Lee Priest
Name: Lee Priest
Born: July 6, 1972, Newcastle, Australia
Height: 5'4"
Off Season Weight: 230 Competition Weight: 203
Lee Priest was born to a regular working-class family, as he puts it, and as he reached his teenage years, he began to dabble in rugby and karate. His grandfather, a former army wrestler, enrolled young Lee in the local police force's boys gymnastics club. The youngster had a habit of arriving before the gymnastics class started and -- being the adventurous lad he was -- working out with weights that were strewn around the secluded corner of the gym. This introduction to barbells and dumbbells occurred when Lee was 13.
Though he sported a lean and lithe physique that could never be described as skinny when he started, after only eight months of weight training, he had packed on impressive muscle size. In 1986, at the age of 14, he entered and won three local junior bodybuilding shows in quick succession against competitors three and four years older. Being onstage felt natural to him from the very first contest, and with that mind-set, he decided to take this bodybuilding thing as far as I could. Initially, his family was a little wary of young Lee getting involved in the weird sport of bodybuilding, but they very quickly became supportive and have remained so ever since.
Lee Priest: Training Camp
and Career Highlights
Showcasing the fabulous physique and career of LEE PRIEST.
Lee Priest Seminar plus Posing
See the world's greatest short physique champion as he poses his massive physique.
A devoted reader of Flex and Muscle Fitness, the teenager became enamored with the Austrian Oak. Arnold became my idol, he says. As he progressed, Lee was increasingly drawn toward the freaky look, as embodied by pros like Tom Platz and Eddie Robinson. Lee's early 1994 resemblance to Platz, courtesy of his dyed blond hair, is dismissed as a coincidence, and the youngster has now reverted to his natural brown hue. In 1989, at the tender age of 17, Priest won the Mr. Australia title, the major one, not the teen division, and successfully defended it in 1990 and 1991. Too big for Australia, Priest jumped the island continent and took fourth in the lightweight division of the 1990 IFBB World Championships in Malaysia. The tiny terror then entered the 1991 World Championships in Poland as one of the precontest favorites, but in a major controversy, he failed the contest's drug test even though he had tested clean (twice!) prior to leaving Australia. Of that incident, Lee says candidly, If I was on gear (drugs), I wouldn't have been in the lightweight (154-pound) class. I would have been at least 20 pounds heavier.
After the Polish debacle, Priest felt it was time to strut his stuff among the pose-for-pay brigade. He applied for his pro status with IFBB Pro Division Director Wayne DeMilia, but DeMilia turned down the 20-year-old's request, saying he was too young and not yet good enough to turn pro.
The Priest of pump thus became suspended in a kind of career limbo in 1992. In April 1993, hungry for competition, he journeyed to the States and entered the Niagara Falls open amateur contest, which is staged in conjunction with the annual Niagara Falls Pro Invitational.
A few days before that contest, Lee was in Gold's Gym, Venice, hitting a few shots after a workout when he was spotted by NPC President Jim Manion. Perusing the 181 cut pounds distributed on Lee's 5'4 frame, the canny Manion exclaimed: You should be a pro.
After a flurry of red tape, Priest was consequently registered as an IFBB pro on the morning of the 1993 Niagara Flass Pro Invitational, and he duly made his debut with an impressive ninth-place finish. Many observers of that show said he should have placed higher, but in the slow-burn manner that personifies his character, Priest in an interview. As long as I'm in my best shape and continue making progress, I'm content to let the placings take care of themselves, he said humbly.
On July 1, 2000 he married Cathy LeFrancois, a female bodybuilder, from whom he has since separated. Recently he was engaged to popular fitness pro Adela Garcia Friedmansky.
Contest History:
2006 Night of Champions (PDI), 1st
2006 Ironman Pro, 1st
2005 Grand Prix Australia, 1st
2002 Mr. Olympia 7th
2000 Ironman Pro Invitational 2nd
2000 Arnold Classic 1st
2000 Hungarian Grand Prix 1st
2000 Mr. Olympia 3rd
1999 Mr. Olympia 2nd
1999 Joe Weider's Pro World 2nd
1999 Grand Prix England - 2nd
1998 Mr Olympia 2nd
1998 Arnold Classic 1st
1998 Ironman Pro Invitational 1st
1997 San Jose Pro 1st
1997 Arnold Classic 1st
1997 Ironman Pro Invitational 1st
1996 Mr. Olympia 4th
1996 Florida Cup Pro 1st
1996 Canada Pro Classic 2nd
1996 Night of Champions 1st
1996 Arnold Classic 2nd
1996 Ironman Pro Invitational 1st
1995 Grand Prix Spain 5th
1995 Mr. Olympia 8th
1995 South Beach Pro 1st
1995 Arnold Classic 2nd
1995 Ironman Pro Invitational 1st
1994 Arnold Classic - IFBB, 7th
1994 Ironman Pro Invitational - IFBB, 4th
1993 Mr. Olympia 2nd
1993 Arnold Classic 1st
1993 Ironman Pro Invitational 1st
1993 Niagara Falls Pro Invitational - IFBB, 9th
1990 World Amateur Championships - IFBB, 4th
1990 World Amateur Championships - IFBB, 4th
1990 Mr Australia - IFBB, Overall Winner
1989 Mr Australia - IFBB, Overall Winner
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