Bulgarian weightlifter

Stefan Khristov Botev (Bulgarian: Стефан Христов Ботев, born February 14, 1968, in Harmanli) is an Olympic weightlifter who represented Bulgaria and later for Australia. He was coached by Ivan Abadzhiev.

Botev was originally intended to represent Bulgaria at the 1988 Olympic Games in the heavyweight category. Two of his teammates who had won gold medals in their weight cl*es tested positive for banned substances, and the Bulgarian weightlifting federation pulled the rest of the team out of the compe*ion the day before Botev was scheduled to compete. Mitko Grablev (56:kg) & Angel Guenchev (67.5:kg) were both disqualified after they tested positive for Furosemide. At the time, Botev was two-time European Vice-champion, and a heavy favorite for the gold medal.

In 2007 he was elected member of the International Weightlifting Federation Hall of Fame.

Contents

• 1 Weightlifting achievements
• 2 Career bests
• 3 References
• 4 External links

Weightlifting achievements

• Bronze medalist in Olympic Games (1992 and 1996);
• Gold medalist in Senior World Championships (1989 and 1990);
• Silver medalist in Senior World Championships (1993);
• Bronze medalist in Senior World Championships (1994 and 1995);
• Senior European champion (1989 and 1990);
• Silver medalist in Senior European Championships (1987 and 1988);
• Gold medalist in Commonwealth Games (1994);
• Set seven world records during his career;
• Junior world record holder in clean and jerk and total (1972–1992).

Career bests

• Snatch: 200.0:kg 1990 in Budapest in the cl* to 110:kg.
• Clean and jerk: 250.0:kg 1988 in Varna in the cl* to 110:kg.
• Total: 445.0 (195.0+250.0) in the cl* to 110:kg.
• Total: 450.0:kg (200.0+250.0) 1996 Summer Olympics in the cl* over 108:kg.

References

External links

• Stefan Botev at databaseOlympics.com at the Wayback Machine (archived 29 September 2007)
• Stefan Botev at WeightliftingExchange.com at the Wayback Machine (archived 30 September 2007)
• Evans, Hilary; Gjerde, Arild; Heijmans, Jeroen; Mallon, Bill; et:al. "Stefan Botev". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Archived from the original on 18 April 2020.