Bulgaria Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedo ...

first participated at the

Olympic Games The modern Olympic Games or Olympics (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques) are the leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a vari ...

at the inaugural 1896 Games, with a single gymnast. However, since

Charles Champaud Charles Champaud ( bg, Шарл Шампо), also spelled Sharl Shampov (), was a Swiss gymnast. He represented Bulgaria at the First 1896 Summer Olympics in Athens. Champaud competed in the parallel bars, vault, and pommel horse events. Althoug ...

was a Swiss national living in

Sofia Sofia ( ; bg, София, Sofiya, ) is the capital and largest city of Bulgaria. It is situated in the Sofia Valley at the foot of the Vitosha mountain in the western parts of the country. The city is built west of the Iskar river, and h ...

, some sources credit his appearance to Switzerland instead. The

Bulgarian Olympic Committee The Bulgarian Olympic Committee ( bg, Български олимпийски комитет, ''Balgarski olimpiyski komitet''; abbreviated as БОК, BOC) is a non-profit organization serving as the National Olympic Committee of Bulgaria and a pa ...

was created in 1923 and first sent a team to the Summer Olympic Games in 1924. The nation has participated in every Summer Games since then, except for 1932 (during the Great Depression), 1948 (Bulgaria's role in

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

) and 1984 (part of the Soviet-led boycott of the 1984 Summer Olympics). Bulgaria first participated in the

Winter Olympic Games The Winter Olympic Games (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques d'hiver) is a major international multi-sport event held once every four years for sports practiced on snow and ice. The first Winter Olympic Games, the 1924 Winter Olympics, were h ...

in 1936 and has attended every Winter Games since then. Bulgarian athletes have won a total of 230 medals, with

wrestling Wrestling is a series of combat sports involving grappling-type techniques such as clinch fighting, throws and takedowns, joint locks, pins and other grappling holds. Wrestling techniques have been incorporated into martial arts, combat ...

and

weightlifting Weightlifting generally refers to activities in which people lift weights, often in the form of dumbbells or barbells. People lift various kinds of weights for a variety of different reasons. These may include various types of competition; promo ...

as the top medal-producing sports. After the fall of the communist regime in 1989–90, in Bulgaria's turbulent transition to free-market democracy, top-notch state support for Bulgarian Olympians disintegrated. Diminishing and marginalized medal returns were evident from the 2012 London Olympics, where Bulgaria, a former top-10 Olympic powerhouse in the late 1980s, fell out of its former high stature. Bulgaria's best performance to date has come in the 1980 Summer Olympics where they finished third in the medal table. In the 1988 Summer Olympics Bulgaria ranked 7th, but won the nation's largest total of gold medals to date. Bulgaria's most successful Winter Olympics took place in 1998, where the country ranked 15th in the medal table.

Medal tables

Medals by Summer Games

Medals by Winter Games

Medals by summer sport

Medals by winter sport

List of medalists

Summer Olympics

Winter Olympics

Medals by sport and year

Summer Olympics

Athletics

Basketball

Boxing

Canoeing

Equestrian

Football

Gymnastics

Judo

Karate

Rowing

Shooting

Swimming

Tennis

Volleyball

Weightlifting

Wrestling

Winter Olympics

Biathlon

Cross-country skiing

Short track speed skating

Bulgarian Olympic Flag Bearers

See also

External links