Olympic Wrestler Transformed by Christ

Teresa Neumann : Jul 18, 2012
Tim Warsinskey – The Plain Dealer

Wrestler's "wow" transformation from a lazy, disrespectful lout to a caring, responsible U.S. Citizen "continues to amaze his friends, family, and the wrestling world."

(Cleveland, OH)—Tervel Diagnev was the son of atheist Bulgarian immigrants whose parents let him do whatever he wanted as a child as a result of their own communist upbringings which allowed them no freedoms at all.

Predictably, the result was a rebellious, lazy, disrespectful man who swore like a drunken sailor, notes a report in Cleveland.com. (Photo: Frank Franklin II, Associated Press)

But, on July 27, Diagnev will be participating as a member of the U.S. Wrestling team in the Olympics in London. Diagnev gives the credit to God. He reportedly met Christ while at the University of Nebraska-Kearney where many of his wrestling teammates were Christians, and it was in Kearney that he was baptized.

"I feel through wrestling, God revealed Himself to me," he says. "That path He put me on to join the wrestling team and the wrestling community was the community that introduced me to God."

Click on the link to read the truly remarkable story behind this gentle giant: His battle with OCD, his approach to marriage and family life, and his rags-to-riches rise in the wrestling world.