Antonio Krastev

Antonio Krastev later retired from weightlifting in Bulgaria, and moved to New York City, where he found employment as a nightclub bouncer. He began training, as his own coach, at the Lost Battalion Hall weightlifting gym, and he developed his strength to an internationally competitive level. Krastev applied for U.S. citizenship in order to compete as an American at the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona, but his application was denied, and he was thus unable to compete. Krastev eventually did obtain his American citizenship and resides in New York State today.

Antonio is a two-time World Weightlifting Championships gold medalist and two time European Weightlifting Championships gold medalist, but never competed in the Olympic Games; he was originally intended to represent Bulgaria at the 1988 Olympic Games in the superheavyweight category.

Antonio Krastev (Bulgarian: Антонио Кръстев) (born 1961 in Haskovo) is a former Bulgarian super heavyweight Olympian weightlifter best known for his 1987 heaviest ever snatch in IWF competition, at 216 kg. This was only equalled by Behdad Salimi of Iran at the 2016 Summer Olympics, and finally surpassed at the 2017 European Championships by Lasha Talakhadze, who now holds the record of 220 kg. Krastev's record was no longer official after the restructuring of the weight classes in 1993 and 1998.