Sonny Schmidt: How he won the Masters Olympia

Sonny Schmidt: How he won the Masters Olympia

Joe Weider's Muscle & Fitness

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January 1, 1996 | Gallagher, Marty | Copyright

For the Samoan superman, years of toil and sweat finally came to fruition at the 1995 Masters Olympia in Atlanta.

Sonny Schmidt is a throwback retroman who represents the best of the old-school approach to bodybuilding. Nothing newfangled or fancy about him or how he trains. If Dorian Yates is a Dodge Viper and Flex Wheeler is a Lamborghini Diablo, then Sonny is a '32 Ford three-window Deuce coupe with a blown 426 Hemi. Make that cherry red.

Sonny's a textbook case study in patience and perseverance. "I worked 20 years to achieve this goal," he says. "The moment is a sweet one and I wish to savor it. As a young man, you think success is frequent and never ending ..." Sonny appears wistful as he smiles and delivers the punch line: "Once you get a few miles on the odometer, you realize that success is all too infrequent and victory all too fleeting. …

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