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Shawn Rhoden was a Men's Open Bodybuilding competitor from Jamaica. Shawn Rhoden has a verified height of 5'9" (175 cm) and a recorded contest weight of 245 lb (111 kg).
1x Mr. Olympia, 2018
Shawn Rhoden
CountryJamaica
GenderMale
DivisionMen's Open Bodybuilding
Born1975
DiedNovember 6, 2021, aged 46
Born inKingston, Jamaica
Social
StatusRetired
Shawn Rhoden, a bodybuilder from Jamaica, stands 5'9" (175 cm) tall and competed at a contest weight of around 245 lb (111 kg). He was born in Kingston, Jamaica on April 2, 1975 and died on November 6, 2021, aged 46.
Career Record
- Total Results
- 40
- Wins
- 9
- Win Rate
- 22.5%
- Career
- 1999–2018
- Height
- 5'9" (175 cm)
- Weight
- 245 lb (111 kg)
- Lifespan
- 1975-2021 (aged 46)
- Division
- Men's Open Bodybuilding
- Country
- Jamaica
- Olympia Titles
- 1
- Verified
- Sources
- 38
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.
Win rate here is first-place finishes as a share of all 40 recorded 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.
Every season on record
Peak Year 2012 (5 wins)
Measured against Shawn Rhoden’s own seasons, not against the field. See the full peak window →
Olympia
1st place
2nd place
3rd place
Other
- Pro Debut
- 1999
- First Win
- 2009
- Olympia Debut
- 2011
- Peak Year
- 2012
- Last Contest
- 2018
| 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
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 recorded placing at that series, a title is a first place, and Top 3 counts first, second and third together. The last row is every contest on record for Shawn Rhoden, amateur shows included.
Mr. Olympia
9Appearances
1Titles
6Top 3
Arnold Classic
8Appearances
1Titles
5Top 3
All contests on record
40Contests
9Wins
29Top 3
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: 73 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.
All results
Every contest result on record for Shawn Rhoden, 40 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.
| Year | Contest | Division | Place | Won 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 | Mr. Olympia | 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 | Phil Heath |
| 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 |
| 2009 | North American Championships | Men's Open Bodybuilding | #1 | Winner |
| 2002 | Nationals | Men's Open Bodybuilding | #14 | Jojo Ntiforo |
| 2001 | North American Championships | Men's Open Bodybuilding | #2 | Gregory Ulysse |
| 2001 | Team Universe Championships | Men's Open Bodybuilding | #2 | Greg Rando |
| 2000 | Team Universe Championships | Men's Open Bodybuilding | #4 | Greg Rando |
| 1999 | Jan Tana Amateur | Men's Open Bodybuilding | #2 | Eddie Linda |
| 1999 | Team Universe Championships | Men's Open Bodybuilding | #3 | Jeff Willet |
Showing 15 of 40 recorded results.
Where these results come from. Each contest in the table was recorded from a named source, and for Shawn Rhoden those sources are MuscleMemory and NPC Contests. 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.
More Men's Open Bodybuilding athletes Athletes from Jamaica Shawn Rhoden peak window
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.
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.
Most-met rivals
Compare any two athletes →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.
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