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Retired US bodybuilder Ronnie Coleman is considered to be the greatest bodybuilder in the world. The 58-year-old athlete has achieved multiple accolades in his career spanning more than a decade.
Not only was he the winner of 26 IFBB professional titles, but he was crowned Mr. Olympia, a whopping eight consecutive times. He holds the record for the most wins by a professional bodybuilder.
From 1998 to 2005, Coleman was simply invincible.
Ronnie Coleman had a pretty long journey before he held his first Mr. Olympia title in 1998. He first started participating in the coveted tournament in 1992 but couldn't achieve a ranking. In 1994, he was ranked 15th, 10th in 1995, then he was 6th in 1996 and 9th in 1997.
His year of domination finally came in 1998. He was not even in contention for the favorites to win the title that year. Flex Wheeler was favored to bag the title with stiff competition from Nasser El Sonbaty, Kevin Levrone, and Shawn Ray.
Ronnie Coleman was nowhere in the picture. But the future champion had won the Night of Champions earlier that year and had brought in considerable improvements. This progress showed at Mr. Olympia that year and he beat Wheeler for the coveted title by three points.
Years of his hard work had finally come to fruition. And it was the first of many.
The unbeatable era of Ronnie Coleman
1999 was a crucial year for Ronnie Coleman. He had to defend his title and beat the formidable Flex Wheeler.
Mr. Olympia generally experiences cut-throat competition, and it was only going to get harder that year. Coleman and Wheeler were both in a neck-to-neck situation till the very end.
Wheeler gave fiery competition but ultimately lost out to the rising star. Despite the fierce contest between the two phenomenal bodybuilders, they remained good friends.
Mr. Olympia's 2000 edition marked a transition into a new era, a new millenium, but in the bodybuilding world, it still very much looked like the era of 'The King', Ronnie Coleman.
Coleman has often said that genetics has played a huge part in his professional bodybuilding career. But he was known to have started the mass monster era for a reason more than just gifted genetics.
Coleman is renowned for his stunning muscle size. His training style was extremely intense and included a combination of size and conditioning. His heavy workouts helped in establishing his name as Mr. Olympia and the strongest bodybuilder of all time.
In 2001, Coleman created history when he held both Mr. Olympia and Arnold Classic titles in his hands.
Ronnie's prime years and age of being unbeatable came to a crashing end when fellow US bodybuilder Jay Cutler beat him for the 2006 Mr. Olympia team. Cutler successfully defended his title the next year as well.
Coleman ranked 4th in the tournament and annouced his retirment from competition.
