Stanchev, Nikola

Born in Tvirditsa in 1930. He started his wrestling career by chance, in 1949, when he met friends from the wrestling team of the city of Grudovo on the train, who went to Sofia to participate in the national championship. They invited him with them, and Nikola Stanchev, having no money for the trip, earned them as a porter at the station. Nikola Stanchev made a great impression on the coach, who called him native talent. Soon the wrestler was spotted by the trainer of the capital CSKA and quickly got into the national team. ^[3]

At the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne, he fought in the category of up to 79 kilograms (average weight). The elimination of the tournament took place as penalties accumulated. Three judges judged the fight, no penalty points were awarded for a clear victory, 1 penalty point was awarded for a victory in points for any ratio of votes, a point loss for any ratio of votes or a clear defeat was punishable by 3 penalty points. If a wrestler scored 5 or more penalty points, he was eliminated from the tournament. When there were only three wrestlers left, they played medals among themselves (if they did not meet in fights before the final round). After the start of the final fights, the wrestlers could continue to perform with more than five penalty points. The title was disputed by 15 people. In the category, there were no final fights as such, since everything was decided in the fifth round. By the fifth round, the awards were disputed by 4 wrestlers: the clear favorite Dan Hodge from the USA with 1 penalty point, the Soviet wrestler George Shirtladze with three points, Nikola Stanchev and the Turkish Ismet Atly with four points. The distribution of places depended on the results of the fights Stanchev - Khodzh and Shirtladze - Atly. The Soviet wrestler was able to defeat the Turk only on points with a score of 2-1 and caught up with Stanchev in penalty points. The Bulgarian, on the other hand, was putting out his opponent, who aggressively but chaotically attacked Stanchev, and when Hodge started an unprepared throw, Stanchev managed to cover the American. Thus, Stanchev himself did not score penal points and “awarded” Dan Hodge, who was the leader before this fight, with three points, which also equated him with Stanchev. As a result, three wrestlers, including Stanchev, scored 4 points each, but Stanchev defeated both of his competitors in personal meetings and took first place.

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In 1957 he performed at the World Cup, but relatively unsuccessfully, taking only 4 place. After his career, he lived modestly, worked as a trainer until 1990, when he retired.

In 2000, starred in the short documentary Suitcase as himself; He was also the artist of this picture and the artist of the short film Monument (2003).

He died in 2009. The gym in Burgas is named after the wrestler. In 2011, a monument to Nicolas Stanchev was unveiled in Tvirditsa. Coach Raiko Petrov called the wrestler "Gagarin of Bulgarian sports." ^[3]

• Nikola Stanchev - Olympic statistics at Sports-Reference.com
• Nikola Stanchev - profile on the International Wrestling Database website