Nigerian-born professional body builder, Samson Dauda has revealed how proud he feels to be the runner-up at this year’s Mr. Olympia Men’s Open body-building championship, but admitted he actually entered the competition with his mind on winning it, Sports247 reports.
‘The Nigerian Lion’ is still picking positives, after he finished second during the competition that took place at Orleans Arena in Las Vegas, USA, where the 2024 champion narrowly missed a second title, just two points behind America’s Nick Walker, who won his first Sandow trophy.
Read Also: Samson Dauda Finishes Second at 2026 Mr Olympia
Walker established an early lead during Friday’s prejudging with 8 points to Dauda’s 15 and despite, ‘The Nigerian Lion’ mounting a massive comeback during Saturday’s finals, with five points ahead of his rival’s 10, all aggregated scores left him slightly short of the title.
Dauda’s runners-up spot was mostly due to a complex system in the calculation of bodybuilding points, from which the competitor with the lowest total score wins after all aggregate compiilations are finalised, and Walker emerged number one for 2026.
The final aggregate scores gave Dauda 20 points on the scorecard, with a cash award of $200,000, while Walker, who scored 18 points to claim his first title, got the top prize of $600,000 and former champion, Derek Lunsford took third place.
On the whole, this year’s outing marked a consistent outing for Kaduna-born Dauda, who placed sixth in 2022 and third in 2023, then won the title in 2024, before turning up as fourth last year and now runner-up for the 2026 edition.
The 40-year-old Dauda, who is registered as a British-Nigerian with joint-French citizenship, though he was born in Kaduna, played rugby after arriving in England as a teenager, but continues excelling in body building after he won the 2023 Arnold Classic and 2024 Mr. Olympia.
Dauda, whose efforts also put him ahead of another Nigerian-born professional body builder, Chinedu Andrew Obiekea (aka Andrew Jacked), took to social media to celebrate his achievement, as he posted: “2nd place at the 2026 Mr. Olympia.
“Of course we came here to win, but I couldn’t be prouder of this moment. The look we brought to the stage. This was the best version of me we have ever created. This medal may be around my neck, but it belongs to all of us.”
Sports247 gathered further that Chinedu Obiekea, who placed fourth, ahead of Tonio Burton in fifth spot, was also born in Kaduna and competes regularly in the Men’s Open division of the IFBB Pro League, where he is renowned for his towering height and ‘exceptional aesthetic symmetry.’
He is also rated high with fluid presentation and often referred to as the body buulder with ‘Mona Lisa’ physique, having established himself as one of the premier elite athletes in the sport when he won the 2026 Arnold Classic in Columbus, Ohio and took a $750,000 prize.
He also won the 2026 Arnold Classic $250,000 purse in Birmingham, England in an impressive back-to-back feat that saw him become the first to cross $1m in combined prize earnings from the two events and won the Ed Corney Best Poser Award from Arnold Schwarzenegger.
