site.bta45 Years Ago on Wednesday, Petar Popangelov Becomes the First Bulgarian to Win Alpine Ski World Cup Title

On January 8, 1980, skier Petar Popangelov won first place in the slalom event at the Lenggries World Cup, becoming the first Bulgarian to win an Alpine Skiing World Cup event.

Popangelov is a Bulgarian alpine ski racer. He was born in 1959 in Samokov. His father was one of the most prominent Bulgarian skiers at that time. At the age of 3, little Petar started to take up skiing. In his first international participation he took eighth place in the slalom of the children's competition in Italy "Mickey Mouse" in 1973. These were the first steps on his journey of successful participations in many competitions. In 1974 he was first in the slalom of the "Druzhba" races in Romania. The following year he placed 13th in the European Junior Championships, and in 1975 he was already European Junior Slalom Champion, a title he defended the following year. At the Olympic Games in Innsbruck, he placed 26th in the slalom. One of his most successful years, although only 18 years old, was 1977, when he became the winner of the European Alpine Cup. In 1978, he was twice runner-up in World Cup races, on the slopes of Wengen and Kitzbuhel, and in 1979 he was runner-up three times and remained fourth in the final World Cup slalom standings.

In the period from 1977 to 1988 Popangelov participated in World Cup competitions in alpine skiing. In World Cup races he placed in the top ten 37 times, with one first, six second and four third places. 

Petar Popangelov finished sixth in the slalom at two Winter Olympics, in 1980 in Lake Placid, USA, and in 1984 in Sarajevo, Yugoslavia. He won the European Ski Cup in 1977. He is a three-time World Student Slalom Champion - in Spain (1981), Bulgaria (1983) and Czechoslovakia (1987). 

On the 80th anniversary of skiing in Bulgaria on June 21, 1999, Petar Popangelov and four other athletes were named skiers of the twentieth century - Ivan Lebanov, Georgi Dimitrov, Vladimir Breychev and Valentin Bozhichkov.

On January 6, 2006, the "Yastrebets 2" ski slope in the resort of Borovets was named after him. Petar Popangelov is a recipient of the Wreath of Winner badge of honour of the Ministry of Youth and Sports (January 2020).