat him. I was confident because I knew no one trained harder or was more dedicated than me. The show itself that year took place inside of Disney World, at the Walt Disney Dolphin Hotel.
Seeing that I was still relatively inexperienced as a competitor, with only four amateur shows and two pro shows thus far, my stage color was still an aspect I hadn’t perfected. One friend in the USA from New York applied color to me that looked truly awful. Once I saw it, I was very concerned it would negatively affect me on stage. Luckily, another friend from California had brought a different tanning product along. I washed off the nasty crap and applied the new stuff, which looked just fine, thankfully. I got some bad advice from the New York guy about Lee Haney. He told me Lee was a real bully onstage, that he would elbow the other guys and step on their feet. It was all bullshit, of course. But I got so hyped up that I was elbowing Haney before he had a chance to do it to me! The event itself went very well. Lee and I were called out to do a two-man comparison, which was almost unheard of, but the crowd wanted it. Lee won the symmetry round, I won the muscularity round (mandatory poses), and he won the posing round with a more polished presentation. Never before had Lee been faced with someone his own height and weight with a similar structure. At 29 years old, I was pleased with my first time at the Mr. Olympia.
1997: Long Beach, CA
My final Mr. Olympia six years later was regrettably, not as pleasant an experience. In fact, it was by far the toughest prep I ever had, both physically and mentally. At six weeks out, I was hospitalized with broken blood vessels at the top of my stomach going into my esophagus, and required two blood transfusions. It turned out that the anti-inflammatory medication my doctor had prescribed for me was so harsh that it wasn’t meant to be taken for more than six weeks. I’d been using it for two years. Being from the UK and not the USA, suing for medical malpractice didn’t really occur to me. My wife at the time, Debbie, brought my meals to me in the hospital, so I was able to stay on my contest diet. Still, my hemoglobin levels didn’t return to normal by the time of the contest, which may have affected my condition in some way, perhaps my fullness. At three weeks out, I suffered an almost complete detachment of my triceps while doing pullover and presses. As a result, I wasn’t able to train at all for those final three weeks. The tendon had already been badly inflamed, and I should have taken some time off from training, but I had put self-imposed pressure on myself to keep pushing hard to stay on top of the food chain as the reigning champion. I’d also had a cortisone shot in that elbow to manage the pain and inflammation, which only weakened the tendon further and contributed to the tear. So at three and even two weeks out, I wasn’t even sure I would be able to do the show. The night before, I had 15-20 ml. of fluid drained from that swollen elbow.