Ivan Nikolov Abadjiev was born on February 12, 1932 and died on March 24, 2017.

He was a Bulgarian weightlifter and later Bulgarian Olympic Weightlifting coach.

Competitive, Abadjiev won Bulgaria’s first weightlifting medal in 1957.

From 1968 to 1989 and again from 1997 to 2000, Ivan Abadjiev was the head coach of the Bulgarian Weightlifting Federation.

Ivan Abadjiev also spent a stint as the head Coach of the Turkish Weightlifting Federation during the late 1990s.

During his career, Abadjiev produced 12 Olympic champions, 57 world champions, and 64 European champions.

Ivan Abadjiev passed away at 85 years old.