Roughly eight months were enough for him to return to the European bodybuilding scene after twelve years without competition, eight of which were on the street.
Adam Cibuľa kept his word and after hard training under the leadership of Dušan Ďubek, he again made it to the European Championships.
This time, as a member of a strong team, he represented Slovakia at the IFBB championship in Santa Susanna, Spain (April 30 – May 4), where he competed in the category master men bodybuilding from 60 to 64 years old.
Again on the European stage
Cibuľa was part of the numerous and successful Slovak national team at the championship. Compared to his opponents, he had a disadvantage in the form of shorter training and a long competitive break.
Nevertheless, he reaffirmed that he was gifted with exceptional genetics and turned a dilapidated homeless man into a bodybuilding representative in eight months.
Cibuľa competed in the category with eight other bodybuilders, he was supported in the audience by the other members of the Slovak team. The competition was very strong, but he still made it to the final six.
The judges finally decided and awarded Cibuľ fifth place, although before the performance it was still questionable whether he would stand on the podium at all.
“Today was dramatic, but you got over it. You’re a fighter, you’re a champion. After the night you’ve had, we didn’t believe you’d even get out of bed. You had a fever, you vomited all night, but you did it. Amazing,” presenter Vilo Rozboril told Cibuľ in Alexandra Rozborilová’s Instagram story.
Problems were caused by an intestinal virus. The summoned doctor helped, who gave Cibuľ a stimulating injection.
An exceptional talent and a bodybuilding sinner
The well-known Romani athlete made his mark in the history of Slovak bodybuilding with capital letters.
To the world sport got in 1992 by accident, when the muscular Onion was seen walking past the sports hall in Hnúšť, where the Slovak championships were held. He started training in the club there and he confirmed that he has great prospects ahead of him after about six months, when he won the title of European champion.
His first coach was Ladislav Tököly, then federal champion Dušan Ďubek took him under his wing, who ended his competitive career only a year before Cibuľa entered the world of bodybuilding. The pair joined forces for more than two decades, during which they crowned the Onion with domestic and international success.
He is a 22-time champion of Slovakia, a five-time European champion (1993, 1994, 2004, 2006, 2009), a two-time vice-champion of Europe (1998, 2007) and a two-time bronze medalist from the World Championships (2005, 2009). Many praised his genetics and spoke of him as the greatest talent of Slovak bodybuilding.
Cibuľa also became famous for several sports mistakes, some of which involved alcohol. Perhaps the most famous story is from 1996, when he was drinking with his friends in the station cafeteria, as a result of which he missed the bus and the flight to the World Cup in Jordan. He received a two-year suspension for this. Two years later, he did not appear for a doping control, for which he received another punishment.
However, he was able to successfully return to bodybuilding prominence several times.
VIDEO: Adam Cibuľa won bronze at the World Championships in Qatar (2009).
After a divorce for eight years, he ended up on the street, sleeping in a dilapidated building near the railway station in Hnúšt. His appearance was negatively affected by bad lifestyle and alcohol.
We brought the story of Adam Cibula in the summer of 2024where in the interview he revealed to us, among other things, that he put the medals in a pawnshop. “Give me four months to prepare and I dare to win a medal from the European Championships,” he told us.
At that time, he had no idea that his words would become reality. Last summer, his coach, friend and mentor Dušan Ďubek dreamed of helping Vila Rozboril in the TV show JOJ In the Seventh Heaven.
With the help of sponsors, the sixty-one-year-old athlete was found housing, provided with food, clothing, necessary accessories and, recently, new teeth.
The condition was that Cibuľa, under Ďubek’s supervision, returned to form and presented himself at the IFBB European Championship in Spain.
We pay attention
They returned to Slovakia with hope, but were disappointed. A success story ends with a departure
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