The modest Olympic performance of Bulgaria in Sochi was not a surprise and people knew they cannot expect a rain of medals. Chair of the Bulgarian Olympic Committee Stefka Kostadionova, who is a gold medalist from the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta and reigning world record holder in the women's high jump, also calmed hopes that Bulgaria could get a medal in Sochi.

“Expectations are not big and I do not think that we have great chances for medals. In Nagano ‘98 we had Ekaterina Dafovska and I hope we would have a medalist now too. I do not want to put the burden of extremely high expectations on the shoulders of our athletes.” Olympic champion Ekaterina Dafovska also called for lowering expectations. “Our athletes show good performance but you should not forget that the Olympic Games are a special type of forum and all strong nations will be here to fight for a medal. Bulgarian athletes will give their best and we hope they would have luck,” Dafovska said.

Bad luck, however, was what separated snowboarder Alexandra Zhekova from the bronze medal. The Bulgarian showed top Olympic performance and reached the snowboard cross final. In the middle of the race Zhekova was third after brilliant riding, but meters before the end Italian Michela Moioli collided with the Bulgarian and the bronze was gone in parts of the second. Thus Alexandra Zhekova placed 5th and this is actually the 4th best achievement of Bulgaria at winter Olympics after the gold of Ekaterina Dafovska in the 15-km ski running event in Nagano; the silver medal of Evgenia Radanova in the short track speed skating event in Torino 2006, and the bronze of Ivan Lebanov in the 30-km ski running event in Lake Placid in 1980. These are a total of 3 medals for the past 35 years. The reason is not that there are no talented athletes in Bulgaria. The issue comes when their development is concerned. In Alpine and Nordic countries, as well as in the U.S., Canada and the Far East, winter sport federations include tens of thousands of athletes who have all the necessary equipment and excellent conditions for training. Financing there is huge and this results in medals. These countries usually have full quota at the games and their Olympic delegations are huge, too.

Financing and good conditions are just prerequisites for good results. Chance and luck also play important roles but they usually come to the best. Before that athletes should have high goals and work extremely hard for their achievement. Stefka Kostadinova expected positions among the top ten and Dafovska hoped the Bulgarian athletes would place in the top 20. No one of the 18 athletes who represented Bulgaria in six disciplines, except Alexandra Zhekova, managed to achieve this. In conclusion we can say that Bulgaria is where it should be. There were no pleasant Olympic surprises despite the success of Zhekova, which was not a surprise at all, but a result of talent, hard work and high goals. The good news is that Bulgaria is once again on the winter Olympic map and that in 4 years another Winter Games will take place.

English version: Alexander Markov