Maria Zdravkova Grozdeva-Grigorova ( bg, Мария Здравкова Гроздева-Григорова; born on 23 June 1972) is a Bulgarian retired

sport shooter Shooting sports is a group of competitive and recreational sporting activities involving proficiency tests of accuracy, precision and speed in shooting — the art of using ranged weapons, mainly small arms (firearms and airguns, in forms such as ...

, who competed in

25 metre pistol 25 meter pistol, formerly and unofficially still often known as sport pistol, is one of the ISSF shooting events. It was devised as a women's event in the 1960s, based upon the rules of 25 meter center-fire pistol but shot with a .22-caliber sp ...

and

10 metre air pistol The 10 meter air pistol is an Olympic shooting event governed by the International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF). It is similar to 10 meter air rifle in that it is shot with 4.5 mm (or .177) caliber air guns at a distance of 10 m ...

. She is the only woman to have successfully defended the

title at the Olympic Games. She competed at the

2020 Summer Olympics The , officially the and also known as , was an international multi-sport event held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some preliminary events that began on 21 July. Tokyo was selected as the host city during the 1 ...

, in Women's 25 metre pistol, and Women's 10 metre air pistol. Apart from her five Olympic medals including two gold medals, Grozdeva also has been successful at CISM World Championships and

ISSF World Cup The ISSF World Cup was introduced by the International Shooting Sport Federation in 1986 to provide a homogeneous system for qualification to the Olympic shooting competitions. It still is carried out in the Olympic shooting events, with four comp ...

s. She is also the current holder of the final world record in 25 metre pistol.

Life

Grozdeva was born on 23 June 1972 in Sofia. She began shooting at the age of 11, and graduated in sports shooting from the National Sports Academy. She is married to her coach Valeri Grigorov, with whom she has three children. Grozdeva announced her decision to retire from professional sports after competing at the

. She was among the founders of the Bulgarian Shooting Union and served as its president between 2012 and 2022, being succeeded by

Vesela Letcheva Vessela Letcheva (born 20 May 1964) was born in Veliko Tarnovo and lives in Sofia. She is a shooting sport athlete, president of the Bulgarian Shooting Union, member of the IOC, commission member of the Bulgarian Olympic Committee (BOC), former ...

Other endeavors

In, 2009 Grozdeva competed as a house guest in the third season of the reality show ''

VIP Brother ''VIP Brother'' is a Bulgarian reality television game show in which a number of celebrity contestants live in an isolated house trying to avoid being evicted by the public with the aim of winning a large cash prize or collecting money for char ...

''. She made it into the final three and then placed runner up for the season.

Olympic results

Records

References

External links

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Grozdeva, Mariya 1972 births Living people Sportspeople from Sofia Bulgarian female sport shooters ISSF pistol shooters Olympic shooters of Bulgaria World record holders in shooting Shooters at the 1992 Summer Olympics Shooters at the 1996 Summer Olympics Shooters at the 2000 Summer Olympics Shooters at the 2004 Summer Olympics Shooters at the 2008 Summer Olympics Shooters at the 2012 Summer Olympics Olympic gold medalists for Bulgaria Olympic bronze medalists for Bulgaria Olympic medalists in shooting Big Brother (Bulgarian TV series) contestants Shooters at the 2015 European Games European Games competitors for Bulgaria Medalists at the 2004 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 2000 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 1996 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 1992 Summer Olympics Shooters at the 2019 European Games Shooters at the 2020 Summer Olympics 20th-century Bulgarian women 21st-century Bulgarian women