Weightlifting Classics: Super Heavyweight Khristo Plachkov (Bulgaria)
History in Color:
The cover photo pictures Khristo Plachkov of Team Bulgaria performing snatch lift in the 1970s.
Khristo Plachkov (1953-2009) of Asenovgrad, Bulgaria was truly a legend in the history of Olympic weightlifting.
He was a highly regarded athlete in the lineups of top heavyweight contenders of national and international tournaments in the 1970s. In addition to winning 3 national titles (1975, 1977, 1978), he won a bronze medal at the World Championships (1975) and a silver (1976) and bronze (1975) European medals.
Plachkov was a milestone athlete as the first athlete in the world who managed to snatch 200 kg. It happened on May 25, 1976 in Sofia. Khristo was only 23 and it was remarkable!
That night in Sofia, Khristo Plachkov set two world records – 200kg in snatch and 442.5kg (200+242.5) in total. It was 7.5kg above the world record of Vasily Alexeev, the “strongest man on the planet” at the time!
Overall, Plachkov set 8 world records his career – 6 in the snatch lift and 2 in total.