Bulgarian Olympic Glory - Swimming

published on 2/23/12 12:57 PM

Ekaterina Avramova

Photo: bgswim.info

People have practiced swimming as a sport since the times of ancient Greece and Egypt. Swimming has been part of all modern summer Olympic games since their start in 1896. Until this day swimming competitions remain some of the most popular and attractive Olympic events. An interesting fact is that swimmers at the games competed for the first time in a pool in 1908 in London. Before that summer swimming competitions took place in open waters, like in Paris 1900 when the swimmers competed in the Seine.

Organized swimming practices in Bulgaria started in the Danubean city of Russe in 1879, just a year after the liberation from Ottoman rule. At the same time the Bulgarian navy was created and swimming started to gain popularity. Despite successful participations in international competitions, Bulgarian swimmers participated in Olympic Games for the first time in 1968 in Mexico, when Yulian Rusev became 12th at the 400 m individual medley event, while Maria Nikolova placed 15th at the same discipline among the women. Sonya Dangalakova is the first Bulgarian swimmer to win a point at Olympic games, placing 6th at 400m individual medley in Moscow in 1980. At that time Dangalakova entered the top 10 world chart in the discipline. In Moscow the Bulgarian women’s relay team debuted placing 7th at 4×100 m freestyle. The biggest Olympic success for Bulgaria in swimming came in South Korea in 1988. In Seoul Antoaneta Frenkeva won the bronze medal at the 200 m breaststroke event. In the same discipline Tanya Bogomilova finished 4th. Both swimmers competed in the 100 m breaststroke event. This time Bogomilova won the title with a new Olympic record -1,07:95 minutes, while Frenkeva grabbed the silver medal. In Seoul Georgi Mihalev finished 9th at the 200 backstroke event among the men.

Bulgaria’s first Olympic participation in the synchronized swimming events was in 2004 in Athens, where Asya Anastasova and Bogdana Zareva placed 20th. The country has not yet participated in the diving events.

Bulgarian swimmers will pay maximum efforts for good performance this summer in London. Young Bulgarian swimmer Ekaterina Avramova, who broke all national records in the backstroke discipline in 2011 has ambitions for new Bulgarian victories in the Olympic pool. The other Bulgarian record holder in butterfly, freestyle and medley is Nina Rangelova, who will also do everything possible in London. 2011 was one of the most successful years also for legendary open-water swimmer Petar Stoichev. He won the first place at 2011 World Aquatics Championships in Shanghai, China during the 25 km event, thus becoming the first Bulgarian swimmer with a World Championship title. Now Stoichev has focused on winning a quota for the coming games, where he would compete for a medal in the attractive 10 km swimming event. Bulgarian fans of swimming are already impatient to see Stoychev and the other Bulgarian swimmers in London in 2012.

По публикацията работи: Alexander Markov

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Bulgarian Olympic Glory - Swimming

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