A former natural bodybuilding champ turned pastor was inducted into the INABA/PABA hall of fame recently, at the Natural Amateur and Professional Olympia Bodybuilding Championships in Reno, Nevada.
The annual event saw Pete Samra – winner of the 1980 Natural Mid-American Bodybuilding Championships plus the 1980 Natural Mr USA titles, gain admission to the hall of fame. Samra helped to found the ABA natural bodybuilding association in 1988 and is now a full time Pastor, although he devotes much of his time to visiting schoold and promoting natural bodybuilding supplements and other natural bodybuildintg techniques, in a bid to warn kids away from dangerous steroid usage.
He retired from competitive natural bodybuilding in 1998 and since then has travelled all over the world, assisting in the building of an incredible 28 churches in South Africa as well as travelling across the United Kingdom. When asked if he still takes part in bodybuilding, Samra said that he always replies: “Yes, only now I am building the body of Christ.” Natural bodybuilders view the natural Olympia contest as the apex of natural bodybuilding tournaments, with all competition entrants submitting to steroid testing before being allowed to perform.