6x Champion Dorian Yates Recalls How He “Proved the Point” at the “Drug-Tested” 1996 Mr. Olympia

Bodybuilding icon Dorian Yates won the Mr. Olympia contest consecutively between 1992 to 1997. However, his fifth win was especially memorable because that was the year the IFBB tested participants for diuretics. Recently, The Shadow uploaded rare footage of the “winning moments,“ of his “fifth consecutive win“ on the Olympia stage.

The footage showed Dorian Yates accepting the Sandow from none other than the legendary Joe Weider. The drug-tested 1996 Mr. Olympia was held at the Arie Crown Theater in Chicago, recalled Yates. While drug testing at the Mr. Olympia has been infrequent, 1996 was one of those rare years. However, Yates wasn’t worried.

“It didn’t concern me. I was in shape and proved the point that even without them, I could come in great shape,“ wrote the bodybuilding legend in his caption. Although Dorian Yates thought he looked a “little flat,“ he was confident in his conditioning. While competitors use diuretics to get shredded, Yates was a master of conditioning.

Besides ushering in the ass monster era, Dorian Yates also introduced bodybuilding fans to a level of conditing they had never seen before. The Shadow started the trend of bone-dry conditioning, forcing others to play catch up. So even though he didn’t use diuretics, the English champion was ripped everytime he stepped on stage.

Interestingly, this wasn’t the first time the Olympia had opted for drug testing. The Super Bowl of Bodybuilding tested athletes for all banned substances in 1990 when Yates’s predecessor, Lee Haney, reigned as champion.

The fully drug-tested Olympia before the Dorian Yates era

The IFBB held a fully drug-tested Mr. Olympia contest in 1990, which turned quite controversial. In 1990, POTUS George H.W. Bush signed a law that classified steroids as a felony offense. This led to the drug-tested Mr. Olympia which wasn’t a hit with fans because many bodybuilders got banned.

Fan favorites like Mohammed ‘Momo‘ Benaziza, Berry de May, and others didn’t get the chance to compete. The 1990 Mr. Olympia was also the highest-paid edition of the contest at that point in time. Lee Haney walked away with $200,000 after winning his seventh title in 1990. The 1996 contest also generated controversy when Nasser El Sonbaty, who placed third and many thought should’ve won, got stripped of his bronze medal. Sonbaty failed the test when the results came after the Olympia.

Drug testing at the Olympia has been controversial. The IFBB themselves have only done it irregularly. However, Dorian Yates proved that he was still unbeatable despite the restrictions.