After an 11-year absence, the Masters Olympia competition is set to return later this year from August 25-27, at the Arena în Cluj Napoca, Romania. With the show’s impending comeback, Milos Sarcev made it clear he won’t return and discussed other possible participants for the event.
The last Masters Olympia competition took place in 2012 and was won by Dexter ‘The Blade’ Jackson. For most of last year, the show’s return was only rumored. However, Jake Wood finally confirmed the event would take place at a venue in Romania. He relayed that 10 divisions would be featured at the contest, with the Men’s Open division hosting bodybuilders in the 45+ age bracket.
News of the event’s return prompted fans to scout for possible participants. Late last year, four-time Mr. Olympia Jay Cutler inadvertently teased a comeback after being spotted in a posing/training session with fitness influencer Lex Little. Despite his ripped physique at 49 years old, Cutler quickly shot down any chances of a return, including a possible Masters Olympia appearance.
Meanwhile, Branch Warren, another prolific Men’s Open competitor, never talked about a comeback but his physique updates were consistently impressive. Months ago, he reiterated that he’s done competing and plans to steer clear of bodybuilding drugs. Nevertheless, his longtime teammate, Johnnie Jackson, intends to throw his name in the hat for Masters Olympia later this year.
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Milos Sarcev Says Athletes Won’t ‘Cut Their Cycles’ for Masters Olympia, ‘Hates’ Idea of Show’s Return
Given some of the risks in bodybuilding, Sarcev was critical of the Masters Olympia contest returning in August.
“My training partner won Masters Olympia, Vince Taylor won once. Okay, I understand. That was my thinking was guys over 40 but then, you see they have a Masters over 50, Masters over 60, they have nationals here, Masters over 70 and 80… for the love of God.
You guys are quite loud in expressing your opinion, not you but media, ‘oh this is dangerous, bodybuilders are dying because we use steroids and you know its dangerous, but now you want to encourage old men at the age of 50 plus to pushing like back when they were youngers’ because there’s no way no how that anybody that decides to go now on the Masters can cut their cycle in half because now they are wiser — no,” Sarcev explained.
When asked if he’d return for Masters Olympia, Sarcev was quick to say ‘hell no.’ He specified that the effort wouldn’t be worth pushing his body to such limits.
“They are going to say, ‘okay, if I’m coming back after 10 years of not competing, and I want to be impressive, I don’t want to have a bad last picture of me. I want to impress them. I want to go out on my shield. I’m going to bring it. I hate it. I already said it.
They’re probably not going to like it. They asked me if you would compete, hell no! Why would I push myself to those limits, I know what it took to get there, right. You want to see me, and you expect old Milos or you expect old whoever – so, a guy like Kamal [Elgargni] yes, the show is made for him,” says Milos Sarcev.
Moreover, Sarcev explained that he wouldn’t want to see other veterans like Jay Cutler or Chris Cormier return because they would be ‘shadows of themselves’ on stage.
He’s already doing it [competing]. If you’re already doing it and you happen to be over 40 or 50, Masters is a good contest. But if you’re doing a Masters, and everybody is oh, ‘Chris Cormier, Jay Cutler, whoever else, come in it’s Masters,’ hell no. I don’t want to see them compete. Why would I want to see them compete, they will be shadows of themselves,” Milos Sarcev said.
Another popular 90s bodybuilder fans would like to see perform again is Kevin Levrone. Similar to Cutler, Levrone recently committed to a physique transformation program. While he’s made no mention of a Masters Olympia return, the 58-year-old looks tremendous and has kept fans updated on his progress with various training sessions.
Like Samir Bannout recently suggested, Sarcev believes older bodybuilders are incurring more risk while practicing the sport. As for his competitive ambitions, Sarcev is content with stepping away from the stage to coach rising athletes like Samson Dauda and Regan Grimes.
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