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On Saturday night October 30th at the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino in Las Vegas, NV, Ronnie Coleman won the Joe Weider 2004 Mr. Olympia contest for the seventh time, tying Arnold Schwarzenegger's number of wins. Lee Haney still holds the record with eight Mr. O victories.

As was pretty much anticipated Ronnie came in 1st with Jay Cutter 2nd. A guy new to the Mr. O competition by the name of Gustavo Badell from Puerto Rico surprised everybody and beat out Dexter Jackson by a whisker for the number 3 position, while Dexter took number 4. Big Markus Ruhl took number 5 and Gunter Schlierkamp came in at the number 6 position.

Ronnie weighed in at 296 lbs., which was 10 pounds more muscle than last year! Sly Stallone of "Rocky" fame explained the new Challenge Round to the audience while WWE pro wrestler Triple H took over the microphone and MC'ed the Challenge Round in the final stages of the competition. "The Gov" Arnold Schwarzenegger presented Ronnie with the Mr. O trophy and David Pecker, Chairman of American Media and Ben Weider presented Ronnie with his check for $120,000 top prize money.

Conspicuously absent from the proceedings was Mr. Olympia founder Joe Weider. Arnold announced from the stage that the 84 year old Weider was recovering from a major 5 hour back operation that he had last week in Cleveland, Ohio. Governator Arnold who was in the Ohio area campaigning for George Bush stopped by the hospital to see his old buddy and mentor and said that Joe is doing well and was on the mend. We at FitnessSource1.com send our best wishes to The Master Blaster Joe Weider for a speedy recovery.

Also, on Friday night, October 29th, as part of the same weekend of events at Mandalay Bay, those in attendance saw the Ms. Olympia, Ms. Figure Olympia, and Ms. Fitness Olympia. Iris Kyle took the Heavyweight class (over 135 lbs.) and the overall title of Ms. Olympia, while Dayana Cadeau won the Lightweight class (under 135 lbs.). Adela Garcia-Friedmansky won the Ms. Fitness Olympia and Davana Medina won the Ms. Figure Olympia.