Recently, popular bodybuilder Samson Dauda has won the professional men's bodybuilding contest Mr Olympia 2024. The 60th edition of the Mr. Olympia was held at Resorts World Theatre in Las Vegas, NV on Saturday.
Bodybuilder Samson Dauda has won the huge prize money of 6,00,000 dollars. This is the richest prize money in the history of sports. It is also the first time when the Olympia title returns to the United Kingdoms after Dorian Yates held the Sandow trophy in 1997.
Mr. Olympia is an international bodybuilding competition and the winners of this contest are awarded with the title of Mr. Olympia and a prize money. It is held and sanctioned by the IFBB Professional League on an annual basis.
This contest was created by Joe Weider in order to enable the amateur Mr. Universe winners to continue competing and earn money. The first contest of Mr. Olympia was held on 18th September 1965 at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, New York City. This first contest was won by Larry Scott.
Mr Olympia 2024 was a two-day show, with pre-judging on Friday, 11th October and the finals on 12th October. A total of 15 athletes were selected from pre-judging round and then entered the finals. Steve Weinberger was the head judge of this contest.
Who is Samson Dauda?
Samson Dauda is a 32-years-old Nigerian-British professional bodybuilder. He is also known as the Nigerian Lion. He competes in the men's open bodybuilding division in the IFBB Pro League. He is the current Mr. Olympia after winning the title in the 2024 Mr. Olympia competition. He has become the first bodybuilder of Nigerian descent to win the Mr. Olympia competition.
Samson Dauda was born in Lagos, Nigeria. Later on, he shifted to the United Kingdom during his teenage years. He initially began to play rugby.
After his gym owner Chris Jones and rugby teammates encouraged him, he started focusing on bodybuilding. After witnessing Phil Heath at the 2013 Mr. Olympia, Dauda started focusing on competitive bodybuilding. He entered his first bodybuilding competition in April 2014.
Previously, Dauda has won multiple competitions including IFBB Amateur Diamond Cup Rome 2017, IFBB EVLS Prague Pro 2021, IFBB EVLS Prague Pro 2023 and IFBB France Pro 2024.