Valentin Yordanov

At a glance

Source: Wikipedia: Valentin Yordanov; Bulgarian Wrestling Federation: Bulgarians in the Hall of Fame^1,3

From Sandrovo to CSKA

Yordanov was born in the village of Sandrovo near Ruse. He began wrestling at the age of 10 under the coach Georgi Achev, with whom he worked until 1978. He did his military service at the CSKA sports school in Sofia, where his coach was Yancho Patrikov, and competed for CSKA until 1990. He won his first world title in Kyiv in 1983.^1,4,5

Titles

• World champion seven times: Kyiv 1983, Budapest 1985, Clermont-Ferrand 1987, Martigny 1989, Toronto 1993, Istanbul 1994 and Atlanta 1995.
• World silver in Tokyo 1990 and Varna 1991, and bronze in Budapest 1986.
• European champion seven times: 1982, 1983 and every year from 1985 to 1989.

Source: Wikipedia (Bulgarian): Валентин Йорданов; Bulgarian Wrestling Federation: Bulgarians in the Hall of Fame^2,3

In 1990 Yordanov moved to the United States, where he lived and trained on John du Pont’s Foxcatcher Farm while continuing to wrestle for Bulgaria. He won bronze at the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona, and on 2 August 1996 he became Olympic champion in Atlanta. He had decided that the Games would be his last competition, and he retired afterwards.^1,4

Honours and later life

• Named the best freestyle wrestler of the 20th century by the International Wrestling Federation (FILA, now United World Wrestling).
• Inducted into the UWW Hall of Fame in 2003.
• Bulgarian Sportsperson of the Year 1989.
• Order of Stara Planina, first class, 2010.

Source: Bulgarian Wrestling Federation: Bulgarians in the Hall of Fame; bTV Novinite: 30 years since the triumph of Valentin Yordanov; Olympedia: Valentin Yordanov^3,4,5

After retiring Yordanov joined the FILA Athletes’ Commission and led the Bulgarian Wrestling Federation; Olympedia gives his presidency as 1998–2007, while Bulgarian Wikipedia says he served for 19 years until 2017, when Hristo Marinov replaced him. He has also been a board member and deputy chairman of the Bulgarian Olympic Committee.^1,3,5

John du Pont, who was convicted of murdering the American wrestler Dave Schultz, died in prison in 2010 and left 80 per cent of his estate to Yordanov and his relatives; the courts dismissed a challenge from the du Pont family. In 2013 Yordanov returned his Olympic gold medal in protest at the International Olympic Committee’s decision to drop wrestling from the Olympic programme.^1,4