Widely known as the "Pope of Weightlifting", he is credited with playing a leading role in the sport's rise in the Eastern European country.

He began as a competitor in his own right, claiming his country's first ever World Championships medal courtesy of an under 67.5 kilograms silver in Tehran in 1957.

Abadzhiev soon turned from lifting to coaching and began a 21 year tenure as Bulgarian coach in 1968.

He later returned for a second spell between 1997 and 2000.

Over both periods, the country won 10 Olympic, 57 world and 64 European titles.

Abadzhiev was credited with pioneering new training methods, such as focusing on lifting heavier weights all the time.

He was voted "coach of the century" in Bulgaria when he retired in 2000 to begin working in United States.

His career also included a spell coaching in Turkey in the late 1990s.

However, Abadzhiev was no stranger to scandal during his career.

The Bulgarian team he coached was sent home from the Seoul 1988 Games after two weightlifting gold medal winners failed drugs tests.

Mitko Grablev and Angel Guenchev were stripped of their respective under 56 and under 67.5kg gongs after each failed tests for banned prescription drug furosemide.

Sevdalin Marinov and Borislav Kidikov also won the under 52 and under 75kg titles respectively in the South Korean capital, but did not fail tests.

Bulgarian weightlifters were along with the Russian team banned from the 2016 Olympics in Rio for failing 11 doping tests during qualification for the Games.