Tuesday 14 July 2009

Bulgaria Loses Its First Olympic Champion Nikola Stanchev

I had written about this Olympic champion a few years ago so I knew quite a but about him. The old school of Bulgarian wrestling fame is now no longer with us. There will be many Bulgarians who will be celebrating his life over the next week or so. He was a cult hero as every Bulgarian Olympic champion of the past is throughout the rest of their lives.

Bulgaria Loses Its First Olympic Champion Nikola Stanchev
Bulgaria's first Olympic champion, wrestler Nikola Stanchev, died at the age of 78, Bulgarian news agency Focus quoted the Bulgarian wrestling federation as saying on July 13 2009.

Stanchev won the first Bulgarian Olympic medal in 1956 at the Summer Olympic games in Melbourne in the 79kg freestyle wrestling category. The same year he also won a silver medal at the World Cup tournament in Istanbul.

During his professional career Stanchev won a total of 11 titles in both freestyle and Greco-Roman style.