New Rules for 2023 Olympia: No More Point System

[Old Surehand]

It appears that only the top 3 placings in each Women's division from the 2022 Olympia and the winners from each pro show division, held between 11-22-2022 and 10-09-2023, will qualify for the Olympia in 2023. No more point system.

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[Timmon]

It will mean that the O really will have the top athletes in the world in any given season. Probably make the contest more exciting, and enable more new faces to shine, rather than some just appearing because they did the previous year.
I wonder why there is a difference for the Mr O, favouring the top 5 rather than top 3 for everyone else?

[quale0]

The top 3 or top 5 in Men's Open in the Olympia auto-qualifying was put in place for the 2022 rule, so that is not new. 

The only change to the 2023 rules is the removal of the points system which in 2022 allowed 3 competitors who had the most points in each division to qualify for Olympia. Which means they will cut about 30 potential competitors from an 2023 Olympia show that will still be about 400 people (not event a 10% cut).  That doesn't do much to reduce numbers in any division.

In 2022, the number of qualified competitors by division not including those who qualified via points were:

Men's Open: 33
Men's 212: 33
Men's Classic Physique: 63
Men's Physique: 69
Wheelchair: 14

Women's Bodybuilding: 18
Women's Physique: 22
Figure: 37
Fitness: 20
Wellness: 36
Bikini: 55

Looking at these numbers I don't think there was an issue with qualifying on points for Women's Bodybuilding due to the division not having many shows during the year in the first place (many of which occur far too early in the year IMO, but that's a different topic).

I heard some comments about the Olympia show being too long. Well the reason for that is obvious with sheer number of competitors in Bikini, Figure, Wellness, Classic Physique, and Men's Physique. Honestly, the number of Men's 212 and Open are a bit bloated as well.  I think something needs to be done to address those divisions, because they have far too many qualifying shows during the year. The 2023 rules do not address that problem, and for good reason because reducing the number of qualifying shows in the most popular divisions harms the sport of bodybuilding.

Do y'all think any serious competitor in any division would compete in a show that isn't an Olympia qualifier unless there was significant financial motivation to do so? Effectively, without something to give non-Olympia qualifying events some sort of value, those events would disappear due to lack of interest from the competitors.

Which is why I think the points system coupled with tiered event system (like they had in 2022) will make a return at some point. That's the only way I can see to reduce the amount of competitors in the problem divisions, so the Olympia can be run and judged efficiently and effectively without harming the sport by effectively cutting shows. Or they may build a totally new system for qualifying but either way the status quo is not sustainable long term.

[e_honda]

I don't think (in the big picutre) it's a huge deal. They already reduced the number of points qualifiers from 5 down to 3, and now to zero. So you're just reducing the competitor pool by 3. And I haven't looked, but I don't think any of the points qualifiers in any division were anywhere near finishing near the top at the Olympia.

The only reason I don't like qualifications from show winners only is because some shows are obviously much deeper/tougher than others. If someone wins a show where only 3-4 competitors show up, it might be less impressive than finishing 3rd at Tampa. I really think it should be a mix of winners (at major shows) and points qualifiers. Or maybe give a special invite for someone who finished 2nd multiple times. For example, Sherry Priami was excellent this year. She had two 2nd place finishes and 1 3rd place finish, all at very competitive shows. She probably better deserved a spot at the Olympia than at least 7-8 people who were qualified at this year's show.

I agree with the post above that this has been done mainly to reduce the size of the show, as there are too many competitors in too many divisions, and it's making for a big time crunch. I think the introduction of the Wellness division a couple years ago really added to the crunch.

Edit:  and from the above post, yeah there were just way too many competitors in Men's Physique, Classic Physique and Bikini. In fact, they really should be putting a cap on all the divisions to about 25 or so. Just way too many qualifications in general. Every single pro show being an automatic Olympia qualifier just dilutes it too much, given how many pro shows exist these days.

[FBBMW]

It sounds to me like this will limit the number of FBBs.   It's great seeing a lot of FBB, even if some are not competitive. 
 
Just do something to reduce the bloated divisions, without reducing the FBB + MBB.   

[luis3iguel]

well this system give us a see the best now the compettion will be more closed and give us see new faces like Angela Yeo maybe Chelsie Dion this year she be in the top 5

[FemFlexUSA]

There should only be a very small number of Olympia-qualifying shows - I think 4 is the right number. The other shows should exist to get to the O-qualifyING level.