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5 career wins
Gary Strydom
CountrySouth Africa
GenderMale
DivisionMen's Open Bodybuilding
Born1960
Born inDurban, South Africa
StatusRetired
Gary Strydom is a South African bodybuilder, born in 1960, who placed fifth at the Mr. Olympia and then won three Grand Prix titles in a single year. He stood 188 cm and competed at 137 kg, and has twenty-four results on record between 1983 and 2006.
Known for
1989, when he won the Grand Prix in Sweden, France and Melbourne. The year before he had taken fifth at the Mr. Olympia, and in 1987 he won the Night of Champions. He also won the WBF Grand Prix in 1991.
Early career
He came up through the American amateur ranks, winning the Florida Championships in 1983 as a junior heavyweight, the USA Championships in 1984 and the Nationals in 1986. He competed in the open class from 1987 onward and his recorded career runs on, with gaps, until 2006. Twenty of his twenty-four recorded contests are professional.
Championship record
Championship appearances
Counted from the same results table below: an appearance is one contest entered (in the years the Olympia also judged weight classes, one appearance can carry two placings), an Olympia title is the overall win in that division, and Top 3 counts first, second and third together. The last row is every professional contest on record for Gary Strydom.
Mr. Olympia
1Appearance
0Titles
0Top 3
Arnold Classic
1Appearance
0Titles
1Top 3
All contests on record
21Contests
5Wins
16Top 3
Professional results
Every professional contest result on record for Gary Strydom, 21 in all. The table opens on the first 15 and expands in place from there. Nothing sits on a separate page. Won by names the winner of the division Gary Strydom competed in, and shows a dash where that winner cannot be pinned to one person in the database.
| Year | Contest | Division | Place | Won by |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2006 | Colorado Pro Championships | Men's Open Bodybuilding | #7 | Phil Heath |
| 1996 | Night of Champions | Men's Open Bodybuilding | #12 | Flex Wheeler |
| 1991 | WBF Grand Prix | Men's Open Bodybuilding | #1 | Winner |
| 1990 | Grand Prix England | Men's Open Bodybuilding | #2 | Mohammed Benaziza |
| 1990 | Grand Prix Finland | Men's Open Bodybuilding | #3 | Mohammed Benaziza |
| 1990 | Grand Prix France | Men's Open Bodybuilding | #2 | Mohammed Benaziza |
| 1990 | Grand Prix Germany | Men's Open Bodybuilding | #4 | Mohammed Benaziza |
| 1990 | Grand Prix Italy | Men's Open Bodybuilding | #3 | Mohammed Benaziza |
| 1990 | Houston Pro Championships | Men's Open Bodybuilding | #2 | J J Marsh |
| 1990 | Ironman Pro Invitational | Men's Open Bodybuilding | #4 | Shawn Ray |
| 1989 | Arnold Classic | Men's Open Bodybuilding | #3 | Rich Gaspari |
| 1989 | Grand Prix France | Men's Open Bodybuilding | #1 | Winner |
| 1989 | Grand Prix Germany | Men's Open Bodybuilding | #2 | Mike Christian |
| 1989 | Grand Prix Melbourne | Men's Open Bodybuilding | #1 | Winner |
| 1989 | Grand Prix Spain | Men's Open Bodybuilding | #2 | Mike Christian |
| 1989 | Grand Prix Spain (2) | Men's Open Bodybuilding | #2 | Mike Christian |
| 1989 | Grand Prix Sweden | Men's Open Bodybuilding | #1 | Winner |
| 1989 | World Pro Championships | Men's Open Bodybuilding | #2 | Robby Robinson |
| 1988 | Chicago Pro Championships | Men's Open Bodybuilding | #2 | Phil Williams |
| 1988 | Mr. Olympia | Men's Open Bodybuilding | #5 | Lee Haney |
| 1987 | Night of Champions | Men's Open Bodybuilding | #1 | Winner |
Showing 15 of 21 professional results.
Where these results come from. Each contest in the table was recorded from a named source, and for Gary Strydom that source is MuscleMemory. Open any contest above and that page names its own source and links to it where the source is still reachable. That archive no longer answers at the addresses we hold, so it is credited by name here and not offered as a link.
Every professional season
Peak Year 1989 (3 wins)
Measured against Gary Strydom’s own seasons, not against the field.
Olympia
1st place
2nd place
3rd place
Other
- Pro Debut
- 1987
- Olympia Debut
- 1988
- Peak Year
- 1989
- Last Contest
- 2006
Physique benchmark
How Gary Strydom measures up
Fat-free mass index turns the height and weight on this profile into one number for how much muscle a frame carries, so a shorter competitor is not flattered by a bodyweight comparison. The normalised figure adjusts it again to a standard height, which is the version worth ranking. Both assume the 6% body fat a competitor steps on stage at, because that is the only condition the recorded weight was taken in.
36.5FFMI
36.0Normalised FFMI
32ndOf 316 measured men
The closest Olympia champion on that measure is Nick Walker, at 36.0, the same figure.
What this rank is not. This database holds a height and a weight for just 463 athletes, and they are overwhelmingly the ones somebody bothered to measure: 74 of them hold an Olympia title. Almost every competitor on record carries no measurement at all. The pool also mixes every division and era together, from the lightweight women's classes to the open heavyweights, so it ranks size and nothing else. It says where Gary Strydom sits among the athletes we hold measurements for, not among competitors.
Amateur and other shows not counted above
3 results from amateur shows and other contests this archive does not class as professional. Every total on this page covers the professional career only, so these are listed here but never counted, and they have no contest page.
Show the list
| Year | Contest | Division | Place |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1986 | Nationals | Men's Bodybuilding (Heavyweight) | #1 |
| 1984 | USA Championships | Men's Bodybuilding (Heavyweight) | #1 |
| 1983 | Florida Championships | Division not recorded (Junior Heavyweight) | #1 |
More Men's Open Bodybuilding athletes Athletes from South Africa
Most-met rivals
Compare any two athletes →In 15 meetings, Gary Strydom finished ahead of Ron Love 15 times to 0.
Opponents are ranked by how often they shared a stage and how big the stage was, not by reputation. A meeting is one contest where both competed in the same division and both were placed.
11
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0
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6
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5
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10
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3
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3
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10
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Sources
Contest record and measurements from the Fitness Volt bodybuilding database.
Win rate here is first-place finishes as a share of all 21 professional contest results. It is published only where a career holds at least five, because below that a single placing moves the figure by twenty points or more.