Ivan Kolew (wrestler)

Iwan Kolew Iwanow , Bulgarian Иван Колев Иванов , (born April 17, 1951 in Tschirpan ) is a former Bulgarian wrestler . He was world and European champion in the Greco-Roman style in 1973 and 1974.

Career

Ivan Kolew began wrestling as a teenager in Sofia . He developed into an excellent wrestler in the Greco-Roman style. The 1.78 meter tall athlete started in welterweight and later grew into middleweight. He celebrated his first major success at the Junior World Championship in 1969, where he finished 2nd.

In the Bulgarian national team of wrestlers, in which he was appointed soon after, he was coached by Philipp Kriwiralchew. He made his debut at an international senior championship at the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich . In welterweight he defeated u. a. the world class wrestlers Petros Galaktopoulos from Greece , Klaus Pohl from the GDR and Daniel Robin from France , before he was beaten by the Czech Vítězslav Mácha shortly before entering the final and thus narrowly missed the medal ranks with a 4th place.

The two most successful years in Ivan Kolew's career followed. In 1973 he was European welterweight champion in Helsinki , where he defeated Vítězslav Mácha and Klaus-Peter Göpfert from the GDR in the decisive fights . He also won the 1973 World Cup in Tehran . There Jan Karlsson from Sweden , Klaus-Peter Göpfert and again Vítězslav Mácha were his toughest opponents. While he won against Karlsson and Göpfert, both wrestlers were disqualified in the fight Kolew against Mácha for passivity. For Kolew, this result was enough to win the world title.

In 1974 he continued his winning streak at the European Championships in Madrid . There was the curiosity that he won four fights, u. a. he again defeated Klaus-Peter Göpfert and Vítězslav Mácha lost two fights and still became European champion . The defeats he got from Stanisław Krzesiński from Poland , who was eliminated before reaching the final because of defeats against other wrestlers, and in the final from Iosif Berishvili from the Soviet Union , who in turn lost to Göpfert, whereby Iwan Kolew was ultimately European champion. At the 1974 World Cup in Katowice , the streak of success suddenly broke. He lost his fights against Iosif Berishvili and Jan Karlsson each on points at this world championship , which meant he was eliminated after the 2nd round and ended up in 11th place.

Even at the European Championships in 1975 in Ludwigshafen am Rhein , Iwan Kolew did not make it into the medal area. Although he won over Veikko Lavonen from Finland and Jaques van Lancker from Belgium, but lost to his old rivals Vítězslav Mácha and Jan Karlsson and thus only reached 6th place in the welterweight division. At the World Cup in 1975 he was not used.

From 1976 Iwan Kolew started in middleweight (weight class up to 82 kg body weight). He escaped the strong training in the welterweight (weight class up to 74 kg body weight), which probably caused his "failures" at the 1974 World Cup and the 1975 European Championship. At the 1976 European Championships in Leningrad , he immediately hit the jackpot when, after successes over Keijo Manni from Finland , André Bouchoule from France and Leif Andersson from Sweden, he also defeated the 1972 Olympic champion in Munich, Csaba Hegedüs from Hungary . However, he then lost in the final bouts against Vladimir Tscheboksarow from the USSR and against Jan Stawowski from Poland , but he won an EM bronze medal . He was also in good form at the 1976 Olympic Games in Montreal and reached the final with victories over Ion Enache from Romania , André Bouchoule and Franz Pitschmann from Austria , but lost again to Vladimir Cheboksarov and the Yugoslav Momir Petkovic . But he still won an Olympic bronze medal.

After these Olympic Games, Ivan Kolew actually said goodbye to international wrestling events. He trained as a coach and married Svetla Slateva , a Bulgarian 800-meter runner who, like him, had participated in the 1972 and 1976 Olympic Games.

In 1979 he went back to the middleweight division at the European Championships in Bucharest . He came there with a victory over the Italian Mauro Dallalpi and defeats against Miklos Hegedüs and Taimuras Abchasawa from the Soviet Union only on the 7th place. He then ended his international career for good.

International success

year	space	competition	Weight class
1969	2.	Junior World Championship
1972	2.	"Nikola Petrov" tournament in Sofia	Welter	behind Valentin Rajtschew , Bulgaria a . before Christo Christow, Bulgaria
1972	2.	"Werner-Seelenbinder" tournament in Zella-Mehlis	Welter	behind Klaus Pohl , GDR , in front of Jan Karlsson , Sweden
1972	4th	OS in Munich	Welter	with victories over Nestor Gonzales, Argentina , Mehmet Tütüt, Turkey , Petros Galaktopoulos , Greece , Klaus Pohl , GDR a. Daniel Robin , France a . a loss to Vítězslav Mácha , CSSR
1973	1.	EM in Helsinki	Welter	with victories over Anders Persson, Sweden, Johannes van de Poverd, Netherlands , Kurt Gansserich, FRG, Niels Madsen, Denmark , Klaus-Peter Göpfert , GDR a. Vítězslav Mácha
1973	1.	World Cup in Tehran	Welter	with victories over Idsava Atsushi, Japan , Heikki Julmala, Finland, Kung Yong-sik, South Korea , Jan Karlsson u. Klaus-Peter Göpfert ; in the fight Kolew against Vítězslav Mácha both wrestlers were disqualified for passivity
1974	1.	EM in Madrid	Welter	with victories over Robert Blaser, Switzerland , Veikko Lavonen, Finland, Klaus-Peter Göpfert u. Vítězslav Mácha , despite defeats against Stanislav Krzesinski , Poland a . Iosif Berishvili , USSR
1975	11.	World Cup in Katowice	Welter	after defeats against Iosif Berishvili a. Jan Karlsson
1975	6th	EM in Ludwigshafen am Rhein	Welter	with victories over Veikko Lavonen u. Jacques van Lancker, Belgium a . Defeats against Vítězslav Mácha u. Jan Karlsson
1976	3.	Klippan tournament	medium	behind Vladimir Tscheboksarow , USSR a. Vítězslav Mácha
1976	3.	EM in Leningrad	medium	with victories over Keijo Manni , Finland, Leif Andersson , Sweden, André Bouchoule , France a. Csaba Hegedüs , Hungary a . Defeats against Vladimir Cheboksarov a . Jan Stawowski , Poland
1976	bronze	OS in Montreal	medium	with victories over Ion Enache , Romania , André Bouchoule a. Franz Pitschmann , Austria a . Defeats against Vladimir Cheboksarov a . Momir Petkovic , Yugoslavia
1979	7th	EM in Bucharest	medium	with a victory over Mauro Dallalpi, Italy a . Defeats against Miklos Hegedüs , Hungary a. Taimuraz Abkhazawa , USSR

swell

• Documentation of FILA's International Wrestling Championships, 1976,
• Database of the Institute for Applied Training Sciences at the University of Leipzig,
• Trade magazines Athletik and Der Ringer ,
• Website "www.bul-wrestling.org"

Web links

• Profile of Iwan Kolew at the Institute for Applied Training Science
• Iwan Kolew in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )
• Brief portrait of Ivan Kolew (Bulgarian)