Quick Facts
Biography
Kevin Mark Levrone is an American IFBB professional bodybuilder, IFBB Hall of Famer, blogger and musician.
During his professional career, Levrone competed in 68 IFBB Professional contests. He has won 23 Pro Shows, holding the record of the most wins as an IFBB professional until Ronnie Coleman set the new record in 2004. Despite having been away from competition for well over a decade since he retired in 2003 Kevin officially announced in mid 2016 that he would return to once again compete at the professional level on stage at the Mr. Olympia contest. At age 51 Levrone made his professional bodybuilding return competing, as announced, at the 2016 Mr. Olympia.
Early life
Born and raised in Baltimore, Maryland by an Italian-American father and an African American mother, he lost both parents to cancer at a young age. Levrone was born on July 16, although the year is contested (1964, 1965, 1966 and 1968 have all been cited), one of six siblings. He first got into the gym when seeing his cousin come home from the military. After seeing the size and condition of his cousin, Kevin says that is what made him more serious about working out and bodybuilding in general.
Training
Levrone began his professional IFBB career in 1991 after finishing first in the NPC Finals. After the 1992 Olympia in February 1993, Kevin completely tore his major and minor pectorals while bench pressing 600 pounds, and he needed surgery to reattach them. At that time everyone thought that Levrone's career was over. He had two surgeries, the first one lasted 8 hours. While he was healing from his first surgery he got an infection and he needed a second surgery.
Levrone has been in more than 13 Mr. Olympia competitions, including the 2016 Mr. Olympia by special invite. Despite placing a number of times, Kevin never took first place in a Mr. Olympia competition earning him the nickname, "The Uncrowned King of Mr. Olympia". Levrone has been applauded for his ability to train quickly for competitions, rather than training year-long. This fact is often attributed to the reason why he was able to come back for the 2016 Mr. Olympia competition. Despite not placing in the top 10 for the first time, Levrone got himself in competition-shape in only 5 months. After the 2016 Mr. Olympia competition it came out that he had trained despite injuries to his pectorals and knee.
After professional career
Levrone did not officially announce his retirement, he explained this as he never thought about retirement, he decided to do something different, find other challenges. Since ending his competition career, Levrone enjoys playing other sports like tennis and golf. He has acted in several films and is also a musician. He released an online training platform in early 2016 naming it TeamLevrone.com. In 2015, he released a supplement line called, "Kevin Levrone Signature Series".
In May 2016 after 13 years of not competing Kevin officially announced he will be coming out of retirement to compete in Mr. Olympia 2016 by special invite.
Stats
- Height: 1.79 m (5 ft 11 in)
- Off Season Weight: 100 kg (220 lb) (post active competitive career)
- Off Season Weight: 120 kg (260 lb) (peak during active competitive career)
- Competition Weight: 110–115 kg (243–254 lb)
- Arm Size: 60 cm (24 in) (active peak)
- Leg Size: 82 cm (32 in)
- Waist Size: 73.66 cm (29.00 in)
- Chest size: 145 cm (57 in)
- Best Bench Press: 240 kg (530 lb)
- ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2015-09-24. Retrieved 2015-08-17.
- ^ "Kevin Levrone – Evolution of Bodybuilding". Evolutionofbodybuilding.net. Retrieved 2016-10-23.
- Greg Merritt. "Kevin Levrone's Training Philosophies". FLEX Online. Retrieved 2016-10-23.
- "Bodybuilder Kevin Levrone". Criticalbench.com. 1965-07-16. Retrieved 2016-10-23.