jim manion vorrebbe kai greene sul palco del big o a settembre.

qualche giorno fa, su profilo facebook di Peter McGough, ho trovato questo pezzo di intervista che il simpatico articolista di muscular development e ora di flex magazine ha fatto al presidente della divisione professionistica Jim Manion.

PM: Jim here we are three months away from the Mr. Olympia contest. What are your general thoughts on the line-up?

JM: Well we have to start with the champ Phil Heath. I call him the Tom Brady of the bodybuilding world because everybody hates a winner who keeps winning. Phil’s going for his seventh title. But it’s in no way a shoo-in with guys like Dexter Jackson, Shawn Rhoden and Big Ramy breathing down his neck for starters. Back at my Pittsburgh show in May Big Ramy was in phenomenal shape at 348 pounds. Then you have William Bonac who was fifth at last year’s Olympia but on the post Olympia tour he beat the guys who finished 2nd through 4th at the Olympia. And you can’t discount Roelly Winklaar or Cedric McMillan, and then there’s Brandon Curry who’s showing great improvement. The line-up will be stronger than last year because the top six guys from 2017 haven’t competed this year and that shows how serious they are about getting prepped to knock Phil off. Getting into the top six will be a dogfight. Nobody’s unbeatable, Phil is great but so are the guys chasing him.

PM: We’ve seen recent pics of Kai Greene in great shape. Any noises there that he may enter the 2017 Olympia?

JM: Kai never seems to be out of shape but even his coach George Farah doesn’t know what contest Kai may do next. It would be a great thing to have him back in the Olympia. He belongs on the Olympia stage.

PM: Would he have re re-qualify for the Olympia?

JM: Technically he would have to, but someone with Kai’s record – three Olympia runner-up spots, three Arnold Classic Columbus titles  — is an exception.  The IFBB Pro League wants to make the contest as interesting as possible for the fans, so we would give him a special invite, like we gave Kevin Levrone last year. So if Kai is listening I will give him an Olympia invite so he doesn’t have to go through any qualifying process. AMI CEO, David Pecker, is driven with a passion to continually elevate the prestige and fan experience of the Olympia Weekend. He wants to keep enhancing the reach and brand of the Weekend. Back in 2004 when American Media Inc. (AMII) went into partnership with the IFBB to stage the Olympia Weekend, David, made a public announcement that he would work toward making the prize money for Olympia athletes total $1 million. For the 2004 Olympia Weekend the total prize money was $420,000 (with $120,000 going to the Mr. Olympia winner). Today the total prize money is $1.3 million with $400,000 going to this year’s Mr. Olympia. As far as the Expo is concerned, the 2004 rendition had just fewer than 200 booths, while this year over 1,000 booths will be on display.

David is full of surprises; in 2014 at the moment of Phil Heath’s victory he suddenly pulled another $100,000 out of the hat and re-wrote the check onstage adding it to Phil’s original $300,000 check. Who knows? Maybe Kai will be another David surprise.

PM: There’s a feeling from Kai followers that he won’t get a fair shake.

JM: Whenever a champion racks up a series of consecutive wins like Phil we get factions who say the champ has an unfair lock on the title. This  goes back to Arnold’s days, through the reign of Lee Haney, Dorian Yates Ronnie Coleman and now Phil. But you have to remember the same judges who judge the Olympia, like Steve Weinberger and Sandy Williamson, were the same judges who picked Kai as the winner ahead of Phil at the 2010 Arnold. With a champ winning multiple times there’s always a feeling with some out there that there’s some grassy knoll type of conspiracy in judging the Olympia. Look let me take my IFBB Pro Chairman hat off and replace it with a promoter hat. It would be a great thing, if we kept on having different champions with the deposed champ coming back the next year and so on. It would add such terrific excitement to the contest. No one in the IFBB, including myself, is out to screw Kai in any way. He could beat Phil or anyone else at any given time. I’m sure his fans would like him to compete, the whole bodybuilding community would like him to compete. The ball’s in Kai’s court.

As regards the judging panel or me favoring a bodybuilder: Phil Heath being Mr. Olympia doesn’t benefit me or the judges in any way. Kai as champ doesn’t benefit the judges or me. Whoever wins makes no difference to us.

PM: A final word on the Olympia Weekend?

JM: The men’s open will be very competitive. The 212 division sees Flex Lewis being pursued by Ahmad Ashkanani, Jose Raymond, David Henry, Hidetada Yamagishi and others. The Classic Physique division has really taken off and is becoming extremely popular and then we have Flex Wheeler entering it, so that will be interesting. The Men’s and Women’s Physique division continue to raise the overall standard.

The Rock, the number one celebrity in the world, with his Seven Bucks Productions team  is going to be there with a high-powered crew shooting with numerous cameras as they compile a documentary built around the Olympia. He’ll probably have a few other celebrities with him  so you’ll see him very active here there and everywhere.

Under the leadership of and energy of David Pecker, in tandem with ace promoter Robin Chang and myself and our IFBB Pro League committee, we are a team united in the goal of raising the excellence of the Olympia Weekend. Besides the contests there are countless activities taking place at the Expo, with all the stars of bodybuilding and fitness stationed at their booths – of which there are hundreds.  Check it out for yourself it’s the ultimate bodybuilding experience.

In questo pezzo di intervista, si parla delle aspettative per l’edizione 2017 del mr olympia. Heath, come sappiamo è il favorito per questa competizione e quest’anno, potrebbe, ma noi sappiamo che vincerà l’edizione 2017, andando a quota sette titoli di mr olympia. Jim Manion, racconta che oggi heath, come ogni campione in carica di mr olympia, non è molto amato dal pubblico.

La verità è che molto spesso, essere amati dal pubblico non è un fattore legato solamente alle vittorie, ma anche alla personalità e heath, in questi anni, come alcune sue dichiarazioni, non ha fatto che aumentare il numero delle persone che lo odiano.

Io, personalmente non ho nulla contro heath, ma non sopporto il fatto che in alcune interviste, parli del suo compenso, svalutando il fatto di vincere un titolo prestigioso come l’Arnold Classic in Ohio. Quando un atleta, di quel livello, che ha diversi titoli di mr olympia, snobba la partecipazione all’Arnold Classic, solamente per una questione economica, ovviamente, non può essere un mr olympia che posso apprezzare.

anche il fattore umano, secondo me ha molto valore. Quando venne in Italia, al due torri, voleva essere pagato per una foto con i fans. 10 euro per una foto… ma dove si è mai visto? ho fatto le foto con tutti gli atleti, o almeno quasi tutti ( tranne roelly winklaar) e non ho mai dovuto pagare un euro.

quindi, anche questo oltre ai risultati e alla forma portata sul palco di gara. Un campione come il mr olympia dovrebbe, almeno nel mio immaginario assomigliare a Coleman o a Cutler, sempre disponibili a farsi una foto con i fans.

Poi si parla dei noi campioni emergenti, come William Bonac, che in questi ultimi anni sta migliorando molto al livello fisico, ma anche scalando le classifiche delle competizioni pro ifbb. Big rami, sarà la grande incognita di quest’anno visto che ha cambiato il preparatore passando da Chris Aceto a Chris Cormier.

punto centrale dell’intervista è l’invito, attraverso una wild card, al mitico kay greene, che da diversi anni, ormai, ha deciso di saltare il mr olympia. Non si è mai capito e secondo me mai si capirà come mai kai greene non ha gareggiato a las vegas. Ma oggi gli viene offerta una nuova possibilità.

Ovviamente, kai greene,  se volesse, non ha bisogno di wild card per gareggiare al mr olympia, basterebbe salire sul palco e vincere una gara pro ifbb come ha sempre fatto. Ma visto che quest’anno ci sono diverse assenze, vedi per esempio Dennis Wolf, forse Branch Warren e cmq non ci sono dei pro ifbb che possono contrastare heath, Jim Manion ha deciso di far partecipare cmq kai greene.

nell’intervista, ammette che non verrà penalizzato per il comportamento non proprio sportivo avuto con heath qualche anno fa sul palco del mr olympia, ma io ho cmq la sensazione che la carriera agonistica di kai greene sia cmq compromessa ormai. può vincere tutte le gare che vuole, ma mai il mr olympia anche se in una forma aliena, che non abbiamo ancora visto.

e questo sempre e cmq per colpa di quel comportamento. Ad oggi, ho aspettato un po’ a scrivere questo articolo perchè ho aspettato una possibile risposta da parte di kai greene, non sappiamo se kai greene parteciperà o no alla gara. Spero almeno in una risposta.