Nikolay Paslar

Nikolay Ivanovich Paslar (Bulgarian: Николай Иванович Паслар; born June 12, 1980 in Taraclia, Moldavian SSR) is an amateur Bulgarian freestyle wrestler, who competed in the men's middleweight category.[1] Considered as one of Bulgaria's top freestyle wrestlers in his decade, Paslar has claimed two career medals (one gold and one bronze) in the 69 and 74-kg division at the World Championships (2001 and 2005), and later represented his nation Bulgaria at the 2004 Summer Olympics. Throughout his sporting career, Paslar trained full time as a member of the wrestling squad for Slavia Sports Club in Sofia under his personal coach Ilian Stefanov.

Nikolay Paslar

Personal information
Full name	Nikolay Ivanovich Paslar
Nationality	Bulgaria
Born	(1980-06-12) 12 June 1980 Taraclia, Moldavian SSR, Soviet Union
Height	1.62 m (5 ft 4 in)
Weight	76 kg (168 lb)
Sport
Sport	Wrestling
Style	Freestyle
Club	Slavia Sofia
Coach	Ilian Stefanov
Medal record Men's freestyle wrestling Representing  Bulgaria World Championships 2001 Sofia 69 kg 2005 Budapest 74 kg European Championships 2005 Varna 74 kg 2000 Budapest 69 kg 2001 Budapest 69 kg 2002 Baku 69 kg

As a naturalized member of the Bulgarian squad, Paslar emerged into the international scene at the 2001 World Wrestling Championships in Sofia, where he thrashed Iranian wrestler Amir Tavakkolian for the gold in the 69-kg division.[2] For displaying his early success to the sport, Paslar was highly acclaimed the Best Wrestler of the Year by the Bulgarian Sports Federation and the International Federation of Associated Wrestling (FILA).[3]

At the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Paslar qualified for his first Bulgarian team in the men's 74 kg class with an unforeseen result. Unable to fill an available spot from the World Championships, Paslar luckily received a ticket to the Olympics by defeating Georgia's Gela Saghirashvili for a first-place finish at the Olympic Qualification Tournament in Sofia.[4] Paslar could not pull a 3–3 tie to overwhelm Poland's Krystian Brzozowski on his opening match, but eclipsed the neighboring Macedonia's Sihamir Osmanov with a 3–1 victory to close the round-robin. Finishing second in the prelim pool and eleventh overall, Paslar's performance fell short to advance him further into the quarterfinals.[5][6]

Determined to offer another shot of a medal from a four-year drought, Paslar had picked up a gold in the 74-kg division at the 2005 European Championships in Varna, and a bronze at the World Championships in Budapest, Hungary.[7] He continued to flourish his sporting career at the next World and European Championships, but left them empty-handed before his impending retirement in 2007.

In 2013, Paslar came out of retirement from the sport to compete again for the World Championships in Budapest. Fighting at ten kilograms heavier than his previous sporting years, Paslar qualified for the men's light heavyweight category, but made an unprecedented exit with a 5–0 loss to Georgian wrestler and 2012 Olympian Dato Marsagishvili in his opening match.[8]