Petar Stoychev was born on October 24, 1976 in Momchilgrad, Bulgaria. He started swimming at the age og 6. His first trainers in the town of Smolyan were Evelina Georgieva and Ognyan Georgiev ...

He started swimming at the age of 6. His first trainers in the town of Smolyan were Evelina Georgieva and Ognyan Georgiev. At the age of 16 Stoychev started taking part in European Junior Swimming competitions. In 1992 he became 4th at 400m freestyle and 5th at 1500m. The next year he got the second and the third place and broke the Bulgarian men`s records.

At the same time, in 1993, is his first participation in the Ochrid swimming marathon - Petar became second in only 19 seconds behind the winner. He qualified for the European Swimming Championships in Istanbul, but he was not included in the Bulgarian men’s team.

Petar won the Galata marathon in Varna, Bulgaria and he became second at the Balkan Junior Swimming Championship. At this point of his swimming career Petar decided to swim longer distances. As a result of this decision, Petar started to compete in the FINA Marathon Swimming World Cup races. He has competed in rivers, lakes, seas and even oceans.

His brother is Julian Stoychev – one of the best Bulgarian sportsmen in fencing. Petar’s great success is the result of the teamwork with his trainer Krassimir Tumanov of swimming club "Levski - Sofia". Petar has already participated in three Olympics - Sydney 2000, Athens 2004 and Beijing 2008, where he was flag bearer for the Bulgarian Olympic team. Petar has 9 consecutive wins of a major international open water FINA series since 2001 (World Cup winner 2001-2006, Grand Prix winner 2007-2009), and more than 50 wins in individual swimming marathons.

Bulgarian Petar Stoychev won Saturday the 23th Ohrid Swimming Marathon. His 8th triumph in Ohrid came after swimming the 30km-long "Klime Savin" track in 5 hours, 25 minutes and 37 seconds.

"Studzinsky and Blaum were great rivals and it was difficult to win. The swimming was faster compared to previous years, which is a confirmation of the strong race", said Stoychev upon arrival at the finish.