Lee Priest is an absolute legend from Australia who competed against Ronnie Coleman and the other elite bodybuilders in that era; having consistently placed in the top 10 at the Olympia and even winning the Mr. Universe title in 2013.
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But when Ronnie Coleman attended the 2019 Dubai Muscle Show in December of last year, he was asked to talk about the time when Lee Priest finished ahead of him at the 1997 IronMan Pro and Olympia the same year.
Coleman’s response…
“I’m thinking to myself I’m 5’11, got a lot of mass, real big guy. And I look over at Lee he’s all of 5 foot 2 but he was beating me and I was like how is a guy that size beating a guy my size? I’m like well maybe this isn’t the sport for me.”
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The 8x Mr. Olympia then mentioned how he was really considering throwing in the towel after Priest continued to place ahead of him in future shows. But then he told a girl he was with that he was about done and she told him “boy, shut up“. He then explained that right after that moment he thought to himself…
“Well wait a minute, If I quit bodybuilding then I lose my free membership to the gym”.
Well, let’s just say that his contemplation didn’t go any further than that moment.
But it’s a good thing he persevered even when it seemed like there was no hope because if he did quit then there would be no talk of the winningest Mr. Olympia champion in history (alongside Lee Haney of course).
Watch the video below…