William Bonac has stood on the Mr. Olympia stage 11 times. This weekend makes 12, and he says it will be the last.
The Dutch bodybuilder told Beyond the Stage TV this week that the 2026 Olympia is his final one. He is not quite done, though. He wants two more shows next year: the Arnold Classic, which he has won twice, and then the Arnold Classic UK, where he plans to retire for good.
He told the show that finishing at the Arnold would be the perfect way to end his career.
Here is every Olympia since his 2014 debut, in one table. Run a finger down the middle column and you get a mountain: a long climb, one peak and a slow walk down the other side.
William Bonac’s Olympia record, year by year
| Year | Bonac’s place | Mr. Olympia that year |
|---|---|---|
| 2014 | 15th | Phil Heath |
| 2015 | 8th | Phil Heath |
| 2016 | 5th | Phil Heath |
| 2017 | 3rd | Phil Heath |
| 2018 | 4th | Shawn Rhoden |
| 2019 | 2nd | Brandon Curry |
| 2020 | 5th | Big Ramy |
| 2021 | 6th | Big Ramy |
| 2022 | 9th | Hadi Choopan |
| 2023 | Did not compete | Derek Lunsford |
| 2024 | 7th | Samson Dauda |
| 2025 | 9th | Derek Lunsford |
| 2026 | Decided Saturday night | |
The climb: 15th to 2nd in five years
Bonac’s Olympia debut in 2014 ended in 15th place. That is not where future contenders usually start.
Three years later he was third, behind only Phil Heath and Big Ramy. He slipped one spot in 2018, the night Shawn Rhoden ended Heath’s reign, and nobody blinked: by then a Bonac top-five finish was the expected result, and he delivered five of them in a row.
He was winning away from the Olympia too. Bonac took the Arnold Classic in 2018, finished second there in 2019 and won it again in 2020. No wonder the Arnold gets his goodbye.
2019: the closest he came
The 2019 Olympia was the best night of Bonac’s career. Second place, one man between him and the Sandow, the closest he ever got.
That man was Brandon Curry, who took the Sandow that night. Curry is in this year’s 22-man lineup too, so the man who stopped Bonac on his best night will be standing next to him on his last.
Down the other side, still winning
After 2019 the walk down began. The table tells it: ninth by 2022, a year off, ninth again last October.
Retirement talk would be easier to believe if he had stopped winning. He has not. In June he won the France Pro and the Empro Classic Spain Pro two weeks apart, then finished second at the FLEX Weekend Italy Pro seven days later. Our 2026 Mr. Olympia predictions had him just outside our top 10.
Seven champions came and went
Look at the right-hand column of that table again. Seven different men won the Sandow at Olympias Bonac competed in, from Phil Heath to Derek Lunsford. He was already in the lineup when Heath was winning his fourth title, and he is still in it now. The whole modern era of the Sandow walked past him, and he was there for nearly all of it.
One more night in Las Vegas
The Men’s Open is prejudged Friday night and the Sandow is handed out Saturday. Every callout and the crowning go up on our 2026 Mr. Olympia live updates page, and his full contest history is on William Bonac’s athlete page. For everything else on the line this weekend, here is every record that could fall at the 2026 Olympia.
Bonac will not be the favorite, and for once that is not the point. He walked onto this stage in 15th place 12 years ago and got within one man of the Sandow. On Saturday he walks off it with two wins from this summer still fresh, on a date he picked himself. That is how you want to leave.
Follow the 2026 Arnold Classic live – prejudging breakdowns, event recaps, expert analysis, and complete results as they happen. Get full coverage at our Arnold Classic hub: FitnessVolt.com/arnold-classic
