Nikola Petrov ( bg, Никола Петров), better known as Nikola Petroff, (19 December 1873 – 2 January 1925) was a

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 ...

n wrestler. He was born in the town of

Gorna Oryahovitsa Gorna Oryahovitsa ( bg, Горна Оряховица ) is a List of cities and towns in Bulgaria, town in northern Bulgaria, situated in Veliko Tarnovo Province, from Veliko Tarnovo. It is the administrative centre of the homonymous Gorna Orya ...

. On 20 July 1898, in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

, he earned the title "Champion of America". In the next year in

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

, he became the European Champion in

Greco-Roman wrestling Greco-Roman (American English), Graeco-Roman (British English), classic wrestling (Euro English) or French wrestling (in Russia until 1948) is a style of wrestling that is practiced worldwide. Greco-Roman wrestling was included in the first mod ...

. In 1900, during the Exposition Universelle in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

, he defeated the Frenchman

Paul Pons Paul Pons (June 23, 1864–April 13, 1915), stage name ''le Colosse'' ("The Colossus"), was a French wrestler. He won the first title as world champion in Greco-Roman wrestling in 1898 (as opposed to the first Olympic victory, won two years ...

and became a world champion. He fought in the

First Balkan War The First Balkan War ( sr, Први балкански рат, ''Prvi balkanski rat''; bg, Балканска война; el, Αʹ Βαλκανικός πόλεμος; tr, Birinci Balkan Savaşı) lasted from October 1912 to May 1913 and invo ...

. In 1921, he established his own private school of wrestling in

Sofia Sofia ( ; bg, София, Sofiya, ) is the capital and largest city of Bulgaria. It is situated in the Sofia Valley at the foot of the Vitosha mountain in the western parts of the country. The city is built west of the Iskar river, and ha ...

. He died in 1925 and was buried in his home town of Gorna Oryahovitsa. Since 1963, a yearly tournament in the name of Nikola Petrov has been organized in Bulgaria. In 1998, he was proclaimed an Honoured Citizen of Gorna Oryahovitsa. In his 25-year wrestling career, he was defeated once by Marijan Matijević.

References

Nikola Petrov – the first Bulgarian Champion
{{DEFAULTSORT:Petroff, Nikola 1873 births 1925 deaths Bulgarian male sport wrestlers Bulgarian military personnel of the Balkan Wars People associated with physical culture People from Gorna Oryahovitsa Sportspeople from Veliko Tarnovo Province 19th-century Bulgarian people 20th-century Bulgarian people