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Velichko Cholakov ' onMouseout='HidePop("14099")' href="/topics/Smolyan">Smolyan

Smolyan

Smolyan is a town and ski resort in the very south of Bulgaria not far from the border with Greece. It is the administrative and industrial centre of the homonymous Smolyan Province...

) is a Bulgaria

Bulgaria

Bulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a parliamentary democracy within a unitary constitutional republic in Southeast Europe. The country borders Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, as well as the Black Sea to the east...

n weightlifter.

He competed in the over 105 kg class at the 2004 Summer Olympics

2004 Summer Olympics

The 2004 Summer Olympic Games, officially known as the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad, was a premier international multi-sport event held in Athens, Greece from August 13 to August 29, 2004 with the motto Welcome Home. 10,625 athletes competed, some 600 more than expected, accompanied by 5,501 team...

 in Athens

Athens

Athens , is the capital and largest city of Greece. Athens dominates the Attica region and is one of the world's oldest cities, as its recorded history spans around 3,400 years. Classical Athens was a powerful city-state...

, his first Olympics, winning an Olympic bronze medal. After missing two clean and jerk

Clean and jerk

The clean and jerk is one of the two Olympic weightlifting events .The clean portion of the lift refers to the lifter explosively pulling the weight from the floor to a racked position across deltoids and clavicles...

 attempts at 245 kg, he managed to lift a total of 447.5 kg, placing him behind Latvia's

Latvia

Latvia , officially the Republic of Latvia , is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by Estonia , to the south by Lithuania , to the east by the Russian Federation , to the southeast by Belarus and shares maritime borders to the west with Sweden...

 Viktors Ščerbatihs

Viktors Scerbatihs

TotalTotalViktors Ščerbatihs is a Latvian weightlifter and politician and a three-time Olympian for his native country. He is 181 cm tall....

 and Iran's

Iran

Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...

 Hossein Reza Zadeh.

Velichko won the European weightlifting title in Kiev, Ukraine in 2004, and finished second at the World championship in Vancouver

Vancouver

Vancouver is a coastal seaport city on the mainland of British Columbia, Canada. It is the hub of Greater Vancouver, which, with over 2.3 million residents, is the third most populous metropolitan area in the country,...

 in 2003. In 2002, he won gold medals at both the European and World Youth Weightlifting championships.

He is also 2.05 meters tall, this makes lifting more difficult both in regard to distance of elevation and less than ideal limb proportions.

Cholakov tested positive for a steroid

Steroid

A steroid is a type of organic compound that contains a characteristic arrangement of four cycloalkane rings that are joined to each other. Examples of steroids include the dietary fat cholesterol, the sex hormones estradiol and testosterone, and the anti-inflammatory drug dexamethasone.The core...

 in 2008, and therefore Bulgaria's weightlifting federation withdrew its team from the 2008 Summer Olympics

2008 Summer Olympics

The 2008 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XXIX Olympiad, was a major international multi-sport event that took place in Beijing, China, from August 8 to August 24, 2008. A total of 11,028 athletes from 204 National Olympic Committees competed in 28 sports and 302 events...

 in Beijing

Beijing

Beijing , also known as Peking , is the capital of the People's Republic of China and one of the most populous cities in the world, with a population of 19,612,368 as of 2010. The city is the country's political, cultural, and educational center, and home to the headquarters for most of China's...

, PR China. Eight members of the men's team and three women tested positive during out-of-competition tests conducted on June 8 and June 9. Apart from Cholakov the athletes who tested positive were Ivailo Filev, Alan Tsagaev

Alan Tsagaev

Alan Tsagaev is a Bulgarian weightlifter of Ossetian origin who competed in the Men's 105 kg weight class at the 2000 Summer Olympics and won a silver medal, lifting 422.5 kg in total...

, Mehmed Fikretov, Ivan Stoitsov, Ivan Markov, Georgi Markov

Georgi Markov (weightlifter)

Georgi Markov is a retired male weightlifter from Bulgaria. He won the silver medal in the men's lightweight division at the 2000 Summer Olympics, behind compatriot Galabin Boevski...

, Demir Demirev

Demir Demirev

Demir Demirev is a Bulgarian weightlifter. He is of Turkish ethnicity. He participated in the men's -69 kg class at the 2006 World Weightlifting Championships and won the bronze medal, finishing behind Vencelas Dabaya and Shi Zhiyong...

, Milka Maneva, Donka Mincheva and Gergana Kirilova.

Career bests

• Snatch
  Snatch (weightlifting)
  The snatch is one of the two olympic weightlifting events .The essence of the event is to lift a barbell from the platform to locked arms overhead in a smooth continuous movement. The barbell is pulled as high as the lifter can manage at which point the barbell is flipped overhead...
  
  : 207.5 kg in 2004 Summer Olympics
  2004 Summer Olympics
  The 2004 Summer Olympic Games, officially known as the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad, was a premier international multi-sport event held in Athens, Greece from August 13 to August 29, 2004 with the motto Welcome Home. 10,625 athletes competed, some 600 more than expected, accompanied by 5,501 team...
  
  .
• Clean and jerk
  Clean and jerk
  The clean and jerk is one of the two Olympic weightlifting events .The clean portion of the lift refers to the lifter explosively pulling the weight from the floor to a racked position across deltoids and clavicles...
  
  : 245.0 kg 2004 European Weightlifting Championships.
• Total: 447.5 kg (205.0+242.5) 2003 World Weightlifting Championships.