Tervel Dlagnev’s road to the Olympics was perhaps an unconventional one. Born in Bulgaria, Dlagnev and his parents came to the United States when he was just 4 years old. Troubled and out of shape as a kid, he initially began wrestling during his sophomore year of high school as a way to lose weight. It was a fairly late start in the sport, but as he excelled, he began to turn his life around and improve his grades in hopes of wrestling in college. Dlagnev wound up at Division II school Nebraska-Kearney, where he won NCAA D-II national titles in 2007 and 2008. He also had to contend with estrangement from his father and bouts of obsessive-compulsive disorder, which began to impact his wrestling. He overcame all of this en route to qualifying for the 2012 London Olympics, where he made it to the semifinals and ended up placing 5th. Dlagnev trains at the Ohio Regional Training Center at Ohio State University.
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