Can you believe that back in my teen days, I was a skinny 98-pound wrestler? Yeah, the guy everyone laughed at.

But it didn’t get me down, because I had a dream: to become a professional bodybuilder. It took me 16 years of hard work, dedication, and never losing sight of my goal. My perseverance started paying off at the NPC USA Championships where I won the first place in the light heavyweight division. The real game changer? 2003. That’s the year I took home the gold in my class at the NPC National, and earned my IFBB PRO Card.

Just four months later, I found myself in my first pro show, and guess what? I qualified for the Mr. Olympia. From then on, I went on to compete in four Mr. Olympias! The ride didn’t stop there. I traveled the world, guest posed at events, conducted nutrition seminars, and even made appearances on the magazine covers of FLEX, Muscular Development, Muscle & Fitness and other top publications. I was living my dream!

The year 2007 marked a difficult chapter in my life. I experienced an aorta dissection, and the life-saving surgery that followed opened the door to a series of challenges.

My journey took a major twist in 2012. A year earlier, in 2011, I had a stent put in. Unfortunately, complications from this procedure resulted in another surgery in 2012. This surgery led to paralysis from the waist down. My life took an unexpected turn, and I had to relearn living in an entirely new way. However, I’m not one to back down easily. Despite these challenges, I wasn’t done! I wanted to prove to people, and to the world, that with hard work and determination, anything is possible.

In 2019, after a decade in a wheelchair and in my late 40’s, I made a comeback in the bodybuilding scene. This time, I competed in the wheelchair division, and let me tell you, it was the toughest bodybuilding prep I’ve ever done. I scored third at the Mr. Olympia competition, won the title for best poser, and snagged second place at the Arnold Classic. Not bad for a guy in his late 40’s who’d been in a wheelchair for 10 years, right?