Mr. Universe 1988, bodybuilder Mats Kardell posing and the award ceremony

From the book "Doped: My life as a Heavyweight Bodybuilding Champion": Competition time The weigh-in took place on a stage in front of an audience, there were around thirty people in my division. I weighed in at 215 pounds and struck a few poses; I felt strong. The morning after the weigh-in, it was time for the prejudging in front of the judges and the public. I ended up way over to one side, outside the light. Not so good. At this point, a few people were out. But before the second program point, I was pulled out and got to stand next to the previous year’s winner, a damn good Czech named Pavel Jablonski. During the prejudging, which is seen as the most important part, my body was at its absolute best. Everything was right. A body in peak condition quickly loses fitness, as all elite athletes know. It can happen in just a matter of hours. The margins are tiny in elite sport, so you have to make sure to get the timing just right when the competition comes around. And I had managed to do just that. When it was time for the free program, everything felt perfect. We were on an enormous amusement park called “Dreamworld”. There was a theater there where we performed. It had a capacity of 6000 and the audience was lively. I’d picked up a few tricks and I had a well-choreographed routine that worked in harmony with the mix of different songs that boomed out from the stage during the minute I had at my disposal. It was important that there was a flow, that you follow the rhythm of the music and show your whole body, not just whatever you were happiest with, even if it was perfectly natural to emphasize that. For example, I often felt that my back wasn’t quite there – that it wasn’t firm enough – but now the whole of me was in equilibrium. It went really well; I could feel that. The crowd were with me. All the competitors were also tested by the anti-doping team. The tests were conducted by the same lab who would later catch Ben Johnson. A few were caught, but I was fine of course. I had worked everything out so that it was idiot-proof, I hadn’t left anything to chance. Everything went exactly as I hoped. I passed the doping test, every single muscle obeyed me, my body was in the form of its life and my psyche was incredibly strong. I was interviewed by the biggest, most influential magazines in the business: Muscle & Fitness and Flex Magazine – that was huge in itself. Equally huge was the fact that these were interviews with the presumptive winner, one of the top reporters even said that he’d eat his hat if I didn’t end up winning. But that isn’t how it turned out. Silver medal When there were three of us left standing by the podium and the USA’s Gene Howell was called up as the bronze medalist, it felt good. Now it was me and Pavel Jablonski competing to be world champion. But when the silver medalist’s name was announced, it was mine. I have a VHS recording of the competition, and you can make out my split-second of disappointment before I quickly pull myself together and step into second place. The clip is now on YouTube. What happened wasn’t without controversy. But things were different then, there was politics in everything: East against West. All the western judges – six of them – scored me highly, while the three eastern judges put me way down the list, they scored me as seventh or eighth. This meant that Pavel won, and he gestured towards me as if to apologize. But of course, it wasn’t his fault. Ove Rytter, the journalist who had travelled to Brisbane with us, wrote in B&K Magazine: “’Kadde’ Kardell was the name on everyone’s lips in this world championship. He was hugely popular among (most of) the judges and (all of) the women. The crowd shrieked and clapped as he went on stage for the prejudging! Kardell had incredible flex in his muscles. I was worried about his position during the prejudging, because he ended up way over on the right-hand side. The lighting was basically non-existent. And that’s not good when the judges are forming their first impressions. Yet “Kadde” was called up again and again (13 times in total!) during that hot morning at World Expo. Everyone thought that Mats was the clear winner. Two journalists had been sent from the US by the magazines Flex and Muscle & Fitness. They did winner interviews with Mats – the day before the final! And it was Mats they did photoshoots with – the day after the final. Everyone felt sympathy for Mats because he ‘only’ managed second place. People were so angry they were screaming! Norway’s Federation Chair Grete Lund, who’d been among the judges (one of three who had Mats in first place) took off her glasses and asked the other judges whether they would like to borrow them next time they were judging. Morally, Mats was the winner!” More info: www.facebook.com/BookMatsKardell