Ivan Abadzhiev: Competing For Bulgaria in Stockholm
History in Color:
September 19, 1958, Stockholm, Sweden – 26-year old Bulgarian lightweight Ivan Abadzhiev performs his 1st attempt in a clean-and-jerk program in the 67.5kg weight class at the 1958 World Championships in Stockholm.
In Stockhom, Ahadzhiev took the 5th place with a total of 342.5kg (102.5+110+130). A year before, In Teheran, Ivan Abadzhiev won the first World Championships’ medal ever for Team Bulgaria. It was a silver medal.
Later on in his career as a coach, Ivan Abadzhiev (1932-2017) became a truly revolutionary figure in Olympic weightlifting. He authored a new training methodology and approach that brought outstanding results on the competition platform. During his two decades of work with the national Team Bulgaria and with Team Turkey (in the late 1990s), Ivan Abadzhiev prepared 12 Olympic champions, 13 silver Olympic medalists, 4 bronze Olympic medalists, 57 world champions, 64 European champions.