A really strong and virile man, Sergio Oliva was a Cuban bodybuilder who became one of the many legends of the sport, rising to the very top of the game and winning several accolades for his work.
Nicknamed ‘The Myth’, Oliva stunned many people with his raw power and chiseled body that bought the admiration of people around the world.
Oliva, who learned powerlifting in his home country of Cuba, would go on to America and become one of the greatest weight lifters that the world has ever seen. We have gathered some facts about this man for your reading pleasure. Check them out below.
Sergio Oliva: Who was he?
Sergio Oliva was born on the 4th of July, 1941 in Cuba. As a child, he had already learned how to be industrious and was working in Sugar Cane fields where his father also worked.
By the time Oliva was sixteen his father made him join the Cuban war which was aimed at toppling communism; he was enlisted in the army of Fulgencio Batista who lost to Fidel Castro.
Sergio Oliva did not feel the need to return home and decided to spend most of his time on the beach. One day while he was at the beach, as usual, he met a young man who told him about a club where all they do is lift weights.
Oliva decided to visit the club for himself and in half a year he had made very impressive progress.
His first major weight lifting competition was in 1962 when he participated in the National Weightlifting championship for the country, where he took the second position.
When the time came for Cuba to participate in the Central American and Caribbean Games, Sergio Oliva had to go in place of Alberto Hernandez the actual winner of the competition, Hernandez had suffered an injury and could not go. Participating in the competition changed Oliva’s life.
One night during the games he found a way to evade the guards who were asleep and Oliva ran across Jamaica and the American border into the United States of America, and then he headed to the Consulate where he requested for political asylum.
He was granted asylum and began to live in Florida. Shortly after Sergio Oliva moved to Chicago, he took up weight lifting again, this time he juggled it with his job at a steel mill.
It was in Chicago that Sergio Oliva’s weight lifting kicked off again, and there were more opportunities for him to participate in more competitions.
He is now remembered as one of the greatest bodybuilders to have ever lived. He won many bodybuilding titles from Mr. Universe down to Mr. Olympia. He is ranked in the same class as Arnold Schwarzenegger who is not only an icon of cinema but of weight lifting as well.
How did he die?
Sergio Oliva had a good life in the United States, a much better life than he would have had if he had remained in Cuba.
Oliva lived up to seventy-one; he died in Chicago as a result of Kidney failure.
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Facts about Sergio Oliva
1. Sergio Oliva’s son who bears the same name as him just with the affix Jr. is also a bodybuilder and, just like his father, he has won multiple titles from bodybuilding competitions.
2. Of all the people who have won the Mr. Olympia title, Sergio Oliva is the first person who has died. The next person who died was the first-ever Mr. Olympia winner Larry Scott and he died two years after Oliva.
3. He was married to Arleen Garrett from a date not known until 2012. In 1986, she shot him five times and he survived the attack.
4. Oliva is the only Cuban to have won the Mr. Olympia title and he the second person in the history of the competition to win the title.
5. During the course of his career as a competitive bodybuilder, Sergio Oliva and Arnold Schwarzenegger always crossed each other paths. He was the only one to defeat Schwarzenegger in a competition which was 1969, Mr. Olympia.
6. Sergio Oliva for a short period in his life was an actor and he starred in two Mexican films. Both films were about wrestling. More so, his fame is thanks to his body that weighed 245 lb (111 kg) while he had a height of 5 ft 10 in (178 cm).
7. While he lived in Chicago, Oliva worked with the police force as an officer. He had this job for twenty-five years.
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