Some transformations happen slowly, over a whole career. Derek Lunsford’s happened in front of everyone’s eyes, in a single season. 💪
In May 2022 he was the reigning 212 Olympia champion, guest posing at the Pittsburgh Pro. By November 2023 he was Mr. Olympia — the first man ever to win Olympia titles in two divisions.
This is not his full career story. For his complete stats and contest record, see his Derek Lunsford biography, and for the wider rise, see The Genetic Freak Who Won Mr. Olympia in Two Divisions. This article is about one thing only: the transformation itself, pose by pose, from that guest-posing night to the Olympia stage.
The Guest-Posing Night That Changed Everything
The 2022 Pittsburgh Pro guest-posing lineup was stacked with Open talent, including Nick Walker, Hunter Labrada and Brandon Curry. Lunsford walked out among them as a 212 champion — and did not look out of place. 👀
Reports put him at around 257 lb on the night, well above the 212 lb cap he had ruled. That number matters, because it was the first public proof that his body had already outgrown his division.
He was also, by several accounts, standing in for an absent Mamdouh “Big Ramy” Elssbiay. Whatever the reason for the call-up, Lunsford stole the moment — and the Olympia organisers noticed.
In September 2022 he received a special invitation to compete in the Men’s Open at the Mr. Olympia, without having won an Open pro show first. Some rivals called it queue-jumping. Then he finished second to Hadi Choopan on his Open debut, and the argument was over.
The Transformation, Pose by Pose
Guest posing is not judged, so the physique on show is an off-season one — fuller, softer, and heavier than a stage-ready body. The gap between that look and an Olympia peak is where this story lives. 🔥
The front double bicep told the first part. At Pittsburgh, Lunsford’s arms and shoulders already looked Open-class, but the detail was still buried under off-season fullness. A year of sharpening, not just adding size, brought that detail out.
His back told the second part. It was already his calling card in the 212 division, and it is the pose most fans point to when they explain his 2023 win — wider, denser and more detailed than the version seen at Pittsburgh.
The side chest and the rear lat spread told the third part. Both poses reward balance: chest thickness against back width, without a waist that blows out. That balance, tightened up over the 2022–23 season, is what separated him from Choopan in Orlando in November 2023, when he won the Mr. Olympia and the People’s Champion Award on the same weekend. 🏆
Put the two pictures side by side and the change is plain. Same athlete, same smile, same posing style — a completely different level of mass and condition. That is what a transformation actually looks like, rather than a filter or a pump photo.
For a sense of how hard that level is to hold, look at the men who lived the same grind from the other side of the stage — Victor Martinez, the uncrowned legend, and the lifters in The Lifelong Battle. And for the next generation chasing the same path, see Andrew Jacked’s meteoric ascent.
The story did not stop at the Olympia win. Defending a title is harder than winning one. In 2024 Lunsford slipped to third at the Mr. Olympia as Samson Dauda took the crown, with Choopan second.
After that season his long-time coach Hany Rambod retired from coaching elite athletes. Early in 2025 Lunsford began working with Chris Aceto — and produced one of the great comeback seasons in modern bodybuilding.
He won the Arnold Classic in March 2025, ahead of Dauda and Andrew Jacked. He won the Pittsburgh Pro in May 2025, the event where this whole story started, this time as a contest rather than a guest pose. Then in October 2025 he reclaimed the Mr. Olympia, ahead of Choopan and Jacked — only the second man, after Jay Cutler in 2009, to lose the Sandow and win it back. 🏆
He skipped the 2026 Arnold Classic to focus on defending the title. At the 2026 Mr. Olympia in Las Vegas (24–27 September), Nick Walker won his first Sandow, Dauda finished second, and defending champion Lunsford finished third — Walker 18 points, Dauda 20, Lunsford 24. Lunsford said afterwards he had felt “off” from prejudging onward, and offered no excuses.
In total he holds three Olympia titles: the 212 Olympia in 2021, plus the Men’s Open Mr. Olympia in 2023 and 2025. He is the first athlete to win Olympia titles in two divisions.
That is the honest end of the arc so far: a guest poser who became a two-time Mr. Olympia, lost it twice, won it back once, and is still on the podium. If history is any guide, counting him out would be a mistake.