Brazilian Bodybuilder Gabriel Ganley’s Cause of Death Revealed

A friend of Ganley found him lying face down on his kitchen floor on Saturday morning. His friend arrived out of concern, as he had not heard from Ganley since Thursday.

The fitness influencer’s mother rushed down to São Paulo as soon as she received the news. When asked, she had no clue her son was unwell and claimed he seemed fine when she last spoke to him. She also confirmed he had no known history of heart disease.

From Pokémon Champion to Bodybuilding Star: The Life of Gabriel Ganley

Gabriel Ganley was born in Rio de Janeiro, started his weightlifting journey at 15, and went on to pursue Physical Education at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro before relocating to São Paulo

He made this move to fully commit to competitive bodybuilding and content creation. Competitiveness ran in his blood; before earning fame through fitness, he was also a competitive Pokémon Trading Card Game player who represented Brazil at the World Championships.

His content even went viral, in which he was filmed leg-pressing 500kg, roughly 1,100 pounds. With a following of 2.3 million on Instagram, he was recognized as a popular Brazilian fitness figure.

He had a good number of followers on his other social handles as well, attracting a large audience with his fitness and nutrition content.

Ganley was clean in his initial days and even promoted natural bodybuilding in 2023 and 2024, but he announced to his followers about his transition to anabolic steroid use.

2025 hit him with pneumonia, and he had to withdraw from the competitions, and started preparing for Musclecontest Brasil in Curitiba this July at the time of his death.

Ganley’s death adds to a brutal year for bodybuilding, which has already lost Albert Beckles, Craig Monson, Bi Jiaqi, Jason Lowe, Andrea Lorini, and several others in 2026.