Ruzhdi Ruzhdi

Ruzhdi Ruzhdi (; born 14 April 1991) is a Bulgarian Paralympian track and field athlete, competing in throwing events: javelin throw, shot put, and discus throw. He is a two-time Olympic Champion and six-time World Champion, and world record holder in Shot Put F55.

Personal history Ruzhdi was born on 14 April 1991 in the small northeastern town of Glodzhevo, Bulgaria. When he was 17, he survived a car crash, but was left paralysed from the waist down.

Athletics career During balneotherapy rehabilitation in Pavel Banya, he met Daniela Todorova and her brother and trainer Radoslav Todorov, who recognised his sports talent. The following year he travelled to Lyon to compete at the 2015 IPC Athletics World Championships. He entered the same three throwing events as in Beijing and again failed to reach the podium.

In June 2016, at the IPC Athletics European Championships in Grosseto, Italy, Ruzhdi won golden medal in the discus throwing discipline, category F56, with the result of , which was short of the world record that belonged to another Bulgarian Paralympic athlete Mustafa Yuseinov, who won the bronze in the same event with result of . At the same championship, Ruzhdi won his third European golden medal with his result in shot put, , which improved the previous world record held by Martin Němec .

At the Paralympic games in Rio in 2016, Ruzhdi won the golden medal in shot put, category F55, improving his world record from Grosseto to . Ruzhdi achieved this result with his first throw, and in three other attempts his results were better than the previous world record, namely: , , and . In the discus throwing event, Ruzhdi ranked sixth with best result of .