Confirmed Gary Strydom Comeback a Smart Business Decision

By Joe Pietaro
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Updated: April 17, 2011

After much speculation, it finally appears that Gary Strydom will in fact be coming back to competitive bodybuilding at the IFBB Pro World Masters Championship on December 10, 2011 at the Fillmore in Miami Beach. The legendary South African confirmed this during a video interview with Shawn Ray of Musclular Development on April 15 at the FIBO show in Germany.

“Confirmation one hundred percent,” Strydom told Ray. “It is confirmed already. Signed, sealed and delivered (that) I’ll be there. So hopefully all of the other guys will be there and the show materializes.”

Some of those ‘other guys’ Strydom referred to just happen to include three former Mr. Olympia winners in Ronnie Coleman, Samir Bannout and Dexter Jackson. Also on the list are Vince Taylor (2001 Masters Olympia winner), Andreas Cahling, Chris Cormier, Pavol Jablonicky, Milos Sarcev, Toney Freeman, Troy Alves, Dennis Newman and Darrem Charles. Guest posers like Tom Platz, Robby Robinson, Tony Pearson and Juliette Bergman also jump off the page. This will be a very memorable evening, for sure.

The news of Strydom’s comeback is not much of a surprise, as the soon-to-be 51-year-old had announced that he was going to compete again back in 2009, as reported right here on MuscleSport Mag:

https://www.musclesportmag.com/msm30/2009/07/09/gary-strydom-49-may-be-planning-olympia-comeback

That did not materialize but this time it does seem genuine, as Strydom has a few business projects that will obviously benefit from his comeback. He has a supplement line called Strydom Professional Series and an upcoming launch of his own clothing line. Strydom has previous experience in the latter with Crazzee Wear, one of the most popular brands in and out of the gyms worldwide in the 1980s and 90s.

Two years ago, Strydom had visions of qualifying for the Mr. Olympia, but this appears to be a much better strategy. By going up against similar competitors, he has a good chance to place well and come full circle.