Obituary

Bulgarian Olympic Champ Dobrev Passes Away

Wednesday, April 3, 2019 - 14:50 By United World Wrestling Press

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CORSIER-SUR-VEVEY (April 3) -- Bulgarian wrestler Dimitar Dobrev, a 1960 Olympic champion and multiple-time Olympic medalist in Greco-Roman, passed away on April 1. He was 87 years old. 

Dobrev competed at the 1956 Olympic Games in Melbourne, Australia, claiming a silver medal in the middleweight division. Four years later, Dobrev captured a gold medal at the 1960 Olympic Games in Rome, Italy, competing at middleweight. In addition, he placed in the top five at the World Championships three times. Dobrev was the first and only Bulgarian to serve as the national coach of both freestyle and Greco. 

Born in Ezerche, Bulgaria, Dobrev participated in gymnastics before his competitive wrestling career. He later became a mathematician.

UWW Playlist: Best of World and Olympic Champion Susaki

Monday, February 9, 2026 - 09:31 By United World Wrestling Press

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JAPAN (February 9) -- Yui SUSAKI (JPN) is on path to greatness. The Japanese wrestler managed to showed up on the wrestling when won three back-to-back U17 world titles from 2014 to 2016.

While many would take time to jump to senior level, Susaki wrestled at the 2017 Paris World Championships aged 17 years and won gold medal at 48kg. She would seen beat Mariya STADNIK (AZE) at the Klippan Lady Open before winning gold at 2018 World Championships. Two U20 world titles further strengthened Susaki's resume as she remained unbeaten in international wrestling.

At the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, Susaki claimed her first Olympic gold, without giving up a point and etched her name in history.

WATCH THE BEST OF YUI SUSAKI (JPN) HERE

And it had to be Susaki to complete the Golden Grand Slam of wrestling. After winning U17, U20 and senior world titles, and Olympic gold, she needed to win the U23 world title to complete the Slam. In October of 2022 in Pontevedra, Spain, Susaki would go on to become the first wrestler in history to achieve the feat.

At the 2024 Paris Olympics, four-time world champion Susaki suffered her first international loss to Vinesh PHOGAT (IND), which remains her only loss in international career.