At the Mr. Olympia contest — the world’s premier bodybuilding event — currently underway in Las Vegas, USA, Japan’s Naotaka Yokokawa made his debut appearance and advanced past prejudging into the finals. He didn’t make the first six called out in the initial round (the “First Callout”), but was placed at the top center position in the next tier, the “Second Callout,” locking in a spot in the top 10. On 5ch, commenters lined up to compare just how impressive this feat is to achievements in other sports like baseball and tennis, while discussion also spread around the steroid culture unique to bodybuilding and the health risks athletes face.
Professional bodybuilder Naotaka Yokokawa, making his first appearance on bodybuilding’s biggest stage — the Mr. Olympia contest, which kicked off in Las Vegas, USA — has finished the prejudging round and secured his spot in the finals.
In prejudging, which began in the early hours of the 26th Japan time, competitors took the stage in order of entry number, and Yokokawa performed the mandatory poses right next to three-time defending champion Keon Pearson (USA). Being compared directly with the champion right off the bat drew huge cheers from the venue.
After each competitor performed their individual mandatory poses, judges moved on to the comparison rounds to rank them. Yokokawa didn’t make the six athletes named in the First Callout (the top contenders at that stage), but was called out in the following Second Callout, where he was placed at the very top, center position, as poses were repeated — sealing his spot in the top 10.
Source: vitup.jp / Original article here
Well yeah, they've given up on health for the sake of muscle
Wasn't Daisuke Hori a bodybuilder too?
But isn't it kind of cool that they keep pushing anyway?
A lot of pro athletes end up living with joint pain for the rest of their lives too — chasing the top always comes with some kind of risk attached
That's a mindset scrubs who just want to live a long life could never understand
Yeah, unfortunately
It's like reaching the quarterfinals of a Grand Slam in men's tennis — hasn't happened for a Japanese player since Kei Nishikori
Like winning the Ballon d'Or, or the MLB home run title, or becoming heavyweight boxing champion, or taking Olympic 100m gold
It's like getting a boob job and ending up with the biggest breasts in the world
Big Hide's an actual champion, so
Still, Yokokawa's amazing
He's just got the frame for it
Hide's already a legend at this point
Yokokawa probably wouldn't be where he is now without Hide either
Though he looks like he might die young
It's a competition that's built around steroid use from the start.
So it's not technically doping.
Though it's still bad for your body
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HSt5-P8aEAAR-Ww.jpg
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HSuu7qNaQAA8lW9.jpg:orig#.jpg
He's a real mass monster, lol
He's about 170cm too, and his build is closer to a Western physique, which is nice
Is this natural?
Why do his shoulders look like that
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HS5x-URbAAALid4.jpg
https://newsdig.ismcdn.jp/mwimgs/c/a/1360mw/img_cab3f3f5fed59b57b82d1964748268c6295040.jpg
It's starting
https://www.youtube.com/live/BpaJRzr_4YQ
Watching it now, but is it just normal for the women to be on male hormones too?
That's not the shoulder
It's called the trapezius — the muscle running from the neck out to the shoulder
You know, the spot that feels great when someone massages your shoulders
I think they're using "shoulder" in the broad sense there
You yourself said "shoulder massage" right after saying it's not the shoulder
It's not like they actually think it's the bony corner part of the shoulder
Yokokawa was already at a level where people suspected he was on steroids before he'd even started
It's like the difference between sandlot baseball and the Yankees
Yokokawa's not quite at Ohtani's level, but he's close
There aren't many bodybuilders with better abs than Yokokawa, it's the ideal X-shape
He didn't look all that natural to begin with anyway
Background and Key Points of This Story
Mr. Olympia, founded in 1965 and hosted by the IFBB Pro League, is the world’s premier bodybuilding competition. In prejudging, competitors are compared through mandatory poses and narrowed down via a “First Callout,” where the top contenders are named first, followed by a “Second Callout” for the next tier. Yokokawa didn’t make the six in the First Callout, but was placed at the very top of the Second Callout group, effectively locking in a top-10 finish for the finals. The steroid debate that kept coming up in the thread is different from the illegal “doping” issue seen in most sports. In the pro bodybuilding world, anabolic steroid use is openly treated as a given, and comment #45’s remark that “it’s a competition built around steroid use” captures that reality accurately. Without understanding this background, it’s easy to mix up health concerns with actual rule violations.
*This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Geinou/Sports News+) thread “[Bodybuilding] Naotaka Yokokawa Cracks Top 10 in His First Mr. Olympia — Finals Coming Up Next.”
