Physical Address
304 North Cardinal St.
Dorchester Center, MA 02124
Arnold Classic Physique competitor Mike Sommerfeld, who was one of the favorites to win this weekend, did not make weight! This is devastating and a huge mistake on the part of Mike and Mike’s coach. His coach? Yes, they don’t just enjoy fame; sometimes they have to share a cheat meal with their payment and the menu has to be crow.
So what happened was they both somehow thought that Mike would be taller at Arnold than Olympia and therefore could weigh more – Classical physics has weight limits based on height; The taller you are, the heavier you can be. Unlike Open, which means “what you bring” – no restrictions.
This is ridiculous. It borders on the flat Earth theory. Your height will be determined at the Olympics. Period. If you feel like you’re going up from one show to the next, that’s fine. You can believe in the Easter Bunny if you want. But you are measuring in Olympia. This is the only measurement that counts. For some reason, someone in his camp thought that Mike would be in a higher class and therefore heavier on Arnold.
Now, given that this will probably go down as the WTF moment of the weekend, I’m sure Mike will have an explanation at some point that might clear some of this up. But the Thursday night before the show, with two hours to go, Mike was seven pounds over his height limit. What are his options?
He has three. Two of them can harm his soul or his body or both.
Choice #1: Break up and go home. Given the investment to get to this point, this option is unlikely.
Choice #2: Start taking large doses of powerful diuretics. But even slimming Lasix (an injectable diuretic) is unlikely to expel seven pounds of water in two hours. He may come close, he may arrive, he may die. Such cheap steak odds are tough, and if anything goes south, they get worse.
Choice #3: Compete in the open
So far I have heard that this option is on the table. If so, it is logically the only one to take. But it comes with a caveat: Mike is a Classic Physique competitor. His goal is to win the classical Olympics. If he competes and wins the Arnold Open, he will qualify for the Olympia, but not the Classic. He will qualify in the Open class – where he will go from class favorite to destroying guys much older than him at the Olympics. Don’t get me wrong, Mike has a killer body, but he’s not the size of an open body builder.
Like I said, it’s a tough position to be in, but he’s come all this way and spent time preparing for the competition; he can also compete.
You do it because you love it.
