Arnold Schwarzenegger has struggled and juggled for every inch of fame he has achieved. And, listening to the story of his first Mr. Universe competition, it can be understood how chaotic his early competitive days looked.

Schwarzenegger nearly missed making it to the stage at his first Mr. Universe competition. The reason? He overslept!

"I hear people knocking on my door and then I woke up. They said, 'Art, come down. Come down. They give you five more minutes, otherwise you cannot enter the competition," he told Hansen in a Bodybuilding Legends Podcast.

"And then luckily it was in that hotel the competition. So I ran downstairs. I didn't have time to pump up. They went out there in front of the lineup and then that's when the competition started."

Arnie was just 19 years old, and he placed second. In spite of not being able to get gold, he got massive crowd attention, and one of them was Wag Bennett, one of the judges in the contest.

"Wag Bennett was one of the judges at the Mr. Universe Contest who happened to like me, and he came over to me and started talking to me, trying to communicate. With this little English I knew," Arnold recalled on the podcast.

What happened next changed Schwarzenegger's entire career trajectory.

The Judge Who Gave Arnold Schwarzenegger His Biggest Break

Wag Bennett approached Arnold Schwarzenegger and extended an invitation that included trips to England, posing exhibitions, and a direct line into the competitive circuit he needed to conquer.

"He invited me to come over to England and to do posing exhibitions because he said to me, 'If you want to win the Mr. Universe, you play second this year. If you want to win Mr. Universe, people got to get to know you,'" Schwarzenegger told Hansen.

"'So I'm going to invite you to the Mr. London competition and to the Mr. Great Britain competition, which I'm organizing together with Napa, and I invite you to this local competition so you can practice posing."

"We can work on posing, and I will help you as much as I can with your training and with your presentation.'"

Bennett also introduced Schwarzenegger to Reg Park, the British bodybuilding icon and one of Arnold's inspirations. Arnie achieved great heights through Benett's home and network.

Schwarzenegger could refine his presentation, learn how to pose to music, and build the profile required for Mr. Universe.

Bennett recognized that it was not the talent which Schwarzenegger lacked; it was the articulation of his talent for the game, and Bennett handed Arnold the playbook.

Do you have someone who has been there for you through thick and thin? Let us know in the comments!

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Written by

Proma Chatterjee

Edited by

Ashvinkumar Patil