With a life filled with many challenges, Rudy Jambrosic has persevered, becoming a nationally ranked bodybuilder, a veteran of the Brantford Police Service, and most recently, an elite judge at the Olympia, the apex of bodybuilding competitions.
Jambrosic, who came to Canada with his family at the age of four from Croatia, reflected on his early years.
“I came to Hamilton with my mother and sister, my father was already here, but he would leave the family when I was five. That was the last time, I would see him again. My mother worked very hard, having multiple jobs and my sister would take care of me. It was a struggle; I bounced around from school to school and had been to about eight elementary schools,” he said. “But I soon found sports. I loved to play football and soccer, and especially volleyball which I became very good at. In high school, I played for a sub team for Mohawk College, and then went to play for McMaster University. By the age of 20, I realized that I hadn’t won anything when it came to sports.”
It was at that moment Jambrosic wanted to aim for the national championship, which was in reach.
“Me and my close friends who all played volleyball [and] decided to all go to Mohawk College…with a desire to win the National Championship. I was in chemical engineering, while training with my team. We all had a background in football, so that gave us an edge and we went through the Ontario teams pretty easily. We won the Ontario’s and were ranked number two in the country,” he said. “That gave us the opportunity to go to Burnaby, BC, and play for the championship. While my goal was there to win the national title, I soon found out that my teammate’s were focused on other things; staying out late and having a good time…it also didn’t help that we were used to playing two-day tournaments, and this one was four days. We ended up losing our first game in the round robin to a weaker team, which was a bit frustrating and made me angry, as I knew our results could have been better.”
However, he still believed in his squad who had the opportunity to come away with a top-three finish.
“Even when we finished the last four of the four teams coming into the playoffs, I felt that we would come back stronger. But that wasn’t the case. I was ready to battle, yet I was disappointed to find out that my teammates didn’t have that burning desire to win. We weren’t ready and it showed when we lost that game. And with a chance to at least salvage our season with a third-place finish, that didn’t happen either. We lost again. We didn’t even get a bronze medal; finishing fourth in the country,” he noted. “Our goal was to win the Canadian championship and get that ring. I cried at the end of the game [as] I put my heart and soul into it. That day, I packed up all my warm up suits and my uniform, and threw it in a dumpster. That was the last time I touched a volleyball. And that’s when I quit volleyball. When I returned home, I wondered what was next.”
While Jambrosic was heavily involved in team-oriented sports, his friend would suggest one that be more conducive to his mindset.
“A close friend of mine told me I should try weight lifting. At first, I thought it was something that wasn’t for me, but he convinced me to at least try it. My first experience in weight training was at the Mohawk College gym. Actually, it was funny because I considered myself strong and a pretty good athlete until I started to do bench presses. I was 150 pounds and the rule is if you can bench your weight, it shows you have good physical ability. I got to 85 pounds, so I had quite a bit of work ahead of me, but that was the start of my career in bodybuilding” he said.
Although the goal of getting bigger was at the back of Jambrosic’s, his weight training regime was cut down for a few years especially with his focus on becoming a police officer.
“In 1989, I became an officer for the Brantford Police Department [and] when I came back from Police College, I was lean, but I gained the weight back because I wanted to be bigger. I started training with Branko Vincic, who would become my mentor. He played college football in the United States for Eastern Michigan, and went on to play for the Cincinnati Bengals of the NFL and the Hamilton Tiger Cats of the CFL. I also trained with Gord Novoselac,…. although I became big and strong, I was getting a boxier physique. I wanted a more bodybuilder physique…so, I started training with Paul Armstrong, who was an accomplished bodybuilder and had a better understanding of the sport then I did,” he said.
In 1992, Jambrosic got a major health scare, suffering from food poisoning, setting back his bodybuilding quite a bit.
“I contracted salmonella poisoning [and] became sick and was bed stricken…when my sister came to see me, she realized I had to get immediate care and took me to Oakville Memorial Hospital…the doctors told me I was about a day and a half away from renal failure. I was there for ten days trying to get a bit better…when I left, I as down to 180 pounds, from 230. So, all my muscle was gone,” he recalled. “I recovered and trained hard for a full year, and in 1993, I competed in my first bodybuilding contest since getting sick, the McKenzie Challenge, and ended up winning first overall and got completely hooked on the sport. Although the feeling of winning was great, I felt that there were at least three guys who were better than me that day, but the judges had picked me for reasons which they explained when I inquired. To my surprise, they then asked me if I would be interested in being a judge going forward. It was something I never considered and that really changed my life.”
Winning the challenge provided Jambrosic some notoriety in Brantford, with the media christening him the ‘Bodybuilding Cop.’
“A week before the contest, I was on the front page of the newspaper. After winning it, I came back to town, and I was being invited to restaurants and places across the city, which my Staff Sergeant urged me to do. I visited so many people who were doing some great things in the community. But I had to work harder than before, because with all these events, I was eating quite a bit,” he said.
While the budding bodybuilder continued to compete, he had an opportunity to showcase his bodybuilding prowess at the World Police and Fire Games in 1995.
“That’s when police officers and firefighters from around the world compete in various athletic games. That year it was held in Melbourne, Australia and they had a bodybuilding event. The year before, I put a vision board together, writing down my goals and one of them was to win the bodybuilding event. So, I worked a full year with no vacation time so I could [bank the time] so I could participate,” he said. “Al Barber, the Chief Deputy at the time, supported and helped me achieve my goal. I ended up winning it with approximately 200 guys in the competition from all around the world. I was fortunate enough to win both the heavyweight division and the competition overall.”
Jambrosic would then win the Ontario Bodybuilding Championships in 1997. He was also doing well at work, being promoted multiple times at the Brantford Police Services and even winning a Police Exemplary Service Medal in 2009. However, in 2001, he would find himself dealing with another set-back and then with another injury in 2009.
“I tore my tricep around the Christmas of that year when I was preparing and training for a competition. I had surgery on it and after some recovery, I was competing again at the Ontario Bodybuilding Championships…but, I was finding myself sustaining injury after injury. I was also going through a separation at the time. I decided to put bodybuilding on the backburner, but still did judging, which I was building a good reputation for,” he said. “Fast forward to 2009, I suffered a torn labrum…which required surgery and where I would only get about 85% of my strength back. That was another period where I had to miss work when I recovered. I tried to get back into the gym and train, but by 2010, I knew my days competing were up.”
By 2015, Jambrosic continued to train, while putting his full focus in judging, eventually becoming head of bodybuilding judging in Canada. But once again, despite Jambrosic’s professional success, he was faced with two significant challenges.
“In 2018, I retired from policing and in that same year I became the head judge in Canada while I was judging in the IFBB Pro League [[International Fitness and Bodybuilding Federation] …and then I received another opportunity where I was asked to run the Natural Bodybuilding Contest which I accepted,” he said. “In 2020, I was diagnosed with lung cancer….it was a dark time for me. I went to chemo; I went through radiation and immunotherapy…just when I thought the worst was over, I suffered a heart attack in 2021. I would then have a quadruple bypass. The doctors had told me that I had died on the operating table. Although I didn’t think about it then, I was given another chance to be here. But it was a struggle…trying to deal with the surgery and cancer. Even with the chemo…the cancer came back and had spread through my body. My doctor would tell me that I would have to consider talking to my kids soon and putting my affairs in order, because I had about 30 days to live.”
However, just when Jambrosic was about to throw in the towel, Liz Pottruff, his better half, was determined that he would get better.
“I tried everything from THC pills to being on a carnivore diet. And nothing worked, I was on painkillers as I was in a lot of pain [and] I could hardly sleep. And finally, I told Liz to get me ready to go to the hospice…I also was preparing myself to give my farewells to my friends and family. I had given up on myself, but she didn’t…one day, she got me dressed, got me in the car and drove me to the Juravinski Cancer Centre in Hamilton. She put me in a wheelchair, wheeled me in front of the staff there and told them to help me. I endured eight days of heavy doses of radiation. I would eventually pull through and was stable enough to start taking a specific drug to control the cancer,” he noted. “Although I was still a bit sick, in 2022, I was invited to the Arnold Classic Men’s Open in the United States. It was an opportunity for me to see everyone, and it really put a bit of wind under my sails. It was a great experience.”
Jambrosic recovery was slow, but by 2023 he was feeling better enough to start judging again.
“I had a chance to judge the amateur Olympia in Florida, which I didn’t hesitate in doing. As I was down there doing the judging, I would get an unexpected phone call from Tyler Manion, who is the VP of the IFBB. He told me that I would be judging the Olympia which would be in two days. I couldn’t believe it…this was a lifelong dream for me…as the Olympia is the Super Bowl of body building,” he stated. “A year later, in 2024, I would get another message, this time via email, informing me that I would be judging the Olympia again….I couldn’t believe it. I was now judging Olympia two years in a row. Although I wasn’t myself competing anymore…I would now have the chance to become one of the best judges in the world (in the top 14), while helping others live out their dreams.”
Along with being one of the world’s top bodybuilding judges, Jambrosic has also promoted the 2025 Natural Canada Pro Show, which is the largest natural pro bodybuilding show in the world.
“Around 2018 and 2019, it started, but on a very small scale. It was cancelled in 2020 [and] after the pandemic, we came back in November 2021…now for the last several years, we have run our show every August long weekend,” he said. “We held our first natural pro bodybuilding this summer…and we had 21 competitors. It’s still growing. From 2018 to 2024, it was just for Canadians, and this is the first year we opened up for international competitors, including athletes from Italy, Australia, China, South Korea, Germany, and Brazil. We had 440 athletes do multiple categories while having our natural pro show.”
However, Jambrosic, who is currently keeping the cancer at bay with a drug treatment, counts all his challenges throughout the years as part of a master plan.
“I’ll be judging the Olympia this coming October in Las Vegas again, and I feel truly blessed. Reflecting on everything I’ve been through…I have realized it’s all in God’s plan…there were wake-up calls for me through the years. When I wasn’t listening the first time, I went through another challenge until I started to realize what I had to do,” he said. “And if it wasn’t for Liz, my better half, I wouldn’t be here today…. she’s my rock…. and without her I would have given up on myself…she was there to help me to stand up and give me the strength when I needed it to overcome many of these challenges that I have endured in my life.”
