The IFBB Professional league has introduced that for the 2026 Joe Weider’s Olympia qualification guidelines will change beginning September 15, 2025, shaking up the “win and also you’re in” format. Right here’s what it’s essential to know.
In a bid to slender down the sector of rivals hitting the Olympia stage, whereas forcing the highest stars to tread the boards extra typically, the IFBB Professional League has reinstated a factors system throughout many classes and doubled the variety of reveals {that a} bodybuilder should win in an effort to qualify for divisions together with Males’s Physique, Traditional, Bikini, and Wellness. Apart from the Open division, the highway to Olympia has modified drastically.
What the New 2026 Olympia qualification guidelines modifications means for every division:
Open Division:
- High 3 from the earlier Mr. Olympia qualify robotically
- All others should win one professional present to qualify
Traditional Physique, Males’s Physique, Bikini, Wellness:
Athletes qualify by both:
- Profitable two professional reveals, or
- Rating within the High 25 of the factors standings
Factors are awarded to 2nd–fifth place finishers at professional reveals, with values various by placement and occasion tier.
Males’s 212, Girls’s Bodybuilding, Girls’s Physique, Health, Determine:
- High 3 from the 2025 Olympia qualify robotically
- Winners of 1 open present additionally qualify
- (In Girls’s Bodybuilding, the High 3 from the 2025 Rising Phoenix additionally qualify)
Wheelchair Division:
- High 3 from the 2025 Olympia qualify robotically
- Winners of open reveals additionally qualify
- The High 4 within the factors standings qualify as properly.
Why Did the Olympia {Qualifications} Rule Change?
The “win and also you’re in” system throughout all divisions has led to many professionals qualifying after which sitting it out for the remainder of the yr. With some divisions now requiring two victories, bodybuilders should full extra typically, making the season extra thrilling. Equally, the factors system will reward athletes who place properly constantly, however don’t all the time win. The factors system is prone to carry extra high contenders to every qualifying present.
Those who ascend to the very best degree in bodybuilding have the whole lot to compete for. “Any former Olympia winner has lifetime eligibility (to enter a last the identical class)” defined the IFBB Professional League assertion on the brand new guidelines. “Nevertheless, this eligibility just isn’t automated. The place greater than 5 years have elapsed for the reason that final Olympia win, approval of the IFBB Professional League is required.”
Competitors forward of 2026 Olympia will seemingly be stronger than ever.
