Outstanding bodybuilder Oliva Sergio: biography, achievements

Oliva Sergio is an unsurpassed legend among bodybuilders. Of course, this name is not as well known to the general public as the name of Arnold Schwarzenegger, but Myth, namely, under the nickname known to the hero of our narrative by professionals of this sport, is still considered one of the best bodybuilders.

Childhood and youth

Oliva Sergio was born in the capital of Cuba, Havana, on July 4, 1941, to the family of a sugar cane collector , and at the age of 12 began to help his father on a plantation in Guanabacao. It was hard work, which, most likely, gave impetus to the development of the athlete's muscle mass. Father in the life of Sergio played a huge role, because on his advice a sportsman at the age of 16 enters Batista's army. Young age does not become an obstacle for a fighter against communism, because Olive's father assures the officer that the future bodybuilder is already of age, and the birth certificate is lost. After the victory of Fidel Castro, the athlete leaves the army.

For some time the future legend of bodybuilding is not engaged in anything definite. He spends most of the time on the beach, where he meets a friend who invited him to the club of weightlifters. For six months of training, Sergio achieves impressive results and falls into the national league of athletes.

Escape from Liberty Island

In 1962 Oliva Sergio received the second place of honor at the National Weightlifting Championship of Cuba, losing a small amount of points to the leader - Alberto Ray Geims Hernandez. But after the winner was injured, Sergio is sent to represent his country at the competitions in Jamaica. At games, the sportsman turned a completely unexpected trick: after waiting for the guard to get distracted, the young bodybuilder runs away and goes straight to the American consulate, where he asks for political asylum. An interesting fact: after a while, another 65 Cuban sportsmen turned the same trick, including the entire team of weightlifters along with the guard.

New life

The first American city to meet a fugitive was Miami, Florida, where he settled after receiving the citizenship of Oliva. Sergio began to make a living by repairing televisions. In 1963, the future champion moves to Chicago, Illinois, where he takes a job in the steelmaking shop. Despite the working day for 10-12 hours, the bodybuilder does not stop his training and is engaged for another 2-3 hours in the local hall. Such a busy schedule is bearing fruit, and soon the famous local bodybuilder Bob Gaja, who makes Sergio his pupil, notices Olive.

Take-off of sports career

The first success of the athlete was the victory in the amateur-junior competition "Mr. Young Chicagoaland" in 1963. Sergio was noticed among professional athletes, and his name began to be used on a par with the names of such well-known bodybuilders as Larry Scott, Bill Pearl and Chuck Sips.

In 1966, Oliva joined the International Federation of Bodybuilding and won the title of "Mr. Mira." 1967 for Sergio will be no less successful, because then the athlete gets the title "Mr. Universe". It will be a very short time, and Sergio will win the title "Mr. Olympia", and this is the maximum reward for the bodybuilder. During his professional career, he will become the owner of this title three more times.

The victory in 1968 became especially significant for Sergio Oliva. The bodybuilder showed the result, unsurpassed today, and recorded in the Guinness Book of Records. In 1969, the athlete defeated the young and ambitious Arnold Schwarzenegger, who by that time already had the four-fold title of "Mr. Universe".

A series of failures

In the following, in 1970, the future Californian governor with a minimum advantage in glasses still takes away the title of "Mr. Olympia" from Sergio. To take revenge from Oliva in 1971 did not work, because due to participation in a competitive match, the International Bodybuilding Organization imposed a ban on the athlete's performance. Although a year earlier, Arnold Schwarzenegger, who made the same mistake, was not presented any claims. In 1972, the victory again went to the movie star, although it is still rumored that the case was unclean, because the judges were replaced literally at the last minute.

In 1973, after disqualification, Sergio Oliva left the arena of professional bodybuilders, accusing the organizers of the contest of bias. For twelve years the athlete worked as a policeman in Chicago, and also was engaged in coaching and participated in bodybuilding competitions organized by WBBG and WABBA.

Sunset career

In 1984, the 43-year-old athlete again returned to the professional podium. Sergio took only eighth place, because he was opposed by younger and sophisticated opponents, although the public met with indignation the decision of the judges. The performance of that day was remembered by many: Sergio took his 4-week-old son to the podium and said: "There is no difference in what place I got. After all, even after 12 years, I still have the same Myth for you. And who knows, maybe I have a future Myth in my hands. " Then the hall exploded with a storm of applause and applause. In 1985, Sergio again went to the professional podium, but got the eighth place. After that, the athlete finally stopped his career.

Sergio Oliva. Training

What is the phenomenon of this athlete? And how could he achieve such results? Of course, genetics and the peculiarities of the structure of the body play a role, but Sergio's trainings also gave a great result. The thing is that bodybuilding was banned at the birthplace of the athlete. And after the flight, Sergio did not know English well enough and repeated the exercises, watching other athletes in the gym. Without knowing it, Oliva used Joe Wyder's multitet system, which amounts to increasing the amount of training.

Sergio worked for several hours a day, while training all the muscles at the same time. Strangely enough, but this scheme gave a colossal result, without undermining the health of the athlete. So we can say that ignorance helped the legend of bodybuilding in his career, because who knows what would have ended the training with the correct method.

On November 12, 2012, at the 71st year of life, the legendary bodybuilder Sergio Oliva left this world. The cause of death is renal insufficiency.