Flex_USA_JulyAugust_2017_2

When I first started lifting
weights in 1962, my mother
cried, saying, “Where did
I go wrong? My boy has
pictures of naked oiled-up
men on his wall, and all his
friends have pictures of
girls in their rooms.”
As children we would
be sitting in the classroom
with the parents at the
back. If the teacher
said something
negative about my
work, my father would
come forward and
smack me, as other
parents would do to
their kids.
never had. And I owe him
so much for bringing me to
America. Without Joe I
wouldn’t have had the life
I’ve had.
When I was 15, I thought
the Weider Research
Clinic was a huge research
center somewhere in
California connected to
the movie industry and
full of guys wanting to
be Hercules.
At the 1972 Mr. Olympia
[which Arnold won
controversially] in Essen, it
didn’t occur to Sergio Oliva
I was lonely as a child.
Now I see there was an
advantage of sitting by
myself for hours, day after
day. It gave me the chance
to think and visualize and
form my goals.
Joe [Weider] had a habit of
finishing sentences for
you. And with Joe being
Joe, if he finished the
thought, then the whole
thought became his.
I think Joe came to look
upon me as the son he
that my white body would
stand out against the dark
wall behind us, while his
would blend right in.
There will never be
another like Sergio—
that I can guarantee.
Everything after him is
fake. He was the original.
He was “the Myth.”
From 1970 my instinct was
to win: Eliminate anyone
who was in competition,
destroy your enemy, and
move on without any
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