Another top Men’s Open competitor has decided to bow out of the nearing 2023 Mr. Olympia contest. In a recent post made to Instagram on October 9, Brett Wilkin announced his withdrawal from the event as he continues to suffer from digestive problems.
“Unfortunately, this is going to be one of the harder videos I’ve ever had to make before. It took the last few days to bring this together and actually talk about it with the decision. But with that being said, I will not be competing at the Mr. Olympia here in four weeks’ time,” Brett Wilkin announced.
Wilkin quickly emerged as a name to watch in the Men’s Open division, showcasing aesthetics while retaining enough size to be competitive with mass monsters. In 2022, however, the world took notice of Wilkin’s potential as he delivered a sixth-place debut on the Arnold Classic stage.
Having taken months to add more size, Wilkin returned in pursuit of Olympia glory at the 2022 Romania Muscle Fest Pro, though ended the contest in second place to Behrooz Tabani. Undeterred, Wilkin used the moment as fuel to take home gold at the Big Man Weekend Pro. This earned him a qualification for the upcoming 2023 Olympia.
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And while all signs pointed to “The Butcher” testing himself against the world’s best, it appears health issues are preventing him from making it to the most important bodybuilding contest of his career.
Brett Wilkin on 2023 Mr. Olympia Withdrawal: “My Body Was Fighting Me, I Was Getting No Response in the Gym”
Wilkin highlighted that the main reasons for his withdrawal were due to gastrointestinal issues, and stressed that he was nauseous, dizzy, and unable to keep food down
“It’s probably the hardest thing I could say because I spent the last – now it’s been a year you know preparing for this moment this weekend coming ahead and a huge goal of mine. As you know, I spent the last 8-9 years coming for this and it kind of all fell apart on me.”
“Just give you some detail, I can’t spend the next 15 minutes talking about what transpired these last 7-8 weeks. It’s more like 5-6 weeks I guess. But to make a long story short: the body was not responding as it should be from the get-go. I had some earlier red flags and just kind of hid that. And that progressed into me not being able to keep food down, keep meals down. I was vomiting a meal or two a day which then I would try to replace. I was nauseous; I was dizzy and paired that with some unwanting diarrhea issues as well, that I was hiding and dealing with those by myself, and just trying to continue to push through what we do, we’re bodybuilders, we have those prep feels, but these weren’t prep feels.”
“My body was fighting me, I was getting no response in the gym. It came to a breaking point, kind of an ugly breaking point where I had to address it with not only Matt and the people around me Ivanna, we made the decision to back off with everything involved with the prep. I haven’t trained in 14 or 15 days. I haven’t been able to eat and if you know me and my history I have to eat a lot of calories to keep on the size and even on prep, I have to eat to keep on the size and the muscle density because I have a high metabolism.”
Failing to “replace the meals” he was vomiting, Wilkin said he’s dropped 15-17 pounds over the last two weeks.
“I was trying to replace the meals I was vomiting and it just became a vicious circle of not having enough nutrients. To push the training that was going bad, my body weight dropped, I think I lost 15-17 pounds in the last two weeks.”
“I didn’t think I could push through the next five weeks — not just physically but mentally.”
“The mental side of things with stress and anxiety it just became a dark deep circle that I had to get out of. These last two weeks I haven’t been doing any training. I have been doing some extensive GI work. I have a GI map coming.”
According to Wilkin, his GI issues aren’t “chronic” and he intends on returning to the sport in due time.
“I have a good team behind me looking at everything walking me through this,” added Brett Wilkin.“I will be back. This isn’t something that is chronic. Hopefully. The last few days have been better. De-stressing has helped a little bit. I still can’t eat like I want to but I imagine that will get better with time and that’s all I need here. Time to rest the mind and the body and the GI tract.”
Men’s Open talent Brett Wilkin isn’t the only competitor to pull out of the 2023 Mr. Olympia competition this year. On September 23, 2023, former two-time champion Mamdouh ‘Big Ramy’ Elssbiay announced his withdrawal from the event. While he didn’t reveal exactly why he wasn’t competing, Ramy expressed that his body needed a break.
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Brett Wilkin is taking himself out of this competition but will attend 2023 Olympia for the festivities. Our staff at Fitness Volt wishes him a speedy recovery.
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