Labrada didn’t mince his words at falling short, but vows to return higher than ever.
Entering the 2022 Mr. Olympia, bodybuilder Hunter Labrada understandably set high expectations for himself. After he notched a fourth-place finish on the 2021 edition of the competition, Labrada aimed for the predominant throne in Las Vegas, NV, hoping to topple the mountain of a person in former two-time defending champion Mamdouh “Big Ramy” Elssbiay. As a substitute, Labrada not only didn’t beat Elssbiay (that successful task ultimately got here to eventual first-time champion Hadi Choopan), he fell off to seventh place in a disappointing finish.
On Jan. 9, 2023, Labrada appeared in a video on Iron World’s YouTube channel to personally recap his 2022 Olympia journey. Amidst a performance he clearly wasn’t pleased with, Labrada discussed the emotions behind it and alluded to what’s next as he looks to rebound in 2023.
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Labrada’s seventh-place result on the 2022 Olympia bothered him a lot that he maintained he was staying away from social media platforms to avoid getting caught up in any discussion in regards to the contest. As well as, the athlete normally makes a degree to repeatedly share some kind of training or dietary video on his YouTube channel. On the time of this writing, he has not posted anything there since Dec. 23, 2022.
“I actually have been off social media,” Labrada said. “I haven’t been shooting YouTube videos. I actually have been seeing my family and friends and keeping to myself since it shouldn’t come as a surprise to any of y’all by now, but I didn’t do what I used to be planning on doing on the Olympia this 12 months. That is going to be the primary time I form of unpack that.”
Because he placed in seventh, and with the International Federation of Bodybuilding and Fitness’s (IFBB) recent changes to its qualification system, Labrada now not has an automatic berth within the 2023 Olympia. Because of this, he shared that he expects to compete in a minimum of two sanctioned IFBB Pro League contests before the subsequent Olympia to attempt to earn his keep. He didn’t share which competitions he’ll aim to take part in before the 2023 Olympia occurs sometime in Nov. 2023 in Orlando, FL.
Perhaps more importantly, Labrada disclosed he’d use the brand new competitive opportunities to attempt to work out where he stands physically after apparently messing something up in his final Olympia prep.
” … Regardless, if I win the primary one [contests), which I am going to do,” Labrada said. “The fact of the matter is I need to figure my peak out. We have a very good idea of where we went wrong in those final five days.”
Despite his most recent shortcoming, Labrada seemed optimistic about the future. As much as his 2022 Olympia performance bothered him, he has his eye on the prize in 2023.
“I’m really confident heading into this year,” Labrada said. I”n addition to that confidence heading into this year, I’m [expletive] pissed off, man. I put this timer up in my gym and worked daily for 342 days from last 12 months’s Olympia [2021] to this Olympia. I got here up short. Plain and easy. I got here up wanting what I desired to do. At the top of the day, that is something I’ve all the time really preached throughout my preps, is to maintain your peace of mind.”
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No matter what happens next for Labrada, his positive mindset will likely serve him well. He might even channel his apparent shame over what happened on the 2022 Olympia into focused, quality energy as motivation.
“The way you reply to adversity is what really makes you,” Labrada said. “I’ll always remember that [expletive] feeling of that first callout being called and me not being in it. It was in front of God knows how many individuals.” ” … I’m going to indicate you a much different Hunter on the two Pro shows I do and on the Olympia because I’m going to qualify this 12 months.”
Featured image: @hunterlabrada on Instagram