Ivan Abadzhiev competed in weightlifting at the 1956 and 1960 Olympics. In 1957 he became the first Bulgarian to win a World Championship medal, when he took silver in the lightweight class in Teheran. Abadzhiev is best known for his later career as a coach, and he is considered responsible for turning Bulgaria into one of the world’s top weightlifting powers. He coached athletes that won 10 Olympic, 57 World and 64 European titles between 1968-2000, but he was also the Bulgarian national coach when that nation produced multiple doping positives. Abadzhiev also worked in government and later coached the Turkish national team in the 1990s, before eventually moving to the United States to coach.
Bulgaria