Photography by Kofi Yeboah

THE POWERFUL PATH OF QUINTON ERIYA

In one simple sentence, IFBB Pro Bodybuilder Quinton “Beastwood” Eriya basically sums up his whole story. Born the third of four brothers who all inherited “good genetics for building muscle” from their Nigerian father and Jamaican mother, Quinton has undeniably turned latent potential into a powerful path.

“Potential means nothing unless you do something with it.”

The athlete from Markham, Ontario speaks with matter-of-fact yet understated confidence that about his meteoric debut on the competitive scene as a bodybuilder who never really intended to body build. He pumped a little iron when he was 12, but just occasional lifting led to bulging guns that freaked out his pubescent posse, so the young teen opted for “normal” sports like basketball, football, softball and track and field instead. “I loved being physical,” he recalls, “but I also liked being cool and fitting in.”

Wilfred Eriya, Quinton’s father, recalls his son’s athletic prowess, “but I don’t think he ever knew how good he actually was,” he says. By18, when Quinton hit the gym at YMCA where his father worked as a chef, the muscle came on fast and ferocious. Alarmed by his son’s rapid development, Wilfrid’s first instinct was to kibosh the budding Olympian, “but I realized he was really passionate. He took it to the next level.”

“I take pride in my culture and heritage.”

Though it now seems an obvious pursuit, Quinton’s original motivation was not competition. “I was just training. I liked being active. I wanted abs. I wanted attention from girls and to go to parties…[But] as I continued to train, my goals kept evolving. People kept assuming I was a bodybuilder, so eventually I thought I might as well try it.”