Bodybuilding icon Joe Weider dies

Bodybuilding icon Joe Weider, who created the Mr Olympia contest and mentored a young Arnold Schwarzenegger, has died age 93.

Weider was also known for a magazine empire that included such publications as Muscle and Fitness, Shape and Men's Fitness.

He died of heart failure, his publicist Charlotte Parker said.

Schwarzenegger first gained fame by winning Mr Olympia titles in the 1970s after being invited to the US by Weider.

Schwarzenegger, who retired from bodybuilding in 1975 and went on to a successful career in action films and then politics, has paid tribute to the man he calls the "godfather of fitness".

"Joe didn't just inspire my earliest dreams; he made them come true the day he invited me to move to America to pursue my bodybuilding career," he said in a statement.

"Joe Weider was a titan in the fitness industry and one of the kindest men I have ever met.

"He leaves behind a fantastic legacy of a fitter world.

"Very few people can claim to have influenced as many lives as Joe did through his magazines, his supplements, his training equipment and his big-hearted personality."

Born in Montreal in 1920, Weider began lifting weights as a teenager to stand up to neighbourhood bullies before competing in his first bodybuilding contest at the age of 17.

He started his first magazine, Your Physique, in the 1940s and in 1965 created the Mr Olympia competition, the premiere bodybuilding contest.

Two years later he discovered Schwarzenegger in Europe and invited him to come to California.

Weider is survived by his wife Betty.


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http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-03-24/bodybuilding-icon-joe-weider-dies/4590874



Dan

I used to have a Weider weights set and a Weider exercise book .

I used to drink Weider's weight gain shakes when I was trying to gain weight when I was a kid.  Them were the days, trying to gain weight!