Mr. Olympia 2022: Top Competitors Who Will Threaten Big Ramy's Title

Two-time defending Mr. Olympia Mamdouh "Big Ramy" Elssbiay enters the 2022 event the favorite to retain his title and further entrench himself alongside the greatest bodybuilders in the history of the sport, but he faces stiff competition from a field consisting of veteran competitors and young phenoms looking to unseat them and add to their legacies.

Who are the shredded competitors ready to channel months, a year even, of hard work into a defining victory in Las Vegas this weekend?

Find out with this look at three opponents Big Ramy will have his hands full with.

Hadi Choopan may be the most physically fit competitor in the field and, in the eyes of Big Ramy himself, the greatest threat to the championship.

Choopan finished in third place in the competition in both 2019 and 2021, with a disappointing fourth-place finish in between. Still, despite the disappointment of 2020, Choopan has never finished lower than that.

A consistent competitor, always in the mix for a win in any competition in which he participates, Choopan worked hard to better define his shoulders ahead of this year's show in hopes of finally realizing his potential by knocking Big Ramy off and winning a title that has eluded him thus far.

Accusations of Synthol usage led veteran bodybuilder Chris Cormier to urge Choopan to show up in Vegas with a "different look" in his shoulders and recent Instagram posts seem to suggest he has.

In the country a month early, thus avoiding any travel visa issues that may have kept him out of the competition, Choopan has a real chance to dethrone Ramy, barring any slip-ups. It is his fitness that sets him apart from the other, bulkier competitors in the event and might be what catches the eyes of the judges.

Legendary bodybuilder and former Mr. Olympia, Lee "Hercules" Haney, echoed the praise for Choopan's fitness in an Instagram post during last year's event.

Brandon Curry has the opportunity to do something that has never been done in the world of bodybuilding before should he do the unthinkable and beat Big Ramy in Las Vegas this weekend: become the first man to win the Arnold Classic and Mr. Olympia in the same year, twice.

It is incredibly difficult to win one of those events let alone both, in the same calendar year. The chances of doing it two times are astronomical, yet that is the scenario facing the 40-year-old athlete when he sets foot on stage inside the Zappos Theater at Planet Hollywood Resort and Casino.

Curry is a veteran competitor and his experience on this stage, having won the event in 2019, makes him a threat. He knows what judges look for and what he has to do to overcome a force of nature like Big Ramy.

The first runner-up both in 2020 and 2021, he has tasted the bitterness of second place and has put the work in this year to better his body in hopes of etching his name in the history books and upsetting the order of things in Vegas.

Do not sleep on his physicality to accomplish his goal and take his place among the greatest to ever do it by the time the event wraps up Saturday night.

Nick Walker enters Vegas with a ton of buzz behind him and is clearly the young, up-and-coming force in the bodybuilding world. Wins at the 2021 Arnold Classic and New York Pro are likely responsible for the hype train but a disappointing fifth-place finish at last year's Mr. Olympia fueled him to focus on this year's show.

Walker has not competed in a single event in 2022, preparing for the Mr. Olympia contest and improving upon last year's finish.

There is added motivation for the uber-confident Walker, who reunited with coach Matt Jansen in late September, he made him a promise.

"I said, 'I'm going to start my [IFBB] Pro [League] career with you and I'm going to end it with you.' I also promised him I'd be his first Mr. Olympia winner," he told Flex Lewis in a YouTube interview (h/t Robert Zeglinski of Breaking Muscle for the transcription).

He has the inspiration he needs but the experience is still in question. Could the phenom rise to the occasion and defeat competitors who have built their bodies almost as long as he has been alive?

The 28-year-old certainly thinks so. "Yes [I can win] 1000 percent. Everything I've said I was going to do, I've done it and I will be Mr. Olympia without a doubt." Sometimes, confidence in one's self is all that is needed.