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1x Mr. Olympia, 2018

Shawn Rhoden

CountryJamaica
GenderMale
Born1975
DiedNovember 6, 2021, aged 46
Born inKingston, Jamaica
Social Instagram X
StatusRetired

Shawn Rhoden won the 2018 Mr. Olympia, beating Phil Heath and ending a seven-year reign. He was Jamaican-American, had been on the Olympia stage for eight years, and died in 2021.

Known for

The 2018 title is one of the biggest upsets the contest has produced. Heath had won seven in a row and was expected to equal the record of eight; Rhoden beat him at 43, the oldest first-time winner in the contest's history.

The climb to it was gradual and complete: eleventh in 2011, then third, fourth, third, third, second in 2016, fifth in 2017, and first in 2018. He was also runner-up at the 2014 Arnold Classic.

Early career

He turned professional by winning the heavyweight class at the 2009 North American Championships, ten years after his first recorded contest.

2012 was his breakout professional season, with four wins: the British Grand Prix, the Tampa Pro, the Arnold Classic Europe and the Europa Supershow. He added the Australia Pro Grand Prix and the San Marino Pro in 2014.

Championship record

Where the titles came from

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 Shawn Rhoden.

Mr. Olympia

8Appearances
1Title
5Top 3

Arnold Classic

2Appearances
0Titles
1Top 3

All contests on record

33Contests
8Wins
24Top 3

Professional results

Every professional contest result on record for Shawn Rhoden, 33 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 Shawn Rhoden competed in, and shows a dash where that winner cannot be pinned to one person in the database.

YearContestDivisionPlaceWon by
2018 Mr. Olympia Men's Open Bodybuilding #1 Winner
2017 Arnold Classic Europe Men's Open Bodybuilding #3 Mamdouh Elssbiay
2017 Mr. Olympia Men's Open Bodybuilding #5 Phil Heath
2016 Arnold Classic Europe Men's Open Bodybuilding #4 Dexter Jackson
2016 Kuwait Pro Championships Men's Open Bodybuilding #3 Mamdouh Elssbiay
2016 Mr. Olympia Men's Open Bodybuilding #2 Phil Heath
2016 Olympia Europe Men's Open Bodybuilding #2 Dexter Jackson
2016 Prague Pro Championships Men's Open Bodybuilding #4 William Bonac
2015 Arnold Classic Europe Men's Open Bodybuilding #2 Dexter Jackson
2015 IFBB EVLS Prague Pro Men's Open Bodybuilding #3 Dexter Jackson
2015 Mr. Olympia Men's Open Bodybuilding #3 Phil Heath
2015 Prague Pro Championships Men's Open Bodybuilding #3 Dexter Jackson
2014 Arnold Classic Men's Open Bodybuilding #2 Dennis Wolf
2014 Arnold Classic Europe Men's Open Bodybuilding #2 Dennis Wolf
2014 Australia Pro Grand Prix Men's Open Bodybuilding #1 Winner
2014 Dubai Pro Men's Open Bodybuilding #2 Dexter Jackson
2014 EVLS Prague Pro Men's Open Bodybuilding #3 Dennis Wolf
2014 IFBB San Marino Pro Men's Open Bodybuilding #1 Winner
2014 Mr. Olympia Men's Open Bodybuilding #3 Phil Heath
2013 Arnold Classic Europe Men's Open Bodybuilding #4 –
2013 Mr. Olympia Men's Open Bodybuilding #4 Phil Heath
2012 Arnold Classic Men's Open Bodybuilding #8 Branch Warren
2012 Arnold Classic Europe Men's Open Bodybuilding #1 Winner
2012 EVL Prague Pro Men's Open Bodybuilding #2 Dennis Wolf
2012 Flex Pro Men's Open Bodybuilding #4 Lionel Beyeke
2012 IFBB British Grand Prix Men's Open Bodybuilding #1 Winner
2012 IFBB Europa SuperShow Men's Open Bodybuilding #1 Winner
2012 Mr. Olympia Men's Open Bodybuilding #3 Phil Heath
2012 Pro Bodybuilding Weekly Championships Men's Open Bodybuilding #1 Winner
2012 Tampa Pro Championships Men's Open Bodybuilding #1 Winner
2011 Europa Supershow Men's Open Bodybuilding #3 Toney Freeman
2011 Mr. Olympia Men's Open Bodybuilding #11 Phil Heath
2010 Europa Supershow Men's Open Bodybuilding #16 Essa Hassan Obaid

Showing 15 of 33 professional results. Showing all 33 professional results.

Where these results come from. Each contest in the table was recorded from a named source, and for Shawn Rhoden those sources are NPC Contests and MuscleMemory. Open any contest above and that page names its own source and links to it where the source is still reachable. MuscleMemory is the exception: the archive we recorded those older shows from no longer answers at the addresses we hold, so it is credited by name and not offered as a link.

Every professional season

2010 to 2018 shown · 33 professional results

Peak Year 2012 (5 wins)

Measured against Shawn Rhoden’s own seasons, not against the field. See the full peak window →

2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017
2018
Olympia 1st place 2nd place 3rd place Other
Pro Debut
2010
Olympia Debut
2011
First Win
2012
Last Contest
2018

Shawn Rhoden at the Olympia, year by year

Shawn Rhoden at the Mr. Olympia: 1 title (2018), first appearance 2011. Source: Fitness Volt Bodybuilding Database.
Year Placement Division
2011 11 Men's Open Bodybuilding
2012 3 Men's Open Bodybuilding
2013 4 Men's Open Bodybuilding
2014 3 Men's Open Bodybuilding
2015 3 Men's Open Bodybuilding
2016 2 Men's Open Bodybuilding
2017 5 Men's Open Bodybuilding
2018 1 Men's Open Bodybuilding

Data updated

Physique benchmark

How Shawn Rhoden 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.

34.1FFMI
34.4Normalised FFMI
55thOf 316 measured men

The closest Olympia champion on that measure is Derek Lunsford, at 34.7.

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 Shawn Rhoden sits among the athletes we hold measurements for, not among competitors.

Amateur and other shows not counted above

7 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
YearContestDivisionPlace
2009 North American Championships Men's Bodybuilding (Heavyweight) #1
2002 Nationals Men's Bodybuilding (Heavyweight) #14
2001 North American Championships Men's Bodybuilding (Light Heavyweight) #2
2001 Team Universe Championships Men's Bodybuilding (Light Heavyweight) #2
2000 Team Universe Championships Men's Bodybuilding (Light Heavyweight) #4
1999 Jan Tana Amateur Men's Bodybuilding (Light Heavyweight) #2
1999 Team Universe Championships Men's Bodybuilding (Light Heavyweight) #3

Death

Rhoden died in 2021, aged 46. He did not defend the Olympia title.

The circumstances of the last years of his life were the subject of legal proceedings that were unresolved at his death, and nothing about them is reproduced here.

Legacy

He is the only man to beat Phil Heath at a Mr. Olympia. That is the sentence his record will always reduce to, and for one night in 2018 it was the biggest thing in the sport.

In 9 meetings, Phil Heath finished ahead of Shawn Rhoden 8 times to 1.

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.

Sources

Competition placings on this page come from our own contest database and cover 1999 to 2018. His year of death is also held in our database.

Nothing about the legal proceedings reported during his final years is covered here. They were unresolved when he died and a contest-record page is not where they belong.

Win rate here is first-place finishes as a share of all 33 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.

High confidence 33 professional results, Well-verified source Updated September 30, 2026 Accurate?

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