Mr. Olympia is the biggest show in professional bodybuilding. Joe Weider created it in 1965 so that Mr. Universe winners had somewhere left to compete, and the IFBB Pro League has staged it every year since as the centrepiece of Joe Weider’s Olympia Fitness & Performance Weekend.
In 61 contests, only 19 men have lifted the Sandow trophy. What began as a single show is now a weekend of 11 contests, and the winner’s cheque has grown with it: Samson Dauda took home $600,000 for the 2024 title.
In 2025 Dauda could not defend it. He finished fourth, and Derek Lunsford reclaimed the Sandow trophy to become a two-time Mr. Olympia.
Every champion, 1965 to 2025
19 champions have won it across 61 contests
| Year | Champion | Country | Runner-up |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 |  Derek Lunsford ×2 | United States | Hadi Choopan |
| 2024 |  Samson Dauda | United Kingdom | Hadi Choopan |
| 2023 | Derek Lunsford ×2 | United States | Hadi Choopan |
| 2022 |  Hadi Choopan | Iran | Derek Lunsford |
| 2021 |  Mamdouh Elssbiay ×2 | Egypt | Brandon Curry |
| 2020 | Mamdouh Elssbiay ×2 | Egypt | Brandon Curry |
| 2019 |  Brandon Curry | United States | William Bonac |
| 2018 |  Shawn Rhoden | Jamaica | Phil Heath |
| 2017 |  Phil Heath ×7 | United States | Mamdouh Elssbiay |
| 2016 | Phil Heath ×7 | United States | Shawn Rhoden |
| 2015 | Phil Heath ×7 | United States | Dexter Jackson |
| 2014 | Phil Heath ×7 | United States | Kai Greene |
| 2013 | Phil Heath ×7 | United States | Kai Greene |
| 2012 | Phil Heath ×7 | United States | Kai Greene |
| 2011 | Phil Heath ×7 | United States | Jay Cutler |
| 2010 |  Jay Cutler ×4 | United States | Phil Heath |
| 2009 | Jay Cutler ×4 | United States | Branch Warren |
| 2008 |  Dexter Jackson | United States | Jay Cutler |
| 2007 | Jay Cutler ×4 | United States | Victor Martinez |
| 2006 | Jay Cutler ×4 | United States | Ronnie Coleman |
| 2005 |  Ronnie Coleman ×8 | United States | Jay Cutler |
| 2004 | Ronnie Coleman ×8 | United States | Jay Cutler |
| 2003 | Ronnie Coleman ×8 | United States | Jay Cutler |
| 2002 | Ronnie Coleman ×8 | United States | Kevin Levrone |
| 2001 | Ronnie Coleman ×8 | United States | Jay Cutler |
| 2000 | Ronnie Coleman ×8 | United States | Kevin Levrone |
| 1999 | Ronnie Coleman ×8 | United States | Flex Wheeler |
| 1998 | Ronnie Coleman ×8 | United States | Flex Wheeler |
| 1997 |  Dorian Yates ×6 | United Kingdom | Nasser El Sonbaty |
| 1996 | Dorian Yates ×6 | United Kingdom | Shawn Ray |
| 1995 | Dorian Yates ×6 | United Kingdom | Kevin Levrone |
| 1994 | Dorian Yates ×6 | United Kingdom | Shawn Ray |
| 1993 | Dorian Yates ×6 | United Kingdom | Flex Wheeler |
| 1992 | Dorian Yates ×6 | United Kingdom | Kevin Levrone |
| 1991 |  Lee Haney ×8 | United States | Dorian Yates |
| 1990 | Lee Haney ×8 | United States | Lee Labrada |
| 1989 | Lee Haney ×8 | United States | Lee Labrada |
| 1988 | Lee Haney ×8 | United States | Rich Gaspari |
| 1987 | Lee Haney ×8 | United States | Rich Gaspari |
| 1986 | Lee Haney ×8 | United States | Rich Gaspari |
| 1985 | Lee Haney ×8 | United States | Albert Beckles |
| 1984 | Lee Haney ×8 | United States | Mohamed Makkawy |
| 1983 |  Samir Bannout | Lebanon | Mohamed Makkawy |
| 1982 |  Chris Dickerson | United States | Frank Zane |
| 1981 |  Franco Columbu ×2 | Italy | Chris Dickerson |
| 1980 |  Arnold Schwarzenegger ×7 | Austria | Chris Dickerson |
| 1979 |  Frank Zane ×3 | United States | Dennis Tinerino |
| 1978 | Frank Zane ×3 | United States | Robby Robinson |
| 1977 | Frank Zane ×3 | United States | Robby Robinson |
| 1976 | Franco Columbu ×2 | Italy | Frank Zane |
| 1975 | Arnold Schwarzenegger ×7 | Austria | Franco Columbu |
| 1974 | Arnold Schwarzenegger ×7 | Austria | Lou Ferrigno |
| 1973 | Arnold Schwarzenegger ×7 | Austria | Serge Nubret |
| 1972 | Arnold Schwarzenegger ×7 | Austria | Sergio Oliva |
| 1971 | Arnold Schwarzenegger ×7 | Austria | Unopposed |
| 1970 | Arnold Schwarzenegger ×7 | Austria | Sergio Oliva |
| 1969 |  Sergio Oliva ×3 | Cuba | Arnold Schwarzenegger |
| 1968 | Sergio Oliva ×3 | Cuba | Unopposed |
| 1967 | Sergio Oliva ×3 | Cuba | Chuck Sipes |
| 1966 |  Larry Scott ×2 | United States | Harold Poole |
| 1965 | Larry Scott ×2 | United States | Harold Poole |
Runner-up sourced from 880 recorded placings. Updates automatically.
Every champion, in order
Nineteen men, in the order they first won the title.
Larry Scott2 titles · United States- Sergio Oliva3 titles · Cuba
- Arnold Schwarzenegger7 titles · Austria
- Franco Columbu2 titles · Italy
- Frank Zane3 titles · United States
- Chris Dickerson1 title · United States
- Samir Bannout1 title · Lebanon
- Lee Haney8 titles · United States
- Dorian Yates6 titles · United Kingdom
- Ronnie Coleman8 titles · United States
- Jay Cutler4 titles · United States
- Dexter Jackson1 title · United States
- Phil Heath7 titles · United States
- Shawn Rhoden1 title · Jamaica
- Brandon Curry1 title · United States
- Mamdouh Elssbiay2 titles · Egypt
- Hadi Choopan1 title · Iran
- Derek Lunsford2 titles · United States
- Samson Dauda1 title · United Kingdom
The champions, one by one
Larry Scott (1965-1966)
1965 is where it all started. “Golden Boy” Larry Scott went into the inaugural Olympia in Brooklyn as the favourite, got a real fight from Harold Poole, and won the crown.
Scott beat Poole again in 1966 and then retired, which makes him the only Mr. Olympia champion who never lost one.
Sergio Oliva (1967-1969)
With Scott gone the title was up for grabs, and Oliva took it. He had placed fourth on debut in 1966; a year later he beat Poole in Brooklyn for the first of three straight.
Oliva’s size, symmetry and balance were unmatched, and they earned him a nickname nobody else has carried since: “The Myth”.
The 1968 show tells you how small the sport still was. Every other competitor withdrew and Oliva won unopposed, the first of only two times that has ever happened.
Weider was already fixing that. In 1968 he brought a young Austrian named Arnold Schwarzenegger to America, and by 1969 Schwarzenegger was Oliva’s only opposition. Oliva held him off for a third title. It remains the only loss of Schwarzenegger’s Olympia career.
Arnold Schwarzenegger (1970-1975)
Beaten once, Schwarzenegger came back to New York in 1970 and won at 23 years and 2 months, still the youngest Mr. Olympia ever.
It was the first of six in a row. The 1971 title in Paris was the second unopposed win in Olympia history: a dispute between federations barred Oliva and several others from competing at all.
Oliva returned in 1972 under Arthur Jones and his High Intensity Training, determined to take the throne back. Schwarzenegger beat him anyway, in Essen, to match his three titles.
From 1974 the Olympia ran two weight classes, over and under 200 pounds, with an overall winner crowned from the two. Schwarzenegger won both the heavyweight and the overall that year in New York, and did it again in Pretoria in 1975.
That 1975 contest was filmed for Pumping Iron (1977), which did two things at once. It launched Schwarzenegger’s acting career, and it put bodybuilding in front of an audience that had never watched it before.
Six titles in, the winningest Mr. Olympia of all time retired. Or so everyone thought.
Franco Columbu (1976)
Columbu had finished runner-up to his best friend three years running. With Schwarzenegger retired he finally took the overall in Columbus, winning the under-200 class outright.
1976 was also the first year the Sandow trophy was awarded to the winner.
An injury at the inaugural World’s Strongest Man in 1977 cost Columbu the next four years of his career. He came back in 1981.
Read also: Franco Columbu Passes Away At Age 78
Frank Zane (1977-1979)
Frank Zane won three in a row on aesthetics rather than size, which in the mid-seventies was not the obvious way to do it.
He had lost the 1976 lightweight class to Columbu. From 1977 he won the under-200 division and then the overall three years running in Columbus, beating the much heavier Robby Robinson each time.
1979 was the last year of the two weight classes, and the most interesting of them. Robinson dropped down to the lightweight division to face Zane head to head, and finished third in it.
Arnold Schwarzenegger (1980)
What is better than winning the Mr. Olympia six times? Winning it a seventh.
Schwarzenegger came out of a five-year retirement for the 1980 contest in Sydney and beat the reigning champion Zane. It remains one of the most disputed results in the sport: plenty of people in the room thought Chris Dickerson or Mike Mentzer had done enough.
Several athletes threatened to boycott the following year. Mentzer never competed again. Schwarzenegger, this time, really did retire.
Franco Columbu (1981)
Columbu followed his friend’s lead and returned in 1981 to win a second title in Columbus. If Schwarzenegger’s seventh was controversial, this was worse: most experts thought Dickerson should have taken it.
Chris Dickerson (1982)
With Schwarzenegger and Columbu gone, Dickerson finally won in London. He was the first openly gay man and the first African-American to take the title.
At 43 he was the oldest Mr. Olympia champion, a record Shawn Rhoden took in 2018 at 43 years and 5 months.
Read also: Chris Dickerson Passes Away At 82 Due To Pneumonia
Samir Bannout (1983)
“The Lion of Lebanon” won in Munich, the first Middle Eastern bodybuilder to take the Olympia. It was also, remarkably, his first professional win of any kind.
Lee Haney (1984-1991)
Complete dominance is the only way to describe it. Haney finished third on debut in 1983, came back bigger, and then did not lose for eight years.
Haney won in New York, Brussels, Columbus, Gothenburg, Los Angeles, Rimini, Chicago and finally Orlando, taking Schwarzenegger’s record along the way. Most experts credit him with starting the size era.
He retired straight after the 1991 contest, on top.
Dorian Yates (1992-1997)
Yates finished second to Haney on debut in 1991. He came back for his second Olympia with conditioning nobody had seen before.
Yates held the title for six straight years and is credited with starting the mass monster era. Kevin Levrone, Shawn Ray and Nasser El Sonbaty all finished behind him more than once and none of them ever won one.
His last win, in 1997, was disputed. He was carrying injuries and was not at his best, and many believed El Sonbaty had beaten him. Yates retired straight afterwards.
Ronnie Coleman (1998-2005)
Coleman’s first title is still the biggest surprise in the sport’s history. Every champion before him had already placed top three. Coleman went from ninth in 1997 to the Sandow trophy in 1998.
“The King” then pushed the human body about as far as it has gone, weighing 296 pounds at the 2004 prejudging. Eight straight titles later he had matched Haney’s record, and no one has beaten it since.
Jay Cutler (2006-2007)
Cutler chased Coleman for five years and finished second to him four times before beating him in 2006. He held off Victor Martinez by a narrow margin in 2007.
Coleman placed fourth that year and retired.
Dexter Jackson (2008)
Cutler’s three predecessors had held the title for an average of seven years. He held it for two.
Dexter “The Blade” Jackson took it in 2008, and he did not do it by matching Cutler’s size. He won on conditioning, symmetry and balance, having entered eight Olympias before this one.
Jay Cutler (2009-2010)
Cutler went away, rebuilt, and came back in 2009 to win it again, the first man ever to reclaim the title after losing it.
Cutler’s quad stomp that night is still one of the sport’s iconic moments. He won again in 2010 for a fourth title.
Phil Heath (2011-2017)
Phil Heath beat Cutler in 2011 and kept the title for six more years. “The Gift” won seven straight, matching Schwarzenegger’s total.
Kai Greene finished second to him three years running and never won one.
Shawn Rhoden (2018)
Rhoden jumped from fifth in 2017 to first in 2018, on his eighth Olympia. He brought a complete package, and Heath, recovering from double hernia surgery, could not answer it.
Read also: Former Mr. Olympia Shawn Rhoden Dead at 46
Brandon Curry (2019)
Rhoden was banned from the 2019 contest and from competing again following sexual assault charges, leaving the title open. Curry’s size and conditioning made him the 15th man to win it.
Mamdouh “Big Ramy” Elssbiay (2020-2021)
The 2020 contest had Heath returning after a year away, and Big Ramy competing on a special invitation from new owner Jake Wood, having failed to qualify under the Olympia Qualification System.
He turned up with his usual size and, for once, the conditioning to go with it. That was enough to dethrone Curry and push Heath to third. He held the title again in 2021 against Curry and Hadi Choopan.
Hadi Choopan (2022)
Thirty bodybuilders entered the 2022 contest, one of the deepest Men’s Open fields in years. “The Persian Wolf” had spent three years in the top five; he arrived bigger and harder, and Big Ramy fell to fifth.
Choopan became the 17th man to win the Sandow and the first Iranian to do it.
Derek Lunsford (2023)
Lunsford won the 212 Olympia in 2021, moved up to the Open on a special invitation, finished runner-up in 2022, and took the title in 2023.
His final callout with Choopan and Samson Dauda was the contest. Lunsford’s conditioning, and his back in particular, won it, along with the People’s Choice Award.
Samson Dauda (2024)
The 2024 Olympia marked the show’s 60th anniversary, and all 15 competitors turned up in shape for it.
Third time lucky for Samson Dauda, who debuted in 2022 and placed third in 2023. With the title came a $600,000 cheque, a championship ring and a one-off golden Sandow.
Derek Lunsford (2025)
Dauda came in as champion and left in fourth. Derek Lunsford, Hadi Choopan and Andrew Jacked fought out the top three.
Lunsford’s conditioning and improved leg width settled it. He is only the second man, after Cutler, to win the Sandow back after losing it.
What 880 placings reveal
A winners list looks the same on every site that publishes one. These are the things only the full results can tell you.
Only one champion ever won it on debut
Larry Scott, at the very first Olympia in 1965. Every champion since lost before winning, on average 3.3 times first.
Larry ScottSergio OlivaArnold SchwarzeneggerLee HaneyDorian YatesDerek LunsfordFrank ZaneChris DickersonSamson DaudaSamir BannoutPhil HeathHadi ChoopanFranco ColumbuRonnie ColemanJay CutlerBrandon CurryMamdouh ElssbiayShawn RhodenDexter JacksonOlympias entered before a first title, fewest first
The best bodybuilders who never won it
Kevin Levrone reached the podium 7 times between 1992 and 2002, 4 of them as runner-up, and never took the title.
Each block is one podium finish. Filled = runner-up.
5 reigns hold 35 of the 61 titles
The title moves in blocks rather than years. The long reigns below are the dynasties; the single years are the era we are in now.
Larry ScottSergio OlivaArnold SchwarzeneggerFranco ColumbuFrank ZaneArnold SchwarzeneggerFranco ColumbuChris DickersonSamir BannoutLee HaneyDorian YatesRonnie ColemanJay CutlerDexter JacksonJay CutlerPhil HeathShawn RhodenBrandon CurryMamdouh ElssbiayHadi ChoopanDerek LunsfordSamson DaudaDerek LunsfordEach bar is one unbroken reign, oldest first
How many rivals you had to beat
The 1960s Olympia averaged 2.8 competitors. By the 2010s it was 18.8, and in the 2020s it is 17.5.
Average scored competitors per contest, by decade
Where the title lives
Champion nationality, decade by decade.
Oxblood marks a champion from outside the United States
