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Phil Heath on Skipping the Arnold: “I Didn’t Feel Like Doing It”
- Updated: March 11, 2011
Phil Heath drove around Columbus, Ohio in style. Coming out of the airport car rental agency in a fire engine red Ford F-150, the 2010 Mr. Olympia runner-up made his way around town and was a fixture at the Muscle Tech booth at the expo. Although he looked as if he could have stepped on stage and been a factor, ‘The Gift’ had no regrets about skipping the Arnold Classic.
“I just didn’t feel like doing it,” he said when asked why he sat this one out. “I’m going to concentrate on the Olympia. A lot of people are under the misnomer that you have to win an Arnold before getting an Olympia and that’s just not so. There’s been Olympia winners that never won the Arnold and Arnold winners that never won the Olympia.”
Heath is sort of correct in that assessment. Since the first Arnold Classic in 1989, there have been 14 different winners. Only three of those men (Ronnie Coleman, Jay Cutler and Dexter Jackson) have also tasted victory at the Mr. Olympia. It remains to be seen if Branch Warren can become the fourth.
Since 1989, there have been only five different men taking home the Sandow. Besides the aforementioned three, Lee Haney and Dorian Yates finish out that short list and they have never competed at the Arnold. Taking it further, there have been two who have won both contests in the same year (Coleman in 2001 and Jackson in 2008).
So it behooves someone to cement their place in bodybuilding history by winning an Arnold Classic en route to making an attempt at the pinnacle of the sport in Las Vegas each September. Heath is right in his statement, but the pattern has shown that one has a better chance on being named Mr. Olympia if they have an Arnold in their back pocket.
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