Claiming that Olympia’s backstage was poorly lit and cold, Hollingshead stated that it felt ’like a nightclub’. The bodybuilder slammed the event organizers and said it was a chaotic experience.
Hollingshead, who finished 12th at the 2021 Mr. Olympia competition, said that the organizers needed to work better on ‘creating more order backstage’. Speaking in a YouTube video on January 3, 2023, he said:
He went on to state that there was ’no room to move’ backstage. Dubbing it a nightclub, Hollingshead said that past venues had comparatively better backstages. ‘The Shed’ added:
He continued:
Hollingshead says multiple issues affected Olympia competitors
According to James Hollingshead, poor lighting, lack of space and temperature affected bodybuilders. He stated the conditions could have caused the competitors to look worse during their poses and said:
The bodybuilder added that the competitors were forced to share rooms backstage with the media as well. He revealed that the ‘multitude’ of other people backstage affected the mentality of the athletes and said:
With his comments, Hollingshead joined a list of bodybuilders who have spoken against Olympia’s production team.
Earlier, four-time Mr. Olympia Jay Cutler had also slammed the event’s organizers. Dubbing the backstage production ‘a mess’, he said that the Men’s Open competitors were left to suffer backstage for hours.
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