Culture & Media

Torre Washington Is Set to Make History as the First Natural Vegan Bodybuilder at Mr. Olympia

Torre Washington is set to become the first natural vegan bodybuilder to qualify for the Mr. Olympia stage in September 2026, a milestone that says as much about the sport as it does about him.

Vegans Explore Podcast

Episode 28 · Nov 28, 2025 · 8 min

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A Message Bigger Than the Stage

Bodybuilding at the elite level is built around size, symmetry, conditioning, and strength, and most people still assume vegans cannot compete there. Torre stepping onto the Olympia stage as a fully plant-powered natural athlete challenges that assumption directly: it tells the fitness industry vegans are not limited, tells young athletes they do not have to compromise their values to compete, and tells critics that strength and compassion can coexist. Vegans Explore plans to be in Las Vegas in 2026 to support him.

How It Started

In an interview from 2018, Torre described getting his first bench and dumbbell from his mother after moving back to South Florida, then discovering bodybuilding through a friend and Arnold Schwarzenegger movies before it became scientifically informed the way it is today. In 2008, watching a friend win a pro card at a competition in Atlanta convinced him to compete himself. He told the friend helping him prepare, who assumed a vegan diet could not build the physique he already had, that he simply ate what was available as a busy college student, vegan deli slices, burritos, and tofu.

His first show in 2009 ended in third place out of nine competitors, and a judge told him his conditioning, holding his poses long enough for judges circling the stage to notice, needed work. He trained that feedback into his next show six months later and won his class outright, then the overall title, earning his first pro card. That persistence is the same story now carrying him to Mr. Olympia.