Arnold Schwarzenegger & Sergio Oliva | Bodybuilding's Fiercest Rivalry

Written by Peter McGough

16 March 2015

Arnold & Sergio

Bodybuilding's Fiercest Rivalry Featured Two Hugely Contrasting Characters - This Is Their Story

Three-time Mr. Olympia (1967-’69) Sergio Oliva passed on November 12, 2012, thereby becoming the first of the 13 who have won the sport’s most prestigious title to shuttle off this mortal coil. His passing prompted reflections of his epic battles with Arnold Schwarzenegger. It’s been over 40 years since the last time they competed against each but to this day intrigue and controversy still rages about their hallowed meetings.

Great sporting rivalries produce great theater, great copy and great everlasting memories. Boxing had Frazier-Ali, tennis had Borg-McEnroe, basketball had Bird-Johnson, and what gave these legendary match-ups even more dramatic spice was the opposites attract chemistry that percolated between them. In each of those pairings the former was the quiet driven one while the latter was the flamboyant and noisy— yet still driven— one. And so it was with bodybuilding’s most storied rivalry, that of Sergio Oliva and Arnold Schwarzenegger. In one corner was Arnold, who oozed charisma, had a larger-than-life personality, and was as adept at sound bites and marketing himself as he was at hitting a double biceps shot. In the other was Sergio who was almost the polar opposite, his carefree, but sometimes reclusive, nature preferring to let his body do the talking. Arnold would enthusiastically grasp with both hands any opportunity given him and was out to embrace and conquer bigger worlds than bodybuilding. By contrast, Sergio often seemed suspicious of anyone trying to exploit his physique and name for financial gain and his personal horizon stretched no further than the enclave of his close Chicago gym buddies.

You’ll note that in the course of this feature there are many quotes from Arnold and substantially less from Sergio. That is because this humble scribe has had the good fortune to have interviewed and interacted with Arnold on scores of occasions: the man makes himself accessible. On the other hand I only interviewed Sergio twice. Both were short affairs with his response to many questions being along the lines of, “Argghh, nobody’s interested in that anymore.” I say this not as criticism (indeed in rebuffing me many would say Sergio’s was simply exhibiting good taste) only as further illustration that Arnold was the fire that would burn like an eternal flame while Sergio was ice, and very cool to outsiders. One thing they did have in common was that when talking or writing about them, the need for citing a last name was unnecessary: “Arnold” or “Sergio” would suffice.

1968: MIAMI MEETING

The first occasion that Arnold and Sergio were in each other’s presence was September 29, 1968 at that year’s IFBB Mr. Universe in Miami Beach. A week earlier, the 21-year-old Austrian had won the NABBA Pro Universe title in London, which at that time was regarded as bodybuilding’s most prestigious title (the Mr. Olympia would not usurp that rating until early ‘70s). Immediately after his London win, Joe Weider invited Arnold to compete at the Miami event. It was his first visit to the United States and in fact he stayed for good. At the IFBB Universe the 230-pound newcomer, totally confident of victory, lost to Frank Zane, who was about 50 pounds lighter. At the time the larger man couldn’t understand “how this scroungy little bugger could beat me. Only later on when I learned about quality, about the importance of proportions, about having to have great abs and calves did I understand why experienced judges picked Frank as the winner.”

As he stood backstage not really digesting, or accepting, that loss Arnold, watched reigning Mr. Olympia Sergio Oliva go onstage to guest pose. The Myth (so named by legendary bodybuilding writer and 1967 Mr. World, Rick Wayne) brought the house down. Although under the same roof, Sergio and Arnold never exchanged words (in any case, the young Austrian had yet to learn English) but the latter had now seen the Mr. Olympia who many thought invincible up close. Welcome to America, Arnold— have you met Frank and Sergio?

1969: THE MYTH TAKES ON THE OAK

The man who would later become Governor of California is nothing if not a quick learner, a student who is prepared to do his homework. In 1969, having relocated to Santa Monica, he began preparing for his Olympia debut of that year and asked his mentor and benefactor Joe Weider if he would bankroll a trip to Chicago so he could spend a week or so training with Sergio in the champion’s own backyard. Arnold at that time was a self-admitted fan of the King of the bodybuilding hill, and was as excited as any fan would be to have the chance to observe his idol up close. In Trojan horse style he really wanted to figure out what made the current Mr. Olympia tick and whether he could uncover any chinks in his armor. So three months before September’s Olympia the runner-up from the previous year trained side by side with his target at the Windy City’s Duncan YMCA.

Arnold was surprised to discover that Sergio put in a long and hard shift by day at a steel mill and was still able to undertake marathon-training sessions in the evening. Truth is they both trained very differently and in his reconnaissance expedition into Sergio territory Arnold didn’t learn a whole lot.

On the other hand, the man who would be king announced that, “Sergio was a great host. I stayed in a hotel but he invited me over for dinner to his house just about every night. He had a wonderful wife. He was really a sweetheart of a guy. He was very, very, giving, even though he knew that in three months I’d be trying to take his title away.”

As he left Chicago, Arnold was still totally confident that he had the arsenal to put a hit on The Myth. It was so different when Olympia day arrived on September 13, 1969 at The Brooklyn Academy of Music. It’s now bodybuilding folklore that Arnold was preparing backstage and keeping an eye on Sergio as he pumped up in his trademark butcher’s overalls. When the champ finally doffed the overalls he, just coincidentally, threw a lat spread in Arnold’s direction. In that instant, Europe’s best bodybuilder realized he was not that night going to be crowned the world’s best bodybuilder. Arnold’s training partner and lifelong friend Franco Columbu saw his pal’s crestfallen expression and urged, “Come on, Arnold, you can beat him— he looked good because it was just a trick of the light.” Arnold shook his head, beaten before he started.

Three decades later, Schwarzenegger recalled the experience: “Sergio was just so overwhelming. It was very clear— I wasn’t blind. I looked at him and said to myself, ‘Well, you know, this isn’t going to be your year.’ He was just unbelievable. It’s a very simple thing when you lose: It is to someone who is better. That day Sergio was undoubtedly better. I hadn’t yet overcome the fan/idol feeling. I was his number one fan. At that point he had me wrapped around his little finger both physically and psychologically.”

The scorecards show that it was a close decision; that the seven judges were split four to three in Sergio’s favor. As far as Arnold was concerned, “If they had given me the first place trophy, I would have handed it to Sergio.”

1970: TODAY THE WORLD, TOMORROW THE OLYMPIA

It is a Schwarzenegger characteristic that he learns from his mistakes— verified by him never losing to the same guy twice. Following his 1969 Olympia defeat, he committed himself to, over next 12 months, improve his abs, calves and hone his proportions to the sufficient quality that would enable him to wrest the Olympia title from Sergio Oliva. The hungry Austrian also banished his Sergio-fan mindset to history. For him the native-born Cuban could no longer be The Myth.

On Saturday September 19, 1970, Arnold won his third consecutive NABBA Pro Mr. Universe title in London, in the process beating his mentor Reg Park. Immediately after that contest he jumped on a jet and flew via New York to Columbus, Ohio to compete in the AAU Pro Mr. World being promoted 24 hours later by Jim Lorimer. Oliva had also entered the contest.

Due to the rigors of competing at the Universe and flying 3,500 miles, whilst also restricting his diet, all on very little sleep, the frequent flyer was even drier and more cut in Columbus than he had been a day earlier in London. Sergio by comparison was not as sharp as he had been a year previously and Arnold was declared Pro Mr. World. In a major upset, the reigning Mr. Olympia was beaten in a lesser contest two weeks prior to defending the supreme crown.

That evening, Sergio and the new Mr. World had dinner. Here’s how the wily Arnold remembers that evening. “I told him that everyone at the contest felt he had lost some size. And he said, ‘Oh, man, I'm going to gain 15 pounds so quickly. Believe me, in New York, I'm going to be big again.’ I didn’t dissuade him from doing that and of course his plan backfired big time for him: Because you cannot gain 15 quality pounds in two weeks.”

1970: THE OLD ONE-TWO

Fast-forward to October 3 at the Brooklyn Academy of Music and Sergio strides onstage determined to take his fourth Olympia title. But the man who defeated him two weeks previously had, as always, a strategy as he reveals here: “The judges called Sergio Oliva and me together at the end of the evening for the last time. It was clear the scores were close, and I was wondering: ‘What can I do to convince the judges that it's not close, and that I'm ahead of him?’ I was not that convinced myself, but I had to psych myself up because he looked awesome.

“They called for us to free pose [posedown] together. This was my last chance: It was now or never. We posed and posed. He'd hit a back shot; I'd hit a front lat spread. He'd come back with a thigh shot; I'd hit an arm shot. He'd throw in a side chest— all this stuff was flying around like crazy. Finally, Sergio leans over to me and says, 'I'm wiped out. Let's walk off.'

“I said, 'You're right, this is too much.'

“He waved goodbye to the crowd. I made one step to the right [as if to leave the stage] and Sergio walked offstage to the left. I stayed onstage and gestured in his direction [in the manner of asking], 'Why is he leaving? Why is he surrendering? Is he maybe too old? Is he burned out?' I hit some more shots, and the crowd was chanting, 'Arnold! Arnold! Arnold!' Then I bowed and walked off."

"If that got me the win, I never knew because the judges never commented on it. But I think that, besides being in great shape, that was the additional thing that swayed them. I became aware at that point in my career how quick improvisational tactics are crucial to winning a contest when it is so close."

In a two-week span the 23-year-old had defeated the invincible Sergio Oliva. The future Hollywood box office star would never lose another bodybuilding contest.

1971: THE REMATCH THAT WASN’T

Joe Weider launched the IFBB Mr. Olympia contest in 1965 with the aim of establishing it as the sport’s premier contest ahead of the NABBA Universe, which began in 1950. For a time, competitors could compete in both NABBA and IFBB contests. But as 1970 closed, IFBB President Ben Weider made the pivotal decision that from January 1971 onwards anyone who competed or made an appearance at another federation event would be suspended from IFBB competition.

The 1971 Mr. Olympia, and the much-anticipated Arnold/Sergio rematch, was scheduled for September 25 in Paris, France. A week earlier the NABBA Universe took place and in defiance of the IFBB ruling Sergio entered, finished second to Bill Pearl, and was promptly banned from the Olympia, although he was allowed to guest pose there. In digesting his 1970 defeats to Arnold, Sergio began to cultivate the notion that maybe the IFBB and the Weider magazines were giving the white and more marketable Schwarzenegger preferential treatment. Being disqualified from a contest in which he was thirsting for revenge only added fuel to that stream of thought.

1972: ARNOLD SHADES IT

The 1972 Mr. Olympia was staged in Essen, Germany, and in those days the prejudging wasn’t the long drawn out affair it is now, although what happened at that session determined the outcome. The posing finals weren’t judged and only if the feeling was that the contest was close would the judges call for a set of further comparisons after posing duties had been completed.

Initially the prejudging was slated for a smallish room, but with five competitors (Arnold, Sergio, Serge Nubret, Frank Zane and Franco Columbu) taking part it seemed the originally designated space was not big enough. Eventually adhering to Arnold’s “helpful” advice, they reconvened to a larger warm-up room with dark walls. The best factual account of bodybuilding ever written is Rick Wayne’s Muscle Wars and this is how the gifted Mr. Wayne documented this episode:

“I was far more interested in the paint,” Arnold explained later. “It hadn’t occurred to Sergio that my white body would stand out against the dark wall behind us, while his would blend right in. To this day I believe that is how I got the edge. In a nutshell, the judges saw more than I actually had that day in Germany. Sergio suffered for his blindness.”

While it is generally agreed that color had everything to do with the 1972 Olympia verdict, only Arnold mentioned paint.

Sergio felt he had been robbed in Essen, and his relationship with the IFBB, already in freefall, began to go downhill faster than Chris Christie on a runaway toboggan. He entered the 1973 IFBB Mr. International in Mexico where he issued an onstage challenge to a seated Arnold to come up and compete against him. The Mr. Olympia champ declined feeling that the contest was not of a level that either he or Sergio should be involved in. Eventually Sergio (for reasons that are still hazy) was disqualified from the contest.

Later that year he and Arnold appeared on Tom Snyder’s highly rated late night NBC program The Tomorrow Show. Watched by an audience of millions, Sergio went into a tirade complaining about IFBB corruption and the conspiracy that was executed to steal his Mr. Olympia title and give it to Arnold. He then challenged Arnold to a strength contest. In declining, Arnold said, “I’ve never claimed to be a weightlifting champion like Sergio. Only that I have the better body. That is why I am Mr. Olympia and Sergio is not!”

That only served to stir up anti-Sergio sentiments in the Weider magazines that published stories about his behavior, a typical headline describing him as a “headless chicken.”

FIRE OR ICE: WHO WAS BEST?

In wake of that succession of brouhahas, Sergio did not return to IFBB competition until he placed eighth at the 1984 Olympia in New York, four years after Arnold’s last contest— his 1980 Olympia comeback victory. Twelve years had passed since they last flexed against each other when Sergio controversially lost in Essen. But the biggest loser was the sport itself, because just think of the history we would have to reflect on if Sergio had competed in the IFBB right through to Arnold’s first retirement after the 1975 Olympia. One of the main reasons for his retirement had been he felt he had no real opposition. So would the man destined to play his signature role in Terminator have terminated his bodybuilding career if Sergio had still been part of the IFBB scene? Would the records still read that Arnold won seven Olympias and Sergio three? I think not. So who was the best? Was Arnold better than Sergio? Was Fire a more powerful element than Ice? Rick Wayne nails it: “Arnold was always the greater champion, even though the greater body belonged to Sergio.”

ARNOLD ON SERGIO

He was a terrific, terrific guy. We never spent much time together back in the day because I was on the West Coast and he was in Chicago, but we interacted when we were at competitions and at other events we attended. And in later years he came to the Arnold Classic several times. I had great, great admiration for him: His personality, his work ethic, his look— everything. There will never be another like Sergio— that I can guarantee. Everything after him is fake. He was the original. He was The Myth.

— Arnold Schwarzenegger

SERGIO TALKS OLYMPIA

We, the bodybuilders from the ‘60s, were the foundation that made the Mr. Olympia contest what it is today. After ‘66, when I was fourth, Larry Scott stepped out, so we never had a rematch. In ‘67, I took on and beat all comers: Harold Poole, Dave Draper and Chuck Sipes.

In 1968, nobody would go up against me in the Olympia: I was the only one in the contest. It was good and it was bad. Good that the other guys felt they didn't have a chance against me, but bad because I feel you should always compete whatever the odds. I always enjoyed competing against the other guys.

I had no real competition until 1969, when Arnold showed up. I beat him that year, and in 1970 Arnold looked no different, but he won. He knows and the whole world knows that I was the better bodybuilder. But it was a nice time [my reign as Mr. Olympia], a different time. I might have a lot to say, but I'm a different person than the one I was back then.

After winning the Mr. America, Mr. World and Mr. Universe titles, the only thing left to prepare for was the Mr. Olympia. Being Mr. Olympia carried a magic completely different from that associated with other titles. I feel good still being known as Mr. Olympia— you stand apart.

— Sergio Oliva: transcript of a 1995 interview



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