The road to the gold

How the Rhythmic Gymnastics in Bulgaria was developed to the level where it dominates in the world scene.

For the first time Bulgarian rhythmic gymnasts was seen on the world scene of gymnastics in Budapest World Championship in1963. The contestant is Ulia Trashlieva, she manages to leave the competition with Bronze medal.
The next championship in Prague 1965 Bulgaria is represented by another gymnast Maria Gigova. Although she doesn’t win a medal ,on her fist championship ,she receives prize for elegance .Later on she is to become a well known gymnast among the world tops of Rhythmic Gymnastics.She becomes the first gymnast to win “3 consecutive world titles.She finishes her career with 9 Gold medals,2 Silver and 2 Bronze medals.

Maria Gigova

This epic gymnasts set a high standard  as for the Bulgarian Schools of Gymansts as well as on the world scene .Her teammate Neshka Robeva does not achieve less than her. Neshka Robeva is known as great gymnasts but mostly she becomes famous with bringing the next generation of gymnasts that are called the Golden Girls in Bulgaria.
For 25 years career as a coach, Neshka Robeva and her alumnus wins for Bulagria 294 medals from which 147 Golden medals ,88 Silver medals and 63 Bronze medals.

Neshka Robeva

The tradition in this sport in Bulgaria continuous to bring achievements for the country. Neshka Robeva`s students continue to teach the next generation of gymnast. Maria Petrova and Iliana Raeva,Bianka Panova are among the successful teachers and examples from which young generation can learn.
Bianka Panova  a brilliant gymnasts with a Guinness record for her performance in the World Championship 1987 in Varna, with full ten marks in all her routines. She is a holder of 16 gold medals 3 silver medals and 3 bronze medals. She is currently building the bases of the  rhythmic gymnastics in Singapore.https://www.straitstimes.com/sport/gymnastics-former-world-champion-bianka-panova-impressed-by-singaporean-talent
 
Iliana Raeva along with her teammates Lilia Ignatova, Anelia Ralenkova  and Maria Petrova were some of the best gymnast within the rhythmic gymnastics field. Raeva  is currently a president of the Bulgarian Rhythmic Gymnastics Federation. She finished her career with 5 gold medals,8 silver medals and 6 bronze medals. Now she continue to contribute to the Bulgarian gymnastics development and success. 

Iliana Raeva


Lilia Ignatova an incredible gymnast, who along with her teammates  continue the tradition of winning and keeping the dominance in Bulgarian hands. She was known as a one of the most elegant gymnast with incredible stile.At the end of her career she finished with 17 gold medals,11 silver medals and 2 bronze medals.
Lilia Ignatova

Maria Petrova is tree times All-round World Champion and three times European All-round Champion , she finishes her career with 20 Gold medals ,11 silver medals and 7 bronze medals. Currently Maria Petrova is a president of the technical committee for Rhythmic Gymnastics for the European Union.

Maria Petrova
After these achievement Bulgaria was absent  on the world stage for 17 years  until 2014,when Bulgarian team started to show up and win medals again. The captan of the team Mihaela Maevska with her teammates Reneta Kamberova,Cvetelina Stoyanova,Cvetelina Naidenova and Hristina Todorova with coach Ina Ananieva ,started to show to competitions and championships, winning medals like their ancestors.Their final performance was in Rio Olympic Games where the team won bronze medal and withrawn from the gymnastics to make a way to the new successful team.
Bulgarian Team, Rio Olympic Games-Bronze Medal


The current team of 5 gymnast of Bulgaria is very well supported in the country and started to become well known on the world stage.Simona Diankova Capitan of the team with teammates Erika Zafirova,Elena Bineva,Madlen Radukanova and Sefany Kiriakova.  Their performances are extremely effective and performing it the team keeps the fans intrigued. 

Team Bulgaria

From the Individual gymnasts emerging to the world stage are Neviana Vladinova,Katrin Taceva and Boriana Kaleyn.The last world championship in Sofia,Bulgaria the Bulgarian team and the individual performances showed the world that Bulgarians will continue  to be on the stage and ready to conquer future highs.Here is a link you can check out the youngest team of RG in Bulgaria.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jeWJESGC9Mc-world championship performance-Bulgaria

Desislava Petrova

References:
 http://www.ueg.org/en/Bulgarian-Rhythmic-Gymnastics-Federation-elections-2012-11-27-0000
 http://www.ueg.org/en/page/view.html?id=124

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bianka_Panova
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neshka_Robeva https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_Petrova_(rhythmic_gymnast) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_Gigova
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julia_Trashlieva


Comments

  1. Unknown25 November 2018 at 09:23

    The old generation really helped today`s gymnast to be part of the world number ones.Great post but many more names were to be mentioned.

    ReplyDelete

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