Fadel Nasser Sarouf, born Valentin Sarov ( bg, Валентин Саров) on April 17, 1976 in

Bulgaria Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedon ...

, is a

naturalized Naturalization (or naturalisation) is the legal act or process by which a non-citizen of a country may acquire citizenship or nationality of that country. It may be done automatically by a statute, i.e., without any effort on the part of the in ...

Qatar Qatar (, ; ar, قطر, Qaṭar ; local vernacular pronunciation: ), officially the State of Qatar,) is a country in Western Asia. It occupies the Qatar Peninsula on the northeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula in the Middle East; it sh ...

weightlifter Olympic weightlifting, or Olympic-style weightlifting (officially named Weightlifting), is a sport in which athletes compete in lifting a barbell loaded with weight plates from the ground to overhead, with each athlete trying to successfully lift ...

who competed in the men's 77 kg weight class at the

1999 World Weightlifting Championships The 1999 World Weightlifting Championships were held at Peace and Friendship Stadium in Piraeus, Athens, Greece from November 21 to November 28, 1999. It was the main qualifying events in the sport for the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Austral ...

, finishing eighth. One of eight

Bulgarian Bulgarian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to the country of Bulgaria * Bulgarians, a South Slavic ethnic group * Bulgarian language, a Slavic language * Bulgarian alphabet * A citizen of Bulgaria, see Demographics of Bulgaria * Bul ...

weightlifters recruited by the

Qatar Olympic Committee Qatar Olympic Committee ( ar, اللجنة الأولمبية القطرية, IOC code: QAT) is the National Olympic Committee representing Qatar. History The QOC was formed in 1979 and was granted full recognition by the International Olympic C ...

for $1,000,000, Sarouf became a Qatari citizen in order to represent the country, changing his name from Valentin Sarov in the process.

References

1976 births Living people Bulgarian emigrants to Qatar Sarov, Valentin Qatari male weightlifters Naturalised citizens of Qatar Weightlifters at the 2002 Asian Games Asian Games competitors for Qatar {{Qatar-sport-bio-stub