For those about to ROCK, By: Shawn Ray

When stepping on the stage, there is no difference than stepping in the arena as a Gladiator fighting the Good Fight!

                 “What would you give from this moment to the next, for another chance to step on stage against the best in the world to do the dance one last time?”

A question I have been asked the last 4 years in a row, every summer until the Mr. Olympia arrives and passes.

To set the record straight, I will answer that question here and now…… Nothing.

After a 14 year career spent posing on the biggest stage in Bodybuilding, against the very best in the world, I have but one word to answer the question….Nothing.

I would not “give” another second of my life, of my time thinking or dreaming of something I “LIVED” (past tense) for half of my adult life.

To put things into proper context, you must remember as a teenager at 17 years old,  I began my journey into the Bodybuilding Business. I call it a business because when I began, I was ALL Business! Two years later, I was Teenage Mr. America. Two years after that I was 21, and a Professional getting paid for my passion! From then on I spent the next 15 years of my life pursuing my dream of posing and competing on the Big Stage at the Big O!

Now in reflection, 4 years removed from the stage, I can honestly say I wouldn’t change a thing. I stood amongst Giants, competed against the World’s best and traveled the world over with Gladiator’s of the Iron Game. At every turn, each Mr. Olympia contest represented a Battle. Everyone was trying to beat each other.  I bore witness to the end of an era,  as I caught the tail end of the greatest Mr. Olympia ever, Lee Haney and his 8 consecutive wins. I fought tooth and nail against our sports “Crown Jewels” in the 90’s with Kevin Levrone, Flex Wheeler, Paul Dillett and Dorian Yates. I watched the evolution of Mr. Olympia and the criteria change with a near 300lbs champion by the year 2000 in Ronnie Coleman.

3 different decades of competition for me 1988, 90-2001, a record shared with two individuals the great Albert Beckels and the Govenator, Arnold Schwazhisname.

I literally “Emptied” myself onstage, leaving all I had for the fans, the judges and the future athletes of our sport. I left nothing to be questioned, as far as what I represented to the sport and my colleagues. That being said, as I made my exit, each year people beg the question of a possible return to the stage for one last go. The answer is “No.”

There is nothing higher for me to accomplish, there is nothing more I feel I need to add. I don’t need the title of Mr. Olympia to validate me, nor do I need the roar of the crowd to sustain me. What I did in the sport of bodybuilding, I did for myself. Now that I have been out of the game, it is not what I can take from the sport that brings satisfaction to me and my career but what I can give back!

I  emptied myself “Physically” in this sport of self indulgence, so I could be filled “Spiritually” for where I will spend ETERNITY!

It is Jesus Christ who sustains me and guides my life. This is what happiness is to me now. Doing His will, so that others may see Him through me as His representative. He asked me to do one thing, which I am doing my best to do, “Follow Me.

Bodybuilding was an ongoing Battle, what I have entered into now is WAR!

“It is written in the prophets, 'And they shall all be taught by God.' Every one who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me.”

John 6:45

"You are the light of the world.”

Matthew 5:14

“Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven“.

Matthew 5:16

“A disciple is not above his teacher, but every one when he is fully taught will be like his teacher.”

Luke 6:40

"If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. ³⁵ For whoever would save his life will lose it; and whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel's will save it. ³⁶ For what does it profit a man, to gain the whole world and forfeit his life?”

Mark 8:34

Need I say more?

Strength & Honor!