The 12 months was 1971. Joe and Ben Weider are in the course of their legendary careers that established each the IFBB and the Weider publishing empire as pillars of bodybuilding. Arnold Schwarzenegger is early in his reign because the third Mr. Olympia, a run that might lengthen into the center of the last decade. That very same 12 months in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, a younger bodybuilder named Jim Manion was competing as an beginner bodybuilder and had simply gained the title of Mr. Pittsburgh.
Quick ahead over 50 years later. Manion is now in the identical place because the Weiders, main the IFBB Professional League in addition to promoter of the present he had gained, now referred to as the Pittsburgh Professional. He was internet hosting a number of of the high stars in bodybuilding for a visitor posing exhibition, together with Nick Walker, Andrew Jacked, Samson Dauda, Hunter Labrada, Martin Fitzwater, Urs Kalecinski, Ramon “Dino” Querioz, and the reigning Mr. Olympia, Derek Lunsford.
A number of of bodybuilding’s largest names and personalities gathered to rejoice the game and really feel the vitality within the room. Bob Cicherillo is manning the rostrum. Amongst these within the crowd is Olympia proprietor Jake Wooden, bodybuilding legends Flex Wheeler, George Farah, and five-time Traditional Physique Olympia champion Chris Bumstead even made an look. The celebrities have been out.
The Pittsburgh Professional has been a marquis present on the bodybuilding schedule for a very long time, notably due to their visitor posing exhibition. Longtime followers will keep in mind Ronnie Coleman and Jay Cutler buying and selling pictures and giving one another piggyback rides on the stage. Others will recall seeing Phil Heath, Kai Greene, and Dennis Wolf placing on intense performances. Then, there’s 2016 when Kevin Levrone shocked the world by telling the Pittsburgh crowd he would make his return to the stage at that 12 months’s Mr. Olympia contest. The Pittsburgh Professional is a symbolic kickoff of Olympia season.
The 2024 version lived as much as the identical commonplace. Lunsford has been working exhausting in his offseason so he may enhance upon the physique that led him to his first Sandow Trophy. This present is especially essential for Lunsford as a result of his 2022 look because the Olympia 212 champion is what led him to being granted an invite to maneuver up from the 212 to the Open at that 12 months’s Olympia. He went on to position second to then champion Hadi Choopan, displaying the invitation was effectively deserved.
Walker and Fitzwater have been within the remaining phases of prep for the 2024 New York Professional, which took happen one week after this present. Dauda, Labrada, and Jacked all regarded large and highly effective whereas Kalecinski and Querioz have been displaying the aggressive fireplace that it takes to face on the Olympia stage yearly.
With every pose, the gang was cheering with approval. They knew they have been seeing one thing particular on that stage as a result of the subsequent time many of those males might be on one on the similar time might be on the historic sixtieth Olympia Weekend on the unimaginable Resorts World in Las Vegas, NV on Oct. 11-12. That’s the place the Highway to the Olympia will culminate. The pit cease on the Wyndham Grand Pittsburgh Downtown resort solely added gas to the hearth for the athletes and followers alike. Now that they’ve gotten to see their favourite champions in particular person, they debate and focus on who will maintain the Sandow Trophy on the finish of Saturday night time in Vegas.
Olympia President Dan Solomon was not in attendance in Pittsburgh as a result of he has been working with the remainder of the Olympia staff to make sure that the 2024 version lives as much as the magnitude and status of a sixtieth working of the most important weekend in health. He did provide his assist to the Manion household and appreciation for the athletes and followers that have been in Pittsburgh by means of a submit on Instagram.
“I’m actually enthusiastic about Tyler Manion’s latest announcement to show the Pittsburgh Professional right into a FULL BLOWN EXPO and a MAJOR PRODUCTION in 2025,” he wrote. “This occasion will instantly flip town of Pittsburgh right into a late-spring “vacation spot occasion” on the annual schedule, an amazing alternative for athletes, sponsors and exhibitors to achieve a robust new viewers. — The highway to the Olympia simply received much more thrilling. Trying ahead to this!!!”
2025 and Past
Simply as Manion himself went from competitor to promoter of the present, he and his household are able to take the Pittsburgh Professional to a brand new stage. Jim’s grandson and IFBB Professional League Vice President Tyler Manion took to the rostrum to announce that they’re transferring the occasion to the Pittsburgh Conference Heart and including an expo in 2025. The Pittsburgh Professional will solely get greater and higher within the years to come back, however what is going to stay the identical is that it’ll stay a logo of how far Jim Manion has travelled.
