Nigerian born bodybuilder, Samson Dauda finished second in the Men’s Open division at the 2026 Mr Olympia, falling just two points short of a return to the top of the sport.

The 2024 champion ended the contest on 20 points, behind American Nick Walker, who won the Sandow trophy for the first time with 18. Derek Lunsford, the reigning champion, took third place with 24 points.

In Olympia scoring, the competitor with the lowest total wins. The event ran in Las Vegas from September 24 to 27, with the finals staged at the Orleans Arena on Saturday.

The scorecard shows how narrow the margin was. Dauda went into the finals third after Friday’s prejudging, with 15 points against Walker’s eight and Lunsford’s nine. He then won the finals round with a score of five, against ten for Walker, but the gap from the first day proved too large to close.

His result is a big improvement on last year, when he finished fourth at around 282 pounds. He was reported to have weighed about 310 pounds this time, and arrived after months of public doubt over whether he could bring the required conditioning to the stage. Dauda has said his physique tends to look even drier on Saturday than on Friday, after another day of preparation.

Dauda confirmed the result on Instagram on Sunday, saying he came to win but was proud of “the best version of me we have ever created.” He thanked his team and said the silver medal belonged to everyone who supported his preparation.

Walker, who finished sixth in 2025, also collected the People’s Champion award. Dauda, born in Kaduna and based in the United Kingdom, has now finished on the Olympia podium three times in five years, having placed third in 2023 and first in 2024.