Mohamed El Emam answers: Can Big Ramy win again at Olympia 2021?
With less than a week to go before the Olympia 2021, we will soon see if returning champion Big Ramy can retain his title. Ramy has been known for inconsistency in his conditioning from year to year (at least in his past showings over the past decade). Will he be able to remain consistent and show an even more improved physique on stage this weekend? Rising competitor Mohamed El Emam seems to think so. In our latest GI Exclusive, Mohamed El Emam explains why he thinks Big Ramy will appear even better at Olympia 2021.
Mohamed El Emam has been a rising athlete on the pro bodybuilding stage this past year. He battled it out in a number of competitions to earn Olympia qualification. Unfortunately, he fell short – but not for a lack of impressive physique. The competition was fierce and despite some top 5 placings, it wasn’t enough to earn a spot in this weekend’s Olympia.
That’s why during our recent conversation with Mohamed, we asked him as an observer, if he thought Big Ramy can win again. Mohamed El Emam does believe that Big Ramy can pull off a repeat win. The reason he thinks this – is that he believes Big Ramy will have an even better physique than the previous year.
It’s common knowledge among pro bodybuilding fans that judges have a laser focus on the returning champion for Mr. Olympia. It’s not enough for the champion to bring the same winning physique. The judges expect to see an improved physique. This is the challenge an Olympia champion must face. What if they’ve hit a plateau – no matter how perfect? An equal quality physique might get slightly overlooked compared to a hungry competitor that made some incredible progress.
Mohamed El Emam believes that Big Ramy has made that kind of progress. He’s strictly judging based off of physique update photos and video that Ramy has been posting in recent months. From what he can tell – Ramy has not only widened his back and increased his arm size – he’s also tapered in his waist. Of course, physique update photos can be misleading. What’s most important is that Ramy times his peak perfectly with the Olympia weekend.
This is where the excitement comes in. Even the most perfect athlete can run into problems if their timing is even slightly off. When fans watch the pre-judging on Friday night, they’re also aware the competitors have a full 24 hours to try and make adjustments before finals. That 24 hour period is crucial and makes the finals a truly electric event. Some have improved, some have faded. For example, Phil Heath was often known as “Mr. Saturday Night” due to surprising improvements he would make between pre-judging and finals.
Mohamed El Emam has a point though. It’s clear that Big Ramy was the superior physique in 2020. If no other competitor can close that gap and Ramy improves himself – the odds of him coming in off peak this weekend seems unlikely. Ramy’s sheer size gives him an incredible advantage.
You can watch Mohamed El Emam break down his Big Ramy predictions in more detail by watching our GI Exclusive interview segment above!