by Christian Duque
The world of bodybuilding and fitness got news of the passing of legendary Russian bodybuilder Eugene Mishin from RX Muscle. Dave did a fantastic job sharing how important the bodybuilder was to his website and channel, not to mention the kind of impact that he made in the iron game. I can tell you that many of the times that I would watch RX I would take special interest in Eugene because he was truly the kind of guy that was a man’s man. There was no lying in him, he told the story like it was, and if he embellished it, it was only to make it more entertaining. I met him a couple of times at various expos and I thought that he was down to Earth and very much a gentleman when it came down to it.
After all, this is a sport where there are people with very very inflated egos and they don’t have time for the fans or the press. They have a sense of entitlement where they feel that everyone owes them something but this was not the case with Eugene. When you spoke to him he was the same person that he was on all of the bodybuilding shows and video programs. He also had a very healthy social media and was known to interact with the fans on a variety of levels. His work on the stage was impressive in that he was able to qualify for the Olympia on a couple of occasions by taking top three at the Orlando Pro. These were by no means rinky-dink shows and he was up against pretty deep lineups.
It goes to show you that bodybuilding surely is a sport where you can make your dreams come true. He always wanted to compete on the Olympia and he was able to do it not once but twice. For a lot of bodybuilders competing at that elite level, it never happens. Many will go 10 or 20 years battling for a pro card and sometimes it just never comes to fruition. But to be able to earn pro status and then compete at the highest level is nothing short of amazing. It’s not the product of luck rather it is purely hard work and discipline.
Eugene was able to come up in the sport while living in Russia. Although Russia is a superpower and has a tremendous amount of history when it comes to physique-based sports it’s not anywhere near as easy to come up the ranks than say the United States, Canada, or even most of Western Europe. Eugene had to work really hard in order to make it to the Russian Championships and win the whole damn thing. Although he never marketed himself as Mr Russia that’s exactly what he was and then he went on to win the European Championships which is also no small feat. As both Mr Russia and Mr Europe he was able to capitalize on all of his hard work by making the move to the United States. He lived in the US and called it his base of operations. As a result, he was able to win a tremendous amount of international support.
As we often say, bodybuilding is an international sport because it doesn’t know national boundaries or languages, it doesn’t care about what religion you are, it doesn’t care what ethnicity you are. It is one of those sports that has a very unifying power and nothing could have been more true than when it came to Eugene. He was all about bridging the gap between east and west. And that’s very significant given the power that bodybuilding has to bring people of all walks of life together.
Maybe he could have done better for himself as a professional bodybuilder if he put all of his eggs in one basket but that just wasn’t the case. He also had a very successful acting career. You often hear bodybuilders talk about how they want to do both but very seldom are they able to make good on that aspiration.
Everybody looks at Arnold and assumes that it’s easy peasy to earn a pro card and compete as a bodybuilder while also reading for parts and landing them. In Eugene’s case this was exactly what he was doing and he was living his best life by pursuing two passions that were near and dear to his heart. He was able to appear in commercials and films while at the same time keeping true to his love of bodybuilding. But when he stopped competing he didn’t stop lifting or looking the part. I feel that a whole new chapter was opened up for him by his many appearances on RX Muscle.
RX has created second careers for a lot of former bodybuilders by bringing them into the media fold. This is something that could never have happened in the magazine days or back when bodybuilding was featured on ESPN and Fox Sports. Back in those days only the top of the top had a place to fill. With internet websites like RX Muscle fans are able to tap into the creative genius of many of these competitors which otherwise would have gone overlooked were it not for this new innovative platform. Eugene not only was a phenomenal athlete and an actor, but he also was a force to be reckoned with as a media personality. Many people tuned into RX to see what Eugene would say next.
As we opened the article, let me reiterate, his credibility factor was through the roof because people believed him. There was no lying in him. He never told a story to make himself look bigger than he was. There’s people like that in our sport. There are many people like that. There are so many people that you can’t even really count them, but those who wear their hearts on their sleeves are few and far between. Those who tell it like it is even if it doesn’t put them in the brightest light are the ones that you just can’t get enough of.
The stories from back in Russia were hilarious. And the fact is that Eugene was the kind of guy that was very much a team player. Many of those shows have upwards of half a dozen hosts all live at once. It’s not a show about anyone in particular – even Dave who is the owner of the website and the main host. Everybody gets their slice of the pie when it comes to airtime and exposure. For some people that could never work because they’re too full of themselves but for Eugene it was like his second home.
Although his cause of death remains unclear, that doesn’t really matter to me. It really doesn’t matter to many of the people that have taken to social media to share their memories of this tremendous bodybuilder, actor, and just overall awesome human being. It’s very sad that the paramedics arrived on scene and worked on him for 45 minutes but just could not bring him back. We like to hope he didn’t suffer but we really don’t know for sure. it may have been heart-related, it may have been something genetic. It really doesn’t matter at the end of the day. I’m sure it matters in terms of autopsies and causes of death for medical purposes, but as far as I’m concerned we lost a tremendous member of the community and I think that the appropriate thing to do is write articles, make videos, and leave comments and status updates remembering him. I’ve always thought that that is the best thing to do when someone important to our sport passes away. The causes of death and all that other stuff can get sorted out later and by other people.
I am very happy though that the media – and when I say the media I mean the mainstream media – has taken a break from descending on a bodybuilder’s death and looking to use it as an exploit for other agendas. We have seen less and less of that and it makes me happy. We don’t know definitively what happened to Eugene but what’s important is that we miss him and we honor him. He led a very, very full and happy life, but at 48 years of age it seems like he has been taken away from us way too soon. 48 years of age is only 3 years more than my age. It just makes you think what is wrong with our sport when people this young are no longer with us. Again, I don’t know what the cause of death was and I don’t know if gear had anything to do with it, but it breaks my heart that we lost such a great guy at such a young age.
As always I appreciate you taking the time to read my article here at Iron Magazine. I hope you will share this article on your social media feeds and try to remember Eugene as he was, a truly inspiring individual that loved bodybuilding. As always I look forward to reading your feedback in the comments.
