Weider Fitness Biography
Source:- Google.com.pk
Benjamin "Ben" Weider, OC CQ (February 1, 1923 – October 17, 2008) was the co-founder of the International Federation of BodyBuilding & Fitness (IFBB) along with brother Joe Weider. He was a Canadian businessman from Montreal, well known in two areas: Bodybuilding and Napoleonic history.Benjamin Weider was born on February 1, 1923 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
In bodybuilding he founded and ran a physical fitness and sporting goods company bearing his name. He was IFBB president until October 29, 2006, when he announced his retirement.
In Napoleonic circles Weider was known as a forceful advocate of the theory that Napoleon was assassinated by a member of his entourage during his exile in Saint Helena. He co-authored several books, Assassination at St. Helena and Assassination at St. Helena Revisited, with Sten Forshufvud and The Murder Of Napoleon, with David Hapgood about this. Weider also founded the International Napoleonic Society, of which he was the President, and wrote numerous articles for this organization.
In 1975 he was made a Member of the Order of Canada and was promoted to Officer in 2006. In 2000, he was made a Knight of the National Order of Quebec. On October 12, 2000, he received the French Legion of Honor, that country's highest honour, which was established by Bonaparte himself. Weider was also a 1984 nominee for the Nobel Peace Prize,[6] a member of the Quebec Sports Hall of Fame, and a Commander of the Venerable Order of St. John. He also had several honorary doctorate degrees. The Institute on Napoleon and the French Revolution at the Florida State University History Department has recently created the Ben Weider Chair in Revolutionary Studies. In total, Ben accumulated over 66 awards and honours during his lifetime.[7]
From 1998 to 2005, Ben Weider was Honorary Lieutenant Colonel of the 62nd (Shawinigan) Field Artillery Regiment, RCA. In 2005, he was promoted to Honorary Colonel of that military unit. In October 2006, Ben Weider unexpectedly retired as president of the IFBB.
In 2008, he was given the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 20th Anniversary Arnold Classic (only the eighth time in the competition's history that this award had been presented).
Ben owned one of the most extensive collections of Napoleon memorabilia, including one of the bicorne hats worn by Napoleon during the invasion of Russia in 1812, of which only 12 are known to still exist today. Three weeks before his death, Ben donated his entire set of priceless Napoleonic artifacts, over 60 pieces in all, to the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, making it one of the largest collections of its kind in the world. Prince Charles Napoleon, great-great-grandson of Napoleon's youngest brother Jerome, was on hand to inaugurate the museum's new permanent gallery on Oct. 23
Ben Weider, who with his brother Joe brought bodybuilding into the international spotlight by organizing professional competitions like Mr. Olympia and by grooming stars like Arnold Schwarzenegger, died Friday in Montreal. He was 85.
Dave Thomson/Associated Press
Ben Weider in 1998. He and his brother Joe had a fitness empire.
The death was confirmed by Charlotte Parker, a family spokeswoman.
As a founder and longtime president of the International Federation of Body Builders, Mr. Weider (pronounced WEE-der) spread the gospel of competitive bodybuilding, which he dreamed might one day become an Olympic sport.
“He had a slogan, ‘Bodybuilding is important for nation building,’ ” said Frank Zane, a three-time Mr. Olympia. “He was a real diplomat.”
While his brother concentrated on expanding Weider Health and Fitness, an empire built on muscle magazines, exercise equipment and nutritional supplements, Mr. Weider roamed the world, creating branches of his federation in about 180 countries, organizing contests and lobbying a resistant International Olympic Committee. In 1998, the I.O.C. met him halfway by granting bodybuilding provisional status as an Olympic sport.
“He had an amazing career promoting this crazy sport,” said Mike Steere, the author of “Brothers of Iron,” a biography of the Weiders. “It’s largely through his efforts that it was legitimized around the world.”
Benjamin Weider was born in Montreal, where his parents had settled after leaving Poland. The family was poor, and he dropped out of school after the seventh grade to work in restaurants and in garment factories. In 1942, he enlisted in the Canadian Army, in which he did intelligence work.
In the meantime, Joe, a former 90-pound weakling tired of being picked on by neighborhood bullies, had parlayed his enthusiasm for weight lifting and fitness into a magazine, Your Physique, whose pages became a vehicle for selling exercise equipment.
Ben joined the business, and in 1946, the brothers founded the body builders’ federation to sponsor a new style of competition in which contestants, rather than bending iron bars or snapping chains, would lift weights and display their bodies so audiences could appreciate the balance and proportions of their muscular development. Mr. Weider was the president of the organization, now known as the International Federation of Bodybuilding and Fitness, from its founding until 2006.
In 1965, the brothers organized the first Mr. Olympia contest, which was held at the Brooklyn Academy of Music and quickly became the professional counterpart to the Mr. Universe competition. In Mr. Schwarzenegger, whom they called the Austrian Oak, the brothers found their first star. The film “Pumping Iron,” released in 1977, brought the contest and the sport to a general audience. In 1980, the brothers created a competition for women, Ms. Olympia, which generated its own celebrities.
In 1959 Mr. Weider married Huguette Derouin, who survives him, along with their three sons: Louis, of Montreal, Eric of Los Angeles, and Mark, of Miami; his brother, Joe, and his sister, Freda Yankofsky, both of Los Angeles; and two grandchildren.
Mr. Weider published several books on Napoleon, who, he was convinced, did not die of cancer but at the hands of associates who poisoned him with arsenic. He presented his argument in “The Murder of Napoleon” (1982), written with David Hapgood. He also published a revisionist history, “The Wars Against Napoleon” (2007), written with Gen. Michel Franceschi, which sought to prove that Napoleon, rather than monomaniacally pursuing military glory, waged a defensive struggle on behalf of Enlightenment ideals against reactionary regimes.
Less surprisingly, with Robert Kennedy, he wrote “Superpump: Hardcore Women’s Bodybuilding” (1986).
“A body is a body is a body,” Mr. Weider once told The Toronto Globe and Mail. “It has muscles, it has blood, it has bones, it can be built.”
Death[edit]
Weider died on October 17, 2008, at the Jewish General Hospital in Montreal.
Weider Fitness Fitness Motivation Quotes Models Inspiration Motivational Quotes Women Logo Girl First Selfies
Weider Fitness Fitness Motivation Quotes Models Inspiration Motivational Quotes Women Logo Girl First Selfies
Weider Fitness Fitness Motivation Quotes Models Inspiration Motivational Quotes Women Logo Girl First Selfies
Weider Fitness Fitness Motivation Quotes Models Inspiration Motivational Quotes Women Logo Girl First Selfies
Weider Fitness Fitness Motivation Quotes Models Inspiration Motivational Quotes Women Logo Girl First Selfies
Weider Fitness Fitness Motivation Quotes Models Inspiration Motivational Quotes Women Logo Girl First Selfies
Weider Fitness Fitness Motivation Quotes Models Inspiration Motivational Quotes Women Logo Girl First Selfies
Weider Fitness Fitness Motivation Quotes Models Inspiration Motivational Quotes Women Logo Girl First Selfies
Weider Fitness Fitness Motivation Quotes Models Inspiration Motivational Quotes Women Logo Girl First Selfies
Weider Fitness Fitness Motivation Quotes Models Inspiration Motivational Quotes Women Logo Girl First Selfies
Weider Fitness Fitness Motivation Quotes Models Inspiration Motivational Quotes Women Logo Girl First Selfies
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