Bulgaria got 42th position in this summer Olympics. They achieved 1 gold,1 silver and 3 bronze medals. They got 5 medals in total. They participated in 16 events with 72 competitors. Petar Stoychev was the flag bearer of the country in the opening ceremony at Beijing. Wrestling is the most successful Olympic sport of Bulgaria, with 16 gold medals in total. Nikola Stantchev won Bulgaria’s first Olympic gold medal with his victory in the men’s freestyle middleweight division at the 1956 Melbourne Games. Bulgaria’s return of two gold medals, one silver and nine bronze at the 2004 Athens Games was the country’s lowest, in terms of both gold and overall medals, since the 1968 Mexico City Games. Now in Beijing they got less medals than in Athens. The winners of the 2008 Beijing Olympics from Bulgaria are listed below.
1.Rumyana Neykova
A Bulgarian rower Rumyana Neykova won the gold medal for the single sculls in the 2008 summer Olympics at Beijing. She also competed in the 1992, 1994, 2000, 2004 summer Olympics . She won silver medal for the same event in 1992, 1994, 2000. In 2004 she won a bronze medal. Her current coach is her husband Svilen Neykov. In 2002, she was named Bulgarian sportswoman of the Year, as well as FISA female rower of the year. She started rowing in 1988 . Her win is the first golden medal won by Bulgaria in rowing since 1976, when it took the women’s double sculls and coxless pairs golds. It was also the third time Neykova beat Karsten over 18 years. She won the gold medal by beating Michelle Guerette of the United States as well as her year long rival Karsten to secure the gold medal. With her title in Beijing, Neykova has a full collection of Olympic medals, a silver, a bronze and a gold one.
2.Stanka Zlateva
Bulgaria’s Stanka Zlateva won the silver medal for the freestyle 72 Kg wrestling in this summer Olympics at Beijing. She competed in the 2004 Athens Olympics. She was named world female wrestler of the year in 2006 and 2007 and Bulgarian sportsperson of the year in 2007. She has been engaged in wrestling since 1997 at the age of 14. Her first coach was Demir Demirev and then she trained with Valeri Raychev as well as with Ognyan Raychev in the national team. She was the first Bulgarian female wrestler at the Olympics. The women’s wrestling debuted at the 2004 Olympics in Athens, and Zlateva represented Bulgaria there, coming twelfth. She has been adding more clutches and locks to her favourite finishing move known as “The Mill” and thus she won her first gold medal in Beijing.
3.Yavor Yanakiev
A Bulgarian wrestler Yavor Yanakiev won the bronze medal for the men’s Greco-Roman 74Kg wrestling in the 2008 Beijing Olympics.Yanakiev won the 2007 World Championships in Baku in his category and came fifth at the European Championships in Sofia in the same year. Yanakiev currently competes for Slavia Litex, where his coach is Stoyan Dobrev, his first coach was Petar Manev. Manuchar Kvirkelia of Georgia won the gold medal for this event in Beijing. Yanakiev won the first medal for Bulgaria in the China-held games in a match versus Aleh Mihailovic of Belarus whom he defeated with 2:1. He also won the World championships in the last year.
4.Radoslav Velikov
Radoslav Velikov is a Bulgarian freestyle wrestler. He won a bronze medal for the freestyle 55kg wrestling event in this summer Olympics at Beijing. He has been engaged in wrestling since 1997. He won the 2006 World championships and came second in 2005 championships. He currently competes for Levski Sofia where his coach is Simeon Shterev. He came second at the European Championships in Varna in 2005 and third in Europe in Sofia in 2007. Henry Cejudo of United states won the gold medal for this event. In the bronze medal match he defeated Namig Sevdimov of Azerbaijan. Velikov, who participated in the tournament with torn ligaments of the left knee, started the match cautiously. He started attacking from the very beginning of the second part, but Sevdimov scored the first point. In the third part Velikov started with furious attacks, which in the first few seconds brought him a point lead, which was enough for the medal.
5.Kiril Terziev
A Bulgarian wrestler won the bronze medal for the freestyle 74Kg wrestling in the 2008 Beijing Olympics 2008. He practiced in the Lokomotiv club Ruse, Bulgaria. Valentin Angelov is his coach. He won the medal by defeating Cuba’s Ivan Fundora. Both wrestlers wrestled aggressively in the bout. Fundora scored five points in the first half, but still lost the first period 6-5. In the second period Fundora scored three points, but still couldn’t grab a win after Terziev scored 5 points putting the final score 5-3 in Terziev’s favor. Buvaisar Saitiev of Russia won the gold medal for this event in Beijing. Soslan Tigiev of Uzbekistan won the silver medal.