The dust has settled following the 2025 Mr. Olympia contest, leaving some fans with more questions than answers. On Oct. 13, coach Chris Aceto discussed the height cheating scandal involving Mike Sommerfeld and explained why Nick Walker was the odd man out onstage.
Days before the Classic Physique Olympia went down, competitors were informed by the IFBB Pro League that their heights would be rechecked. This came after Sommerfeld’s suspected height went viral on Instagram, where he told Dennis James he was 5’7″. However, in a podcast with Jay Cutler, he confirmed that his weight cap was 212 pounds, which is reserved only for athletes who are over 5’9.5″.
Long story short, Sommerfeld made the weight, but he had to drop 14 pounds in two days. When they hit the stage, his physique held up, but Ramon Queiroz brought his best to win the vacant Classic Physique Olympia title. Now, with time to digest what took place, Aceto opened up some of the biggest storylines that took over the weekend.
Chris Aceto Points Out Alleged Cheating in Classic Physique at Mr. Olympia, Discusses Nick Walker’s Drop to 6th Place
In the video, Aceto reflected on Queiroz having his height and weight checked. To prevent cheating, he revealed that officials actually held the Brazilian champ’s feet down when measuring for height.
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Like Logan Franklin, who said that Ramon Dino would not make the weight; they thought he wouldn’t make the weight, but nobody expected him not to make the height. When they heighted him in, not only did they height him in, his feet were held on the platform, seriously, so that he would not cheat.”
He explained that Urs Kalecinski, Chris Bumstead, and Mike Sommerfeld have all used hairdos to skirt the official height requirements.
“Last year, we saw the weird hairdos on the Liberace hairdo on Urs, and we saw the woodworker hairdo on Mike. The point is, I did not know that people would show up at Titans with an idea that I am going to come in and skirt the official height based on my hairdo.
That is not fair in the context of two years ago, I just told you what happened, Ramon did not make the weight, and he made the weight, and then everyone was surprised.”
In contrast, he emphasized that Queiroz never used these tactics to trick officials:
“I did not know that other people… I just named them, cheated. I don’t know how we got to this point,” said Aceto. “Urs had that hairdo so he could make the weight. He did it, Sommerfeld did it, Bumstead did it. Ramon didn’t do it.”
As for Walker, Aceto believes he got lost in the shuffle during prejudging since there were so many physiques that made the first callout.
“Alone in a two-person callout, Nick versus Hadi, your eyes would either go to Hadi’s condition or you’d say Nick. But when you put so many different physiques up there all at once, eight people in a first callout, the first thing you recognize is that he’s massive, the second thing that you recognize is the v-taper and the legs look shorter, no matter how big he is.”
“You start to discount what you see because the shape is off,” he said. “It’s what you see collectively with everyone else in the lineup. Your eyes just don’t go to him when you have Andrew, Samson, taller guys with very small waists and Derek and Hadi who in their stance, they give an appearance whether it shows up in video or not, but in person, they got a crazy midsection or v-taper.”
He shared that Walker might have finished even lower than sixth if the show had been scored purely on the prejudging round.
“Your eyes don’t go to the odd person out. I think he was as low as, to me, he was definitely lower than sixth based on the callouts. The scorecards may not reflect what he got at prejudging, but I think he was outside the top six in prejudging.”
Attention is quickly shifting to the 2026 Arnold Classic, which is set for Columbus, Ohio, in March. Reigning Classic Physique Olympia Queiroz has yet to confirm his possible entry. Meanwhile, Sommerfeld has been quiet, deciding not to post on Instagram since the Olympia event on Oct. 11.
The height and weight cap restrictions in Classic Physique continue to cause controversy. In time, hopefully, the IFBB Pro League can develop a system that all competitors and coaches can agree on.
RELATED: Ramon Queiroz Issues Statement After Making History as the New 2025 Classic Physique Olympia
Watch the full video from the Rx Muscle – Truth In Bodybuilding YouTube channel below:
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