Pete George

Peter T. "Pete" George[1] (born June 29, 1929) is an American weightlifter and Olympic and World champion. He was later an assistant professor of stomatology. Because of his ethnic origin, and despite the long list of Bulgarian weightlifters with Olympic medals, he was the first Bulgarian to win Olympic gold.[2]

Pete George
Pete George, Fyodor Bogdanovsky and Ermanno Pignatti compare hardware in 1956 in Melbourne.
Personal information
Full namePeter T. George
BornJune 29, 1929 (1929-06-29) (age 91)
Akron, Ohio, U.S.
Medal record
Men's weightlifting
Representing the  United States
Olympic Games
1952 Helsinki-75 kg
1948 London-75 kg
1956 Melbourne-75 kg
Pan American Games
1951 Buenos AiresWeightlifting

Biography

His Bulgarian parents[3] originated from the region of Macedonia.[4] They immigrated to the U.S. from Bulgaria in 1929.[5]

Born in Akron, Ohio,[1] he was the first 15-year-old to clean and jerk 300 lbs[6] and was the youngest senior state champion of Ohio at 14 and 1/2. His brother Jim is also weightlifter. Pete won a gold medal at the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki.[7] He also received silver medals at the 1948 Summer Olympics in London,[8] and at the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne.[9] He also won five World championships outside of the Olympics in 1947, 1951, 1953, 1954, and 1955. He placed second at the World Championships in 1949, and 1950, making a total of 10 medals in World and Olympic competition. He also set 4 world records, 3 in the clean and jerk, and 1 in the total.

After retiring from athletics he attended Kent State University, the Ohio State University, and Columbia University. George became an orthodontist and served on the faculty of the University of Hawaii. He has pioneered treatments for obstructive sleep apnea. He has the patent for the Nocturnal Airway Patency Appliance (NAPA), a device preventing the stoppage of breathing during sleep. Because of his Macedono-Bulgarian roots, after retirement he used to spent summertime in the birthplace of his wife, Ognyanovo, Blagoevgrad Province, Bulgaria.[10]

References
  1. Evans, Hilary; Gjerde, Arild; Heijmans, Jeroen; Mallon, Bill; et al. "Pete George". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Archived from the original on April 17, 2020. Retrieved May 7, 2015.
  2. Peter George, Secrets of the Squat Snatch; Gatekeeper Press, 2018; ISBN 1619846861, Autoritative review.
  3. Marty Gallagher, Pete George. The greatest American Olympic Weightlifting prodigy of all time. Starting Strength Weekly Report, October 11, 2012.
  4. Ohio History Central
  5. Cal, Volume 47, Coe Laboratories, 1983 p. 21.
  6. Honolulu Star-Bulletin
  7. "1952 Summer Olympics - Helsinki, Finland - Weightlifting" Archived 2007-08-27 at the Wayback Machine - databaseOlympics.com (Retrieved on February 22, 2008).
  8. "1948 Summer Olympics - London, United Kingdom- Weightlifting" Archived 2007-08-30 at the Wayback Machine - databaseOlympics.com (Retrieved on February 22, 2008).
  9. "1956 Summer Olympics - Melbourne, Australia - Weightlifting" Archived 2007-08-27 at the Wayback Machine - databaseOlympics.com (Retrieved on February 22, 2008).
  10. Питър Джордж - първият българин с олимпийско злато. Blitz.bg, 28 Авг. 2008.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.