It was a comeback scripted for Hollywood. After losing his title at the 2008 Mr. Olympia, the ex-champ is written off as a has-been. He was great in his day, but the new crop of younger, hungrier challengers has
finally overtaken him. So when the former champ stood onstage at the 2009 Mr. Olympia pre-judging Friday night and unveiled the fruits of his yearlong effort to regain his crown, the deafening cheers from the Orleans Arena crowd said it all: Jay Cutler was back, and he was on top!
Cutler made history the next night as the first man to win back the Olympia after losing it. The key to his victory? There were two of them, and senior writer Greg Merritt said it best, describing a real-time workout one month before Cutler’s recordsetting win: “It was his quads, wider than ever and crisscrossed with a cornucopia of new cuts, and his hams—distinguished by yawning lines like vertical blinds—which, more than any other parts, won him his third Sandow.” Cutler went on to win a fourth Sandow in 2010.
