Born in Akron, Ohio,[1] George was the first 15-year-old to clean and jerk 300 lbs[8] and was the youngest senior state champion of Ohio at 14 and 1/2. His brother Jim is also weightlifter. Pete won a gold medal at the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki.[9] George also received silver medals at the 1948 Summer Olympics in London,[10] and at the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne.[11] He also won five World Championships outside of the Olympics in 1947, 1951, 1953, 1954, and 1955. George placed second at the World Championships in 1949 and 1950, making a total of ten medals in World and Olympic competition. He also set four world records, three in the clean and jerk, and one in the total.
After retiring from athletics, he attended Kent State University, the Ohio State University, and Columbia University. George became an orthodontist and served on the faculty of the University of Hawaii. He pioneered treatments for obstructive sleep apnea. He held the patent for the Nocturnal Airway Patency Appliance (NAPA), a device preventing the stoppage of breathing during sleep. After retirement, George used to spend summertime in the birthplace of his wife, Ognyanovo, Blagoevgrad Province, Bulgaria.[12] He is also described sometimes as a Macedonian American,[13] and thus in 1993 George was awarded the Macedonian Hall of Fame Award by the Macedonian Businessmen's Club in Akron, Ohio.[14]
Notes
^The cited source describes his parents first as "Macedonian immigrants" and then as ""Bulgarian immigrants"
^The author describes his parents and himself as "Bulgarians" stating that "Macedonian" is simply a geographic designation: My parents, however were Bulgarians born in Macedonia. I, therefore must say, my nationality is Bulgarian.
^Dr. Pete George, I Macedonian? an article published in the Macedonian Tribune newspaper of the Macedonian Patriotic Organisation on September 1, 2014.
