Sport in Bulgaria

Since then Bulgaria has appeared in most Summer Olympiads, and as of 2022[update] has won a total of 224 medals: 54 gold, 88 silver, and 82 bronze.

Some of the most prominent Olympians include Mariya Grozdeva (shooting), Ekaterina Dafovska (biathlon), Armen Nazaryan (wrestling), Stefka Kostadinova (high jump, holder of the world record since 1987), Yordanka Donkova (100 m, holder of the world record since 1988), Yordan Yovchev (gymnastics), Neshka Robeva (gymnastics), Rumyana Neykova (rowing).

Without doubt this is one of Bulgaria's highest priority sports with around 1,000 gold medals in different competitions, although cases of doping have occurred among Bulgarian weightlifters, which led to the expulsion of the entire Bulgarian team from the 2008 Summer Olympics, and their voluntary withdrawal from the 1988 Summer Olympics.

[1] [2] Stefan Botev, Nikolay Peshalov, Demir Demirev, Asen Zlatev, Blagoy Blagoev and Yoto Yotov figure among the most distinguished weightlifters.

The national team achieved its greatest success with a fourth-place finish at the 1994 FIFA World Cup in the United States.

[3] Georgi Asparuhov, nicknamed Gundi (1943–1971), also became extremely popular at home and abroad, having had offers from clubs in Italy and Portugal, and having won the Bulgarian football player No.1 award for the twentieth century.

Three Bulgarians have won the European top scorers' Golden Boot award: Hristo Stoichkov, Georgi Slavkov and Petar Jekov.

As of 2009[update] the most popular Bulgarian volleyball players include Plamen Konstantinov, Matey Kaziyski and Vladimir Nikolov.

In wrestling, Boyan Radev, Serafim Barzakov, Armen Nazaryan, Plamen Slavov, Kiril Sirakov and Sergey Moreyko rank as world-class wrestlers.

Yordanka Donkova held the world record in the 100 meters hurdles with 12.21 seconds set in Stara Zagora on 21 August 1988 for 28 years until it was broken in 2016 by Kendra Harrison.

Albena Denkova and Maxim Staviski have won the ISU world figure skating championships twice in a row (2006 and 2007) for ice-dance.

Petar Stoychev (Петър Стойчев) set a new swimming world record for crossing the English Channel in 2007.

Kaloyan Stefanov Mahlyanov, best known as Kotoōshū Katsunori, has become well-known worldwide for his sumo prowess, becoming the first European to earn the title ozeki in Japan.