Kevin Levrone
Early life
Levrone was born on July 16, 1964, in Baltimore, Maryland, to an Italian-American father (originally from Sicily) and African-American mother. He lost both parents to cancer at a young age. Kevin was first inspired to pursue bodybuilding by his cousin. After seeing the size and condition of his cousin, who had returned from serving in the military, Kevin became more serious about working out and bodybuilding in general.
Training and competition
Levrone began his professional IFBB career in 1991 after finishing first in the NPC Finals. After placing 2nd at the 1992 Mr. Olympia contest, for his first participation, he had a severe injury in February 1993. The injury completely tore his major and minor pectorals while bench-pressing 600 pounds, requiring surgery to reattach. He had two surgeries, the first lasting 8 hours. While recovering, he contracted an infection and needed a second surgery. At that time everyone thought that Levrone's career was over, yet he managed to be in contest shape for the 1994 Mr. Olympia only eight weeks later, and placed 3rd. He placed 2nd at Mr. Olympia four times—in 1992 and 1995 behind Dorian Yates (six times winner), in 2000 and 2002 behind Ronnie Coleman (eight times winner). That is the record for most Mr. Olympia seconds without a win.
Training and competition
When he stopped competing in 2003, Levrone did not officially announce his retirement; he explained this as he never thought about retirement, but just decided to do something different and find other challenges.
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