Bio

Dimitar Savatinov, or “Mitko”  as his friends call him, was born in Russia to a Russian mother and Bulgarian father.   His family moved to Bulgaria when he was only two years old and his mother, sister and niece continue to live in Gotze Delchev, Bulgaria, a town of about 20,000 people in southern Bulgaria.   His father passed away five  years ago and never had the chance to see Dimitar compete in Strongman.

Dimitar participated in wrestling in high school and continued to wrestle during his time in the Bulgarian army which he joined at age 18.  After leaving the army, he began working security at various nightclubs in Bulgaria and through his work at the clubs met several circus acrobats who asked him to join their act. 

In 2006, Dimitar came to the United States with a Bulgarian Acrobatic Teeterboard Act to perform for Ringling Brothers Circus on a two year tour. During this time he met his future wife, Katherine, an electrician with the circus.  Although life on the road with the circus made regular weight training difficult, Dimitar did what he could and in 2009 was invited by some local powerlifters to go with them to a powerlifting contest.   According to Dimitar, his experience at the meet inspired him to begin pursue strength for its own ends and he began training for strongman contests.  He entered his first strongman contest in May of 2009 and won first place. 

From 2008 to 2012 Dimitar continued to work with the Ringling Brothers Circus as a member of the technical crew, along with his wife.  However, when the circuses strongman was injured in 2012, Dimitar took over his act for the next six months. The act that he then performed included laying on broken glass while a board on his chest had twelve performers dancing on it, bending iron bars, holding and spinning seven girls on a  human carousel, lifting a 200-pound  kettle bell, and, finally, having a car drive over him. 

Since this period as a circus strongman, Mitko has been training full-time for Strongman competitions.  In the past year he competed in six contests and won his place at the 2014 Arnold Classic by finishing second at Odd Haugen’s LA Fit Expo All American Strongman Challenge  Says Mitko, “I feel fortunate to have had the chance to work for Ringling Brothers as a circus strongman but now I want to focus on being a real strongman. My wife and I continue to travel with the Ringling show in our RV and with our 2 Welsh Corgis.  I’ve now travelled all over the United States, and have worked out at many different gyms and met many wonderful people. But my focus now is on strength, and I’m thrilled to have made it to the Arnold Strongman Classic this year.”