BULGARIANSPORT

HEROES

Wrestling Nikola Nikolov

Stanchev (September 11, 1930 – July 12, 2009) was a Bulgarian freestyle wrestler.

He was born in Tvarditsa, Bourgas province.

He was the 1956 Olympic Games middle weight freestyle wrestling champion - the first Bulgarian Olympics gold medal - and silver medal winner at the World championship in Istanbul the same year.

Boyan Radev was born on February 25, 1942 in Moshino, Pernik. He is a former Greco Roman wrestler from Bulgaria.

Two time Olympic champion (Tokio'1964 and Mexico'1968). World champion from Toledo in 1966 and vice champion in 1962 and 1967.European champion in 1968 and Sportsperson of the Year of Bulgaria in 1964,1967,1968.It was declared as a grand master. In 2009, he received the highest award of the International Wrestling Federation (FILA) - "Golden Necklace". Boyan Radev was adopted in the Hall of Fame of the International Wrestling Federation (FILA) in Oklahoma (USA).

Stanka Zlateva Hristova was born on 1 March 1983 in Krushare,(Sliven Province) is a female Bulgarian freestyle wrestler. She competed at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens and the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, where she won a silver medal. She was named World Female Wrestler of the Year in 2006 and 2007 and Bulgarian Sportsperson of the Year in 2007 and 2010.

Zlateva has been engaged in wrestling since 1997, at age 14. Her first coach was Demir Demirev and then she trained with Valeri Raychev in the Kyustendil sports club and in the national team, as well as with Ognyan Raychev in the national team. Since 2006, she has been competing for Levski Sofia, where her coach is former world champion and triple European champion Simeon Shterev.

Zlateva has won five world championships (Guangzhou 2006,Baku 2007, Tokyo 2008,Moscow 2010 and Istanbul 2011).She has also won five gold medals from European championships (Moscow 2006, Sofia 2007, Tampere2008,Vilnius 2009 and Baku 2010).

She was the first Bulgarian female wrestler at the Olympics: women's wrestling debuted at the 2004 Olympics in Athens, and Zlateva represented Bulgaria there, coming twelfth. At the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, she was aspiring to win gold, but lost to the surprising Wang Jiao of the People's Republic of China in the final.

In late 2010, it was revealed that Zlateva had been offered to compete for Azerbaijan at the 2012 Olympics, but had steadfastly refused to discuss any such possibility with the Azeris, as she would only be willing to represent Bulgaria.

Dan Koloff (1892–1940), born Doncho Kolеv Danev (Bulgarian: Дончо Колев Данев), was a famous Bulgarian wrestler and a national hero of Bulgaria.

A very brave man Born in the village of Sennik, Bulgaria to a modest peasant family (on December 27, 1892), Koloff immigrated to the United States at the age of 17. He found work as a railroad construction worker. He quickly impressed with his extraordinary physical power and became famous for his ability to twist metal rails around his neck. He even fought a bear, while hunting, with his bare hands for an hour and finally got the chance to kill the animal with his rifle. Witnesses saw scars of Koloff's hands on the neck of the bear. He was subsequently hired as a wrestler in the Victoria Circus.

Before being discovered and trained by Zbyszko Cyganiewicz, Dan Kolov was a self-taught wrestler.

His glory days were between 1918 and 1927 during which he was undefeated and won all 1,500 matches that he fought. He became the first wrestler to capture heavyweight wrestling's 'Diamond Belt' twice. He was beaten twice in his career.

His most famous victories are:in New York vs. Latvian Rudy Dusek – 1919 in Tokyo vs. Jiki Higen -"The Strangler" – 1921 in Paris vs. Henri Deglane −1933

On his return to Bulgaria as a Heavyweight World Champion, he was welcomed by thousands as a national hero. In his homeland Dan Kolov devoted himself to charity, arranging many more matches in Sofia and donating all the proceeds to charity. The first Bulgarian passenger airplanes were bought with Kolov's financing.

Koloff died in his home village of Sennik on March 27, 1940 of tuberculosis. His coffin was carried by officers of the Ninth Artillery Corps from the town of Sevlievo also escorted by an honourary company of cavalery.

Nowadays, there is a major wrestling tournament in Bulgaria held annually in his honour. Kolov remains a national hero and is still widely considered as the best wrestler of all time.

Boxing Georgi Kostadinov (born

March 3, 1950) is a former boxer from Bulgaria.

Kostadinov won the Olympic Flyweight gold medal at the 1972 Munich Olympic Games for Bulgaria.He is Bulgaria’s first Olympic champion in boxing.

Petar Lesov (born September 12, 1960) was a Bulgarian boxer, who won the Flyweight Gold medal at the 1980 Summer Olympics. He is a two-time European champion in the flyweight division (1981 and 1983).He has won several competitions in Bulgaria.

Detelin Dalakliev (born 19 February 1983) is a boxer from Bulgaria. He is competing in the Bantamweight (– 54 kg) division, and won the gold medal at the World Amateur Boxing Championships in Milano 2009.

Dalakliev won bronze medals at the 2003 World Amateur Boxing Championships and 2001 and 2004 European Amateur Boxing Championships and a silver medal at the 2006 and 2008 European Amateur Boxing Championships.

He competed at the 2004 Summer Olympics, but was knocked out in the round of 16 by Aghasi Mammadov of Azerbaijan.

He represented Bulgaria at the 2008 European Amateur Boxing Championships in Liverpool, England. At the championships Dalakliev defeated Welshman Andrew Selby in the semifinals before facing inexperienced Englishman Luke Campbell in the final.

After four rounds Bulgarian levelled the scores in the fight to 5 each after he scored a point in the last two seconds of the fight. The decision then went to countback and Campbell was awarded the title making Campbell the first Englishman to win a European amateur title since 1961.

Kubrat Venkov Pulev (born 4 May 1981) is a Bulgarian professional heavyweight boxer best known to medal repeatedly at international tournaments as an amateur, winning the gold medal in the super heavyweight division at the 2008 European Championships.After his success on the amateur ring he turned up pro and from 2009 he has a personal record of 13 wins(6 by ko) 0 losses.

Gymnastics Bulgaria's women rhythmic

gymnastics team won a gold medal in the groups competition of the 2011 Rhythmic Gymnastics World Championship in Montpellier, France. Reneta Kamberova, Mihaela Maevska, Tsvetelina Naydenova, Elena Todorova, Hristina Todrova, and Catherin Velkova, brought to Bulgaria the first medal from a world championship since 2003, when the bulgarian team won the silver medal. In addition to the third place, on Saturday the Bulgarian gymnasts won a quota for the Olympics in London in 2012.

The Bulgarian Team of Rhythmic Gymnastics is a world champion! The Golden Girls are back on top after the girls of Iliana Raeva won a gold medal in a combination with two hoops and three bands at the world championship in France. The girls are the new world champions with ribbons and rings less than a year before the Olympics in London. After their performance all the people in the hall in Montpellier were cheering them up! The Bulgarian girls who came with the last starting number, received a score of 27.400 points, having played a perfect combination and took their third medal of the championship.

"Our happiest moment, was when we saw that we were on rank 1, and our most difficult - the preparation before that" Said Mihaela Maevska, captain of the team.

"We are very happy. We did not expect the gold medal. We figured there would be a medal, but not the gold one." added Elena Todorova. "We only dreamed of gold medals, but now they are reality!" said Hristina Todorova "We were the only ones, who did our combinations without making mistakes, which means that we were very well prepared. We hope that we'll get the gold medal at the olympics." said

Pashalieva - assistant coach

"The most important thing is, that the kids played four times for two

days, without making any mistakes!" added Ananieva – assistant coach

Freeruning Delyan Dimitrov “Dido” (born 17 september

1991) is freeruner form Sofia , Bulgaria.

Before he started training freerun he won international MMA and wrestling competitions.

Dido started training freerun in 2006 and is known for trying high level moves outside, often being the first to try them.

The community generally respects him for his bravery, despite the fact that he doesn't always land these moves succesfully.

In 2009 he took first place at “Red Bull Art of Motion” competition and became freerun world champion.

He is being sponsored by the sports brand “fiveten”.

Now he continues training despite his ankle trauma and surgery fail ,he had second surgery which was succesful and he should get back in shape in couple of months.

Tennis Tsvetana Pironkova is born on September

13th in 1987 in Plovdiv,Bulgaria. Pironkova is right-handed and plays with a

two-handed backhand. She achieved her career high of world no. 31 on 13 September 2010. She is best known for defeating Venus Williams three times at Grand Slam tournaments. She is currently the Bulgarian No. 1 and has won six ITF titles in her career.Pironkova is born in the family of a former canoeing champion

Kiril Enchev Pironkov and a former swimming champion Radosveta Chinkova Nikolova.

She started playing tennis at the age of 4, when her father Kiril introduced her to the game. At the age of six, she started playing in junior tournaments in Bulgaria. Kiril later became her coach. In 2001, Pironkova won the Atlantic Cup International Junior Tournament held in Bulgaria,and her career high in juniors was world no. 227 on 25 March 2002.

Dia Evtimova is born on April 30th in 1989 in Haskovo,Bulgaria.She si Bulgarian tennis player too and she is a competitor in Bulgarian Fed Cup team, with current record 10-9..Her trainer is her father Evtim Evtimov.In 2001 she was selected for tennis player number 2 in Europe for ladies to 14 years.

On September 12, 2011, she reached her highest WTA singles ranking of 147 whilst her best doubles ranking was 275 on June 15, 2009. In 2010, she qualified for the Internationaux de Strasbourg where she was defeated by Maria Sharapova in the second round. In 2011, she qualified for the Gastein Ladies where she reached her first WTA quarterfinal, but there she lost to Patricia Mayr-Achleitner.But now she has 436 point and win the second place for ladies tennis players in Bulgaria after Tsveti Pironkova.

Katerina Maleeva is born on May 7th in1969 in Sofia,Bulgaria.She is Bulgarian tennis player.She played in the WTA tour, competing in singles, doubles and mixed doubles between 1984 and 1997. Her best position in the WTA rank list was number 6 in 1990. Maleeva was the second oldest of the three children of Yulia Berberyan and Georgi Maleev. The mother, who came from a prominent Armenian family, which found refuge in Bulgaria after the 1896 Armenian massacres in the Ottoman Empire, was the best Bulgarian tennis player in the 1960s. After she retired from professional tennis in the 1970s, Berberyan started on a coaching career. She was the coach of her three daughters, Katerina, Manuela and Magdalena, each of whom eventually became WTA top ten players. Throughout her professional career, Maleeva has won a total of 11 WTA Tour singles titles and two titles in doubles. She has been six times in the top ten and has a balance of 369 victories and 210 losses. In 1994 she married her year-long partner, Georgi Stoimenov. The two have two children and currently live in Sofia.

She retired in 1997.Career prize money $2,220,371.

Volleyball The Bulgaria men's national volleyball team, controlled by the Bulgarian

Volleyball Federation, is one of the leading volleyball teams in Europe and the world. Its achievements include one silver medal from the World Championship (1970) and

four bronze medals (1949, 1952, 1986, 2006), as well as one fourth place (1962). From the European Championship, Bulgaria has won one second place (1951) and four third (1955, 1981, 1983, 2009) and four fourth places (1948, 1963, 1967, 1995). Bulgaria has also won a silver medal from the 1980 Summer Olympic Games in Moscow, and has a fourth place from the 1972 Olympics in Munich. The team's World Cup has won one bronze medal (2007) and one fourth place in 1969. Other achievements are the three World League fourth places (1994, 2004, 2006).

The team's most relevant recent results were winning third place in the 2006 Volleyball World Championship, the 2007 World Cup, and the 2009 Men's European Volleyball Championship.

Bulgaria was first invited to take part in the World League in 1994. In its debut season in the tournament the team managed to finish fourth led by players like Lubo Ganev, Dimo Tonev, Martin Stoev, etc. In the next four editions Bulgaria took part but did not manage to tie or beat its first season performance – the team came fifth in 1995, eight in 1996, sixth in 1997, and seventh in 1998. Bulgaria was then excluded from the World League until the 2003 season. It has been a constant participant ever since and among the contestants for the final phase of the tournament. Under the guidance of Milorad Kijac the new wave of players including Teodor Salparov, Danail Mihaylov, etc. mixed well with the more experienced Evgeni Ivanov, Plamen Konstantinov, Nikolay Ivanov, Vladimir Nikolov, Hristo Tsvetanov to come fifth in 2003. The next year once again under Kijac the team played some impressive games and succeeded to tie its best performance of finishing fourth. The team included more players of the Under-21 team that the previous year managed to win a medal at the World Championships such as Matey Kaziyski and Milushev. In 2005 with a new coach, Martin Stoev, the team finished fifth, followed by another tied best-ever performance – fourth in 2006, and another fifth in 2007. In 2008 the team finished seventh, while in 2009 they finished tenth. In 2010 Bulgaria recorded another seventh place. In 2011 Bulgaria qualified for first time in the Final Round after four years, they finished fifth.

Thank you for your attention

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