Welsh rugby player now a sporting giant in America loved by millions

There are few Welsh sportsmen who have conquered their chosen field quite like Flex Lewis. Yet, remarkably, there is a fair chance you may never have heard of him.

Seven consecutive Olympia titles. Undefeated in his division for seven years. A career that took a boy from Llanelli to the very summit of a sport in which he became one of the defining figures of his generation.

In America, Flex Lewis is a big deal. A very big deal.

He has more than two million followers on Instagram, his name in the bodybuilding word is synonymous with greatness and his Dragon's Lair gym in Las Vegas has become a destination for some of the biggest names in fitness, combat sports and entertainment.

People travel across the world to train there. Some have even camped outside waiting to get in.

Lewis, whose real first name is James, himself can barely walk through his own gym without being stopped.

Yet back in Wales, his achievements have rather oddly never quite received the same level of recognition. That is arguably the strangest part of his story.

Because when it comes to sporting success, Lewis doubtless belongs in a conversation with some of the country's biggest names.

He won seven Olympia titles in the 212 division, all consecutively, a record of dominance that places him among the greats of bodybuilding. Arnold Schwarzenegger, Lewis' hero, also won seven Olympia titles, although the Welshman's seven in a row is possibly a more remarkable feat than the great Arnie's achievements.

Lewis, now 42, is widely regarded as one of the greatest 212 bodybuilders of all time.

Yet ask the average Welsh sports fan about Flex Lewis and there is a good chance the reaction will be very different to that reserved for Gareth Bale, Geraint Thomas, Sir Gareth Edwards or any of the country's better-known sporting exports.

That contrast is something Lewis is aware of, although there is no bitterness in the way he talks about it. Instead, there is an overwhelming sense of pride in where he came from.

He has spent around two decades in America, but he remains unapologetically Welsh. In fact, he jokes that he has effectively become Wales' unofficial tourist board.

"I feel like I'm the tourist board over there!" he says, speaking to WalesOnline at his family home in west Wales.

His Dragon's Lair gym is covered in reminders of home, from Welsh rugby jerseys to nods towards his family and his country's sporting history. Oh, and a massive dragon emblazoned across the back wall, of course.

"The dragon is part of my soul," Lewis says. "They call me the Dragon, or the Welsh Dragon. It's the lair, it's where I train."

What began as a private training facility has since become a global brand.

The gym was born out of necessity during the peak of Lewis's bodybuilding career, when his growing fame made something as simple as getting a workout done increasingly difficult.

He would turn up at public gyms and find that fans had been invited to meet him. It sometimes meant it took him an age to complete a workout and it was becoming almost unworkable.

"Unbeknownst to me, 'Come and meet Flex Lewis tomorrow' had been posted on Facebook," he recalls.

"There'd be school kids, police officers, construction guys, all there, all excited to see me."

Eventually, his wife suggested he find somewhere small to make his own. Lewis took the word "small" rather liberally.

"I took the word small, found a 9,000-square-foot warehouse, purchased used gym equipment through my friends and started my camp."

The result became Dragon's Lair. And what began as a place where Lewis could train without interruption has developed into something considerably bigger than its founder.

"It was me against myself, and thankfully, I invested it for myself and it paid dividends," he says.

"When I walk into the gym, there are fans that come from all over the world.

"They've saved up, in some cases, all year. Different countries, different financial opportunities or not, but this is their pinnacle.

"They want to be around the best."

That is exactly what Dragon's Lair offers.

The gym has attracted elite bodybuilders, powerlifters, strongmen and athletes from a variety of disciplines, creating a culture Lewis believes is central to its success.

"We've got the top of everything," he says. "Without naming names, we've got the best of every different world, and everybody's there with the same mindset.

"Iron sharpens iron. I don't put up with egos or drama. Leave them at the door."

That attitude has helped turn Dragon's Lair into a brand in its own right.

"They’re coming in to be around the Mr Olympias, the Miss Olympias, the best powerlifters, strongmen," he says.

"And to walk in, it’s what it was for me when I walked into Gold’s Gym Venice when I was 19.

"The gym now, in many cases, and I’m very happy to say this, is much bigger than me.

"I love seeing people rocking my shirts around Vegas, around the world, and I'll go up to them and say, 'Nice shirt.'

"And they say, 'Yeah, have you been to this gym?'

"That's when you know the gym has become a brand in itself."

For all the success he has built in America, though, the Welshman remains deeply connected to the place where everything began.

Lewis grew up in a rugby-mad family in Llanelli.

His grandfather played for Llanelli and later became a coach, his father was involved in coaching and rugby was installed into Lewis from a very early age.

His brother Luke went on to play and coach rugby, he was a Wales youth international, while his sister Ffion has represented Wales and is now playing rugby league.

Lewis's own love affair with the sport was profound and he was part of the Llanelli academy as a youngster. His nickname Flex actually comes from his rugby days, when he was given it be team-mates because his unique flexibility would allow him to dart between opposition players.

"I played on the wing, so that ball never comes out, so I had to go and look for it," he says.

"I think the analogies, as well as the true physicalities that rugby taught me, has created me, no question."

The mentality of playing rugby in Wales stayed with him when he crossed the Atlantic.

"Obviously it's a team sport and bodybuilding is individual, but it's just a blue-collar, tough, pull-up-your-bootstraps mentality, as they say in the US," he says.

"If you want something, you've got to go and look for it."

That mentality became particularly important when Lewis was trying to establish himself in bodybuilding.

His route into the sport was not straightforward.

Rugby was his first sporting love and, as a youngster, he had ambitions in the game.

Watch the Flex Lewis interview in full

But a disappointing experience at a Welsh trial left him feeling that perhaps another door had opened.

"Many of these stories have gone on to be, 'That's not going to define me. I'm going to go and prove myself later on in life,'" he says.

"For me, it just showed me a door."

That door led to bodybuilding. And then came Neil Hill.

After Lewis competed in his first bodybuilding show, he initially thought the sport was not for him and intended to return to rugby.

Hill, the Tenby-based coach who would eventually guide Lewis through his entire professional career, had other ideas.

He was the head judge for Lewis' first bodybuilding show and, after the event, chased him out into the car park and convinced him to compete again.

Four weeks later, Lewis was driving his moving truck down to Tenby to begin working with Hill.

"I drove all the way to Tenby," he recalls. "Petrol consumption was unbelievable."

The training environment was hardly glamorous. Hill's gym was called the Dungeon Gym - a far cry from the Dragon's Lair Lewis inhabits in Vegas today.

"There was no heat, cold steel," Lewis says of Hill's gym.

"Those early times forged many, many memories for me. It was a true apprenticeship of getting my butt kicked every time."

During that time, Lewis won three junior titles and Mr Wales, two junior Mr Britain tiles and Mr Junior Europe, Mr Junior Universe and became undefeated in the junior class. Those drives to Tenby paid off.

The partnership would last more than two decades and ultimately take Lewis to the top of the bodybuilding world.

Even after moving to America, he refused to abandon the coach who had helped build him.

"I said, 'No, we've got a blueprint. Why would I just dismiss everything we've done here, undefeated as an amateur, to now work with somebody that is going to get to know me again, understand my pros and cons?'"

Twenty years later, Hill remains one of the most important people in Lewis' life.

"He understands me," Lewis says.

"I needed, because of my drive and my ambition and my stubbornness, a true coach, not a cheerleader."

It was a relationship built on trust, loyalty and a willingness to hear things Lewis did not necessarily want to hear.

Hill would tell him what he needed to improve and there was authenticity and accountability between them.

Lewis would get angry. Then he would go back into the gym.

"I was like, 'I'll prove him. I'll prove him wrong. I'll prove him wrong.'"

Hill knew exactly what he was doing.

Lewis went on to become an undefeated junior, win multiple British titles and eventually dominate the 212 division at Olympia level.

It is an extraordinary sporting record, regardless of which discipline you choose to compare it with.

Yet perhaps the most striking thing about speaking to Lewis is that his achievements in bodybuilding are not the thing he talks about most.

He talks at length about Wales, rugby, his parents.

He talks about his children, Macsen and Adiena - whom he shares with wife Ali, herself once a bodybuilder - and his desire to make sure they understand where their dad came from.

The two children have American accents, but Lewis wants them to experience the Wales of his childhood.

Every year, he brings them home.

"They can't wait to come back to Wales," says Lewis, who still speaks with that strong west Walian lilt.

"It's like a fairy tale to them.

"They see castles, they see the rolling hills and shorelines."

His children sleep in the same bedrooms he once slept in. They run around the Welsh countryside and go to Pembrey. They experience the childhood he remembers and that is so important to him.

"This is the same house my parents have lived all their life," he says.

"I spent 22 of those years living here under my parents' roof before I went to America."

Returning home brings a mixture of emotions.

"It's just freaking nice," he says. "It's nice, sad, happy. But that's life, right?

"There's just been so many memories that have been built here, and now it's my kids' time to build more."

That connection to Wales has never disappeared. If anything, distance appears to have strengthened it.

Lewis admits many of his American friends had barely heard of Wales when he first arrived.

Now he takes it upon himself to educate them.

Lewis has taken a little piece of Llanelli with him wherever he has gone. His connection with - and pride in - Wales is palpable.

It is why the argument for greater recognition of Lewis's sporting achievements in Wales is so compelling.

This is not simply a man who left Wales, became successful in America and stayed there.

He is a Welshman who went to America, conquered his sport, built an international business and then turned his own success into a giant billboard for the country he still calls home. He flies the flag higher than most.

He has spent years standing alongside the best bodybuilders in the world and won seven Olympia titles, one after another.

He has built a gym that people travel thousands of miles to visit.

And yet, in Wales, there is a strange disconnect between the scale of the achievement and the level of recognition.

Lewis himself does not seem particularly interested in demanding plaudits. He is too busy looking forward.

The man who once left Llanelli with little more than an enormous belief in himself has now created a life on the other side of the Atlantic that very few could have imagined. He is a man all of Wales should be proud of.

"I've done the track and field, I've done the rugby, I went to America, slept on the sofa, had this crazy, delusional confidence and was able to get to the top of that mountain," he says.

"I retired undefeated, and now I'm into different worlds and, I guess, different chases.

"I'm one of these guys who likes to look at a mountain and instead of it being scary, dangerous, I will find whatever rocks I can grab on to and keep on climbing.

"Just go for it. Don't wish it or want it, because you'll be saying that in a month's time, a year's time. In 10 years' time, you've missed it. I tell every athlete who represents the [Welsh] flag the same thing.

"I tell everybody, chase your dream. Because it's going to go fast. Don't tell me about it, just do it. Don't live with regret, life is too short and it is unpromised."