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BY PETER MCGOUGH<br />
NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN<br />
The above film title could apply<br />
to Kevin Levrone’s 2016 comeback,<br />
when the 52-year-old, after being<br />
out of competition for 14 years,<br />
made a comeback and finished<br />
dead last at the Olympia. He cited<br />
injuries hampering his training and<br />
says he will compete again in<br />
much better shape in <strong>2017</strong>. This<br />
year <strong>Flex</strong> Wheeler will compete<br />
again, having been given a special<br />
invitation to the classic physique<br />
finals at the Olympia Weekend. It<br />
will be interesting to see how the<br />
Sultan of Symmetry, now 52,<br />
fares after 13 years away from<br />
the action.<br />
The truth is, bodybuilding is<br />
a sport in which physical decline<br />
is clearly evident. Donned only<br />
in trunks, you’re going to look<br />
different at 50 than you did at<br />
Kevin Levrone (left)<br />
and <strong>Flex</strong> Wheeler at<br />
the 2000 Mr. Olympia<br />
30—unless your name is Dexter<br />
Jackson or, conversely, Peter<br />
McGough. Veterans in other<br />
sports are not so exposed (no<br />
pun intended). Tennis greats like<br />
John McEnroe and Björn Borg<br />
(both in their late ’50s) can still<br />
play an entertaining few sets<br />
without prompting cries of “They<br />
should never have come back!”<br />
Bodybuilding is different in that<br />
skin tone starts to sag and legs are<br />
the first major body part to fade<br />
away. When the Masters Olympia<br />
was launched in 1994, it seemed a<br />
very good idea to have the legends<br />
return. But it was sad to see the<br />
likes of Casey Viator and Greg<br />
DeFerro exhibiting physiques that<br />
were a shadow of their heyday’s.<br />
To comeback or not comeback<br />
is a question for the ages.<br />
In 2016 the IFBB Pro League<br />
launched the classic physique<br />
division, and to be honest the<br />
news disappointed me. In this age<br />
of mass overpowering aesthetics,<br />
to me it was code for saying, “OK,<br />
if your preference is shape and<br />
lines, here’s the classic physique<br />
division—the open class is now<br />
for outright freaks.” But as the<br />
classic division took hold it was<br />
refreshing to see the kind of<br />
entrant it was attracting. The<br />
quality has been absolutely first<br />
rate, with veteran Danny Hester<br />
claiming the classic physique title<br />
at the 2016 Olympia Weekend, and<br />
guys like Darrem Charles and Stan<br />
McQuay coming out of retirement<br />
to compete. Other standouts<br />
are Lee Banks, Chris Bumstead,<br />
Derek Farnsworth, George<br />
Peterson, and Terrence Ruffin.<br />
A barometer of the growth of<br />
this division is that at last May’s<br />
New York Pro there were 14<br />
entrants in the open division and<br />
29 in the classic division. So it<br />
seems my disappointment of early<br />
2016 was as misplaced as Bill<br />
O’Reilly opening a charm school<br />
for genteel young ladies. Who<br />
knows, maybe the classic division<br />
will become the most popular<br />
class? An old man can dream, can’t<br />
he? Boy, can I dream…ask my<br />
psychiatrist.<br />
FROM LEFT: SAMANTHA LUND; PER BERNAL<br />
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