The final showdown of the 1980 Mr. Olympia is remembered for Arnold Schwarzenegger's victory over Chris Dickerson, but the night is also talked about by fans to date for a not-so-positive reason.

Schwarzenegger ended his 5-year hiatus by entering the contest just one day before it happened. 'The Austrian Oak' and Dickerson glided to the final showdown, where Schwarzenegger defeated his opponent to lift the trophy.

However, many thought Schwarzenegger's conditioning wasn't good enough to win the contest, and viewed Dickerson as the rightful winner. Several fans booed after the result was declared with some also questioning the judges' transparency.

Well, according to Vintage Body Building Magazines, the fans questioning the decision's transparency might not have been wrong entirely, especially since the contest involved the background incident of substituting a judge.

The renowned judge and former competitor, Peter McCarthy was supposed to judge the contest, along with a local judge. However, the event's promoter, Paul Graham, replaced him with Brendan Ryan in the eleventh hour due to his misconduct of reaching late at the judges' meeting. Interestingly, several closely related people have said that McCarthy wasn't even informed the time of the meeting.

In the end, Schwarzenegger went on to defeat Dickerson based on Ryan and the local judge's scores. However, there's another factor that makes the decision even more controversial.

Arnold Schwarzenegger Wouldn’t Have Won if Peter McCarthy Judged the Contest

McCarthy wasn't entirely removed from the 1980 Mr. Olympia judges' panel after his so-called misconduct. Instead he judged the event as a standby judge, and also scored the Schwarzenegger vs. Dickerson contest in the finals.

While Schwarzenegger won the title with the combined scores of the local judge and Ryan, Dickerson would've taken the cake if the local judge and McCarthy's scorecards were taken into consideration.

'The Austrian Oak' has described how he achieved this victory more than once. But with such a shady background story related to the judges, the controversy regarding the 1980 Mr. Olympia might be talked about by fans for several more decades.

Do you think that Schwarzenegger defeated Dickerson fair and square on that night? Let us know in the comments.

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Written by

Supradeep Dutta

Edited by

Souvik Roy