Bulgaria's Boyan Radev, the two-time Olympic and world champion in wrestling, has been officially revealed to have been an intelligence officer with the former communist-era State Security secret service.

The name of Radev, who won Olympic gold in the 97kg Greco-Roman wrestling in Tokyo in 1964 and in Mexico in 1968, was on the list of former agents and collaborators of the communist secret services revealed by the commission on the opening of communist-era secret services' dossiers.

Radev was appointed as a junior intelligence officer at the Interior Ministry's Sofia unit in 1964, the year he won his first Olympic title. His appointment was made at the request of State Security.

In 1965, Radev was promoted to senior intelligence officer and after rising in the chain of command, was promoted to deputy head of department in the State Security's intelligence unit.

This was the position he held until 1991, almost two years after the fall of communism, records showed.

When asked to comment on his State Security past, Radev told Bulgarian-language Kapital weekly that "all athletes at the time were working for the Interior Ministry. This was how things were back then. I was ready to do anything in order to be an athlete because this was what I could do back then.

"We were given 10 leva for every star on my uniform and for my first Olympic title I got $250 and for the second they gave me $500. Today I get a pension of 700 leva a month for raising the Bulgarian flag so many times".

Radev is one of the most famous Bulgarian athletes and a legend in his sport. After the fall of communism, he reinvented himself as an art collector, with some reports suggesting that he has one of the most richest collections of Bulgaria artists and archaeological artifacts.

He is a frequent guest at public events, always wearing his trademark hat, and with a cigar in hand.