Lukas Eberle (DER SPIEGEL), Armen Nazaryan,
Tanya Toneva (Carel Translations)
PHOTO: Nikolay Doychinov for DER SPIEGEL
It is my pleasure to tell you more about an exciting interpreting assignment that Carel Translations handled recently – an interview of our national wrestling team’s head coach Armen Nazaryan for DER SPIEGEL.
Around the end of March we were approached by Der Spiegel with regard to their impending interview with Bulgaria’s national wrestling team coach Armen Nazaryan here in Sofia, Bulgaria. Der Spiegel were preparing a piece on wrestling and its major stars, in light of the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) controversial decision from earlier this year to drop wrestling from 2020 Olympics.
The decision outraged the global wrestling community, prompting Bulgaria’s former wrestling champion and head of our country’s wrestling federation Valentin Yordanov to return his Olympic gold medal to the IOC.
In the beginning of March, our national Greco-Roman team’s head coach Armen Nazaryan went on a hunger strike to protest against IOC’s decision, vowing not to take anything but juices until the beginning of the European Championship on 22 March in Tbilisi, Georgia.
Armen Nazaryan used to compete for his native Armenia until 1996 when he won gold in Greco-Roman wrestling at the 1996 Atlanta Games. He then switched his allegiance to Bulgaria, winning his second Olympic title four years later in Sydney. Mr. Nazaryan has also won three world titles for Bulgaria from 2002 to 2005.
Armen Nazaryan is a six-time European Champion (1994, 1995, 1998, 1999, 2002, 2003), a three-time World Champion (2002, 2003, 2005) and a two-time Olympic Champion (1996, 2000).
PHOTO: Nikolay Doychinov for DER SPIEGEL
Der Spiegel’s interview with wrestling champion Armen Nazaryan took place on 9th April at Best Western Premier Thracia Hotel in Sofia. Interpreting at the interview was an exciting and fun task which I enjoyed very much, not to mention the pleasure and honor of collaborating with a world-renowned media like Der Spiegel as well as the unique chance to meet one of our world-famous sports champions in person.
The story by Lukas Eberle has been published in Der Spiegel’s issue from 27 May 2013, and here’s a short video excerpt of the interview, courtesy of Der Spiegel.
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