2024 Olympia Press Conference – An improvement from previous years.
The 2024 Olympia Press Conference took place on Thursday, October 19 at the Resorts World Las Vegas, Nevada.
The event was open to the public, and free on the Olympia Weekend’s Pay Per View Service.
With the increase in competitors throughout several divisions, it’s impossible for the organizers to invite every competitor to the press conference, so the defending champions and top contenders are invited on the panel.
A panel of bodybuilding pundits, and bodybuilding legends were in charge of grilling the athletes with difficult questions.
The 2024 edition of the Olympia press conference was split in two parts. The female athletes from every division took over the first part of the press conference, while the men, representing all the men’s division finished off the second part of the press conference.
The Women’s Physique champion, Sarah Villegas, and Natalia Abraham Coelho, had a heated discussion, answering questions with the focus on both of these athletes. Sarah is determined to defend her title, while Natalia is hungry to win it back. This was a great build-up to the event.
Another great debate was between Ms. Olympia champion, Andrea Shaw and Angela Yeo, trading words during their part of the press conference.
While Andrea is looking to defend her Ms. Olympia title, Angela took advantage of the fact that she defeated Andrea at the 2024 Wings of Strength World Championships, making her the main contender to challenge for the Ms. Olympia title.
Derek Lunsford and Hadi Choopan answer difficult questions
The Men’s part of the press conference was the most exciting part of the event. Mr. Olympia Derek Lunsford, and his man contender Hadi Choopan, were the two competitors that were grilled with the most difficult questions.
Derek Lunsford was very diplomatic when it was time to answer the difficult questions, especially from bodybuilding pundit, Fouad Abiad.
Hadi Choopan was pushed to the limit by bodybuilding legend, and now bodybuilding pundit, Shawn Ray, but he was silenced by Choopan with his answer.
Hadi was asked to explain why he ran off the stage at the 2023 Mr. Olympia, after the results were known. But Hadi replied by telling Shawn Ray, he should know what a bodybuilder goes through to step on that stage. Hadi explained again that he was not feeling well, and after he congratulated the winner, and the rest of the bodybuilders, he had to leave the stage.
“You have competed many times, Shawn Ray, so you know sometimes when you are on stage with low body sugar and low energy, and you know sometimes, maybe you cannot make the best decision. So at the beginning, I just congratulated Derek, stayed there, I did my photoshoot, and after that I felt a little bit not in good health to stay on stage so that’s why I walked away.” – Hadi Choopan’s response to Shawn Ray.
Representing the Men’s Classic Physique division, defending champion, Chris Bumstead, did not show any signs of slowing down.
Chris made it a point to tell the journalists and spectators that the rest of the lineup will be fighting for second place.
Ramon Dino, Wesley Vissers, and Url Kalecinski, are all looking to stop Bumstead from winning his sixth consecutive Mr. Olympia title.
Idea’s for the 2025 Olympia Press Conference
It’s appreciated that the Olympia Weekend organizers are doing everything possible to make the press conference and exciting event.
One ide that the organizers can possibly reflect on for 2025, is organizing two press conferences.
One as they did this year, but without the Men’s Open Bodybuilding competitors, and a second with just the dozen or more Mr. Olympia athletes.
This would give more space to all the divisions to express their thoughts, and secondly, the press conference for the Mr. Olympia competitors will give all the athletes a chance to speak, just like in the 90’s.
We all know the highlight of the Press Conference is when Mr. Olympia competitors trade words and answer questions, so why not go back to what worked in the past.
Hopefully Dan Solomon and Jake Wood will think about this idea.
Watch the entire 2024 Olympia Weekend thanks to their pay-per-view service – Click HERE to purchase.
Photos of Press Conference by Stage Time Photo – Jeff Robinson.
