Pete George
Peter T. "Pete" George 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.Biography
His Bulgarian parents originated from the region of Macedonia. They immigrated to the U.S. from Bulgaria in 1929.
Born in Akron, Ohio, he was the first 15-year-old to clean and jerk 300 lbs 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. He also received silver medals at the 1948 Summer Olympics in London, and at the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne. 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, 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.
