Weider A Legacy Of Shame

The “Sport” of Bodybuilding has claimed another life: Paul DeMayo. DeMayo is yet another tragic statistic to add to the many others who lost their lives or health attempting to achieve, by any means possible what the Weider brothers consider an ideal physique.

While they buried the article on page 308, Flex did their very own version of T-Nations “Dead Pool.” The two lists include those who have died and those who are suffering ill health. All directly related to professional Bodybuilding:

Don Youngblood, Charles Durr, Momo Benaziza, Curtis Leffler, Andreas Munzer, Hans Hopstaken,
Sonny Schmidt, Derrick Whitsett.

Here is the list of those whose health was compromised largely due to the over consumption of unhealthy substances:

Dennis Newman, Mike Francois, Don Long,
Flex Wheeler, Tom Prince, Mike Matarazzo, Edgar Fletcher,
Paul Dillett, Milos Sarcev, Nasser El Sonbaty, Bob Cicherillo, Mustafa Mohammad.

If you ever noticed one of your favorites disappear from the scene I’m sure it was because of either disillusionment with pro Bodybuilding, or a medical condition due to the unrealistic expectations promoted by the Weiders.

I’m sure there are countless former professional Bodybuilders, less famous than the above groups who have either died, or will continue to suffer health problems for the rest of their days due to the lure of gold offered up by Joe and Ben Weider.

I think that Congress, while well intended is wasting their time harassing Baseball players. The real problem is in the ranks of pro Bodybuilders. While their following is much smaller than that of professional Baseball, the problem is nonetheless massive. It also perpetuates a myth to all of the teens who view Weider publications.

Those who would defend the Weiders claiming that the competitors are all adults and able to make their own choices need only consider a few things:

The Weiders control the largest and most successful professional Bodybuilding franchise in the world. If
you want to make Bodybuilding your career then you play in their “league” or you usually don’t play at all.

With the snap of their fingers the Weiders could include real comprehensive drug testing. In addition to this, reward those who are “clean” and play by the new rules.

Currently the prize money for one of the big professional contests is quite paltry in comparison to the grand prize for other sports. To those who claim that Bodybuilding does not have the following that Golf or Tennis has, so the money isn’t there are only partially correct.

While the fan money may not be there when it comes to the viewing of the actual contests relative to TV contracts etc. there are other ways that the Weiders have raised mega bucks and mostly on the backs of the young men who have dedicated their lives to professional Bodybuilding.

“Weider International” is a multi national conglomerate that makes sports nutrition and weight loss products, vitamins, minerals, herbs and nutrition bars.

Its products include such brands as Weider, Multaben, Multipower, Schiff, and Tiger’s Milk. Mass merchandisers Costco and Wal-Mart together account for about 50% of sales. The company also sells through supermarkets and health clubs. Weider also has European operations.

Parent Weider Health and Fitness controls approximately 93% of the company’s voting power! This “mega” company grossed 257 million dollars in fiscal 2004. That is over 1/4 of a billion dollars! Quite a lot of money and I didn’t even add in how much money they make on their publishing business and the sale of training products!

All built on the backs of star struck young men who decided to dedicate their lives to striking it rich in Bodybuilding. Only to find out the raw truth; No one, but a very select few ever actually become wealthy in this disgusting mess the Weiders have created. In fact the overwhelming majority can’t even make a decent living! Add the potential for health problems and you have a real nightmare situation.

These genetically gifted men have for years (sometimes unwittingly) promoted Weider magazines and products making the Weiders billionaires! They did this for the hope of fame and fortune only to find themselves disappointed year after year. Why not take some of the fortune built on the backs of these young men and give it back in substantial prize money in drug free competitions? This would remove most of the health risks and also allow the owners of the greatest physiques in the world to actually make a living from the sport they love.

How much money do old Joe and Ben want to die with? It’s time they stepped up to the plate and did the right thing for their sport, the men who built it and also for all the young men who reach for a Bodybuilding magazine in hopes of improving their own physiques.

Show the youth of today what an ideal physique really looks like. Not some bloated drug induced artificial body. Show them the physiques similar to the real masters of times gone by:
Reeves, Delinger, Grimek, Stanko, Ross. All of them and many more did it without drugs! They had great physiques, tremendous strength and enjoyed robust health. Most lived to a ripe old age and in fact many are still alive today! How many of the serious competitors in today’s professional Bodybuilding will be alive and healthy even twenty five years from now?

The major purchaser of Weider products are young men and teens. Most will never compete in a Bodybuilding show, but think that these bloated fat bellied physiques are what should be aspired to. The Weiders have helped usher in the Bodybuilding drug culture by not doing anything to prevent it.

I call on Joe and Ben Weider to put your money where your pen is! Stop paying lip service to a sport that took you years to create and even less time to ruin. End your legacy of shame and make an effort to clean up your beloved sport of Bodybuilding. Do it for the participants, do it for the fans. And most importantly do it for the young impressionable minds who buy the magazines and actually believe what they see and read!

Well said, ZEB. Very well said. What do you suppose will happen to the sport in 10, 15, or 20 years, whenever The Weider Wondertwins walk into the Big Gym in the Sky? Is that what it will take to bring the game to where it needs to be? (really, I’d like to know some other opinions - What do we predict will happen to pro bodybuilding after the Weiders have passed on?)

To be honest, I haven’t bought or read a “Muscle or ‘Fitness’ Magazine” in over 2 years, so I’m a bit out of the loop, but I read enough elsewhere to know that they’re making the attempt, in earnest or not, to not let judges reward “obviously” enhanced physiques. But it sounds like waaay too little, waaaaaaaaaay too late.

The situation sounds similar to pro wrestlers. The money may be better (at the highest level, at least, if you can make it in the one and only pro “league”), but the general working conditions (over 300 days a year on the road, taking bumps 4 or 5 nights a week), as well as the incredibly debilitating physical toll the sport takes on it’s participants, and such little attention that aspect of the game receives, is absolutely a parallel.

A trust fund/scholarship program for people interested in an education in exercise sciences would be a step in the right direction, but those are usualy done by civic minded folks who feel a need to give something back to a field that has given them so much.
Oh well.

Tigers don’t change their stripes. The Weiders won’t change their money making ways. It’s up to the general public to take action. Don’t buy Weider mags or products. Boycott Weider shows. Persuade others to do the same. Write your Congressmen and Senators and point them in the right direction for anti-drug legislation. After the first time all the IFBB competitors in a show are disqualified for drugs, the rest will be much easier.

Weider reminds me of the evil Vince McMahon.

[quote]ZEB wrote:
Here is the list of those whose health was compromised largely due to the over consumption of unhealthy substances:

Dennis Newman, Mike Francois, Don Long,
Flex Wheeler, Tom Prince, Mike Matarazzo, Edgar Fletcher,
Paul Dillett, Milos Sarcev, Nasser El Sonbaty, Bob Cicherillo, Mustafa Mohammad.
[/quote]

What’s happened to Nasser El Sonbaty? I hadn’t heard anything about him.

[quote]Zap Branigan wrote:
Weider reminds me of the evil Vince McMahon.[/quote]

That’s what I was saying, exploiting the athletes, while reaping (and keeping) the rewards. It’s just hard to understand why the athletes themselves just go with the flow. I suppose it’s because there’s no other choice.

[quote]Minotaur wrote:
Zap Branigan wrote:
Weider reminds me of the evil Vince McMahon.

http://www.wrestlinginformer.net/Vince_McMahon_9.jpg
[/quote]

Man, the principal from “The breakfast club” is really buffed up now.