Chris Bumstead

Christopher Adam Bumstead was born February 2, 1995 in Stittsville, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. He played football, baseball, basketball, and hockey through primary school before discovering bodybuilding through his older sister’s boyfriend, Iain Valliere, who became his first coach. He made his amateur competitive debut in 2014 at age 19 at a regional Ontario show, won his junior overall title, and never looked back.

He earned his IFBB pro card at age 21 by winning the 2016 IFBB North American Bodybuilding Championship. He chose the newly-introduced Classic Physique division — a category modeled on the Arnold Schwarzenegger / Frank Zane golden-era look, with weight caps proportional to height — over the Open division. He placed second at his first two Olympia attempts in 2017 and 2018, then won six consecutive Classic Physique Olympia titles from 2019 through 2024. No bodybuilder in any Olympia division has ever won six straight.

The dominance came alongside a brutal medical history. He has been open about living with IgA Nephropathy, an autoimmune kidney disease that complicates the cyclical fluid manipulation required for stage prep. He has torn his bicep, his lat, and his quad through training cycles. The 2018 Olympia run was preceded by a hospital visit when his legs retained dangerous levels of water. He has also been one of the most vocal pro bodybuilders on the realities of steroid use in the sport, refusing to play coy about something the audience already understood.

In September 2024 he announced his sixth Olympia win and retired in the same speech. He had said for years he would step back at 30, and he meant it. He is married to 2016 Bikini Olympia champion Courtney King and they have two daughters. He runs the RAW Nutrition CBum signature supplement line and in September 2024 became a part-owner and athlete for Gymshark. His Instagram following — 25 million plus — is widely credited with bringing modern bodybuilding to a generation that hadn’t paid attention to the sport since Schwarzenegger’s Pumping Iron era.