Mister Universe 2024 4th runner-up Markki Stroem/MARKKI STROEM FAACEBOOK PHOTOS
LOS ANGELES, California — Actor Markki Stroem was proclaimed as fouth runner-up in the first staging of the Mister Universe competition held here on Sunday night, Dec. 22 (morning of Dec. 23 in Manila).
The male pageant is organized by United States-based Filipino Jino Carnwath Cabrera, who also hosted the competition show held at The Fonda Theater, a nightclub in Los Angeles that also holds musical events.
Stroem did not advance to the final round of four, and was only included in the Top 7. The organizers proclaimed him as fourth runner-up later on. He also received the Best in National Costume award for the Tikbalang-inspired creation he showcased in the competition.
The Mister Universe title eventually went to Patrick Callahan from Ireland while host delegate Cormac Murphy finished second. Yusuf Hendratno from Indonesia and Xavier Rodriguez from the Dominican Republic were second and third runners-up, respectively.
The Mister Universe 2024 contest initially announced more than 40 delegates for the inaugural competition. But the participants backed out in mass, with more than half of the initial haul withdrawing their participation before flying to the US.
The just-concluded male tilt should not be confused with the bodyuilding Mister Universe competition that actor and former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenneger took part in and won several times.
The “governator” first competed as an amateur from Austria in 1967 at the age of 20, the youngest ever to top the competition. He then moved to California in 1968 and won the Mister Universe title three more times. He later transitioned to the professional arena, and was proclaimed as Mister Olympia six years in a row, from 1970 to 1975.
The recent Mister Universe 2024 contest held in California was not a bodybuilding competition, and is not in any way associated with any international bodybuilding oganization.