by Christian Duque
IFBB Pro Urs Kalecinski aka The Miracle Bear has done it again. After his major win in Italy just a week ago to his follow-up victory at the Europe Pro, this former classic physique competitor has been able to make one of the most successful transitions into open bodybuilding that we have seen in recent memory. I think it’s safe to say that classic physique was holding him back. And this also goes back to what Lee Priest said when Urs won in Italy. He stated that the best bodybuilders will win shows.
There is no need to have classic physique or even 212 bodybuilding. Why divide the flagship division? Why not have everybody compete in bodybuilding and whoever looks the best will take the best placings. In other words, why divide the sport up? Why have so many divisions when in reality all we’re trying to do is find the best bodybuilder on the planet? Now men’s physique will be safe because that’s a totally different look. And it’s valid to have them separate, but classic physique has often been thought of as being classic bodybuilding. And 212 is bodybuilding. It’s bodybuilding that is typically populated by shorter and lighter competitors but that does not mean that it is any less bodybuilding than the open. Therefore the best bodybuilder at the 212 or the best bodybuilder classic should be also in the running to be the best bodybuilder in the open. And one thing is for sure, Urs belongs in the open. While he was doing big things in classic physique, he is now winning open pro shows back to back and has created a tremendous amount of momentum going into the Mr Olympia competition. After all, Mr Olympia is the Super Bowl of bodybuilding. Anybody who wins a pro show is going to want to go onto the biggest stage in the world. But before we get ahead of ourselves, that last sentence has some added information we have to unpack.
There’s no question that Urs brought his a-game to the Europe Pro. He looked more peeled at Europe than he did at the Italy Pro Show and that kind of success is not by happenstance. Here is a competitor that could have rested on his laurels and qualified for the Olympia by winning his open pro debut and stopped there, but he knew that in the back of his head it was going to bother him. He knew that people’s remarks that he won by luck were going to be his undoing. So instead of taking his chances what did he do? He embarked for another contest prep and he did another contest very shortly after his pro debut in open. And that was the Europe Pro. Nobody expected Urs to come into the Europe Pro and beat Quinton once again. A rivalry had been formed but that was a rivalry that could have stayed at the Italy Pro. Most people who change divisions and win their first show will hunker down and prepare for the Olympia because after all that is the goal. That is the only reason that competitors compete at pro events – but to compete again after earning that qualification is awfully gutsy. Some might argue that he was pushing his luck, while others might argue that he wanted to make a point. And what could that point be? He didn’t want anyone to think that his victory in Italy was a fluke. He didn’t want anyone to think that it was luck. By winning the Europe Pro and winning Italy he has decisively proven to the world that he is an open bodybuilder and he can be very competitive at the Olympia. The question is, is he going to be?
In order for Urs to be competitive in my opinion he’s going to have to really work on his back. We have often heard the great quotes from Ronnie Coleman, to Dorian Yates, to Lee Haney, they all will tell you that you win bodybuilding shows from the back. Bodybuilders need to have massive lats and a very tight midsection. They need to be able to hit that rear latspread or that rear double biceps pose and just knock it out of the park. Now Urs has a phenomenal back and it’s definitely come a long way; however, he’s going to have to really build on that if he wants to be top six at the Olympia. What’s crazy is that if you polled most bodybuilding fans today, they would tell you that he is most definitely a shoe in for top 10. And that right there is just absolutely mind-boggling because just last year he was competing in a different division.
The idea that competitors could bounce around divisions at the pro level is absolutely astounding. Because we have often heard how difficult it is to build muscle and we also know that there’s a tremendous amount of a size gap between classic physique and open bodybuilding. But that also should point to us that some competitors are trapped in the wrong division. And at some point a pragmatic competitor and/or a pragmatic competitor’s camp is going to urge that athlete to make a change. I believe Urs could have won the classic physique Olympia, but it what cost? How much more would he have had to restrict the natural growth of his physique in order to win that top honor? On the flip side, I feel like he’s going to really hit his stride in bodybuilding because he’s going to allow his body to grow to as big as it wants to get.
Now there also lies about something else we need to unpack. These classic guys have perfect physiques. They may want to be bigger and they may want to have more muscle but the best classic physique competitor is a throwback to the Golden Era of Bodybuilding. It’s what bodybuilding should be. It’s what the old timers like Arnold look at and say “wow that is a great physique.”
The problem is when these classic guys jump up to open they no longer have a weight cap. They no longer have to worry about not making weight or going above their weight or whatever. The reality of the matter is that when you strip away all restrictions a lot of these guys tend to get massive. And while that is a good thing it is not always a good thing when it comes to aesthetics and flow. A guy that has beautiful lines could easily destroy that look by putting on tons of weight. And as we all know, the vast majority of quick weight gain is fat. Muscle does not grow that way. I don’t care what cocktail, what stack, or what exotic product someone is on, it does not matter. Muscle does not grow at the same rate as fat. In other words, a massive gain in weight as part of some sort of a dirty bulk to gain quality muscle is just not going to translate. Then of course there’s the drugs. And we can say the drugs don’t factor in but we would be lying to ourselves. The last thing I want to see is Urs become a mass monster and lose the beautiful physique that he created in a division that was all about the way bodybuilders used to look like.
Everyone is talking about the improvements Urs needs to make in order to be in the top six. Well I for one don’t understand why he doesn’t just start working on that now. Why does he have to go to the Olympia and place in the top 10 if he could wait a year and really grow into the division and place in the Top 6? I guess that when you go to a pro show you want to compete in that year’s Olympia. It’s called having ambition and it’s called wanting to get experience – and I get all of that. I just don’t understand what the rush is? If Urs has found open bodybuilding and wants to stay, why does everything happen at once. He’s already won not one but two pro shows. I think that would be a great way to end his stint in open for 2025 and then he grows and comes back better than ever for 2026, but I don’t think that’s going to happen.
Hopefully what will happen is that after the Europe Pro Urs actually hunkers down and worries about the Olympia. There are no more shows to qualify for this year’s contest; however, he could embark on a guest posing tour, he could do a bunch of seminars, he could appear in a bunch of expos, but what he needs to do is hunker down and work towards the Olympia. Everything else gets put on hold for now. But only time will tell how serious Urs takes his Olympia prep. We’re not that far away – the Olympia is right around the corner.
Nonetheless I do want to take this opportunity to congratulate Urs for this huge victory. It is very rare that somebody makes such a successful transition between divisions and not only wins their first show out of the gate but then wins the very next one after that. Nobody thinks that Italy was a fluke and nobody thinks that Europe was one either. Urs went into both contests firing on all cylinders and emerged victorious. I give him all the credit in the world for that. I just wonder what his next moves will be? As always, thank you for reading my article at IronMag. I look forward to reading your feedback in the comments. Please be sure to copy and paste a link to this article on all your social media feeds. It is bound to generate some very lively conversation.
