Petia Yanchulova ( bg, Петя Янчулова; born July 3, 1978 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 ha ...

) is a Bulgarian beach volleyball player. She represented her nation

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 Macedon ...

in two editions of the Olympic Games (2000 and 2004), along with her partner and elder sister Tzvetelina. Despite being born in Bulgaria, Yanchulova trained most of her sporting career in

San Diego, California San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the eighth most populous city in the United States ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

, playing for the

University of San Diego The University of San Diego (USD) is a private Roman Catholic research university in San Diego, California. Chartered in July 1949 as the independent San Diego College for Women and San Diego University (comprising the College for Men and Schoo ...

's volleyball team. Yanchulova began her sporting career at the

, where she competed for the

San Diego Toreros The San Diego Toreros are the 17 teams representing the University of San Diego of San Diego, California in intercollegiate athletics. The Toreros compete in NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) of the National Collegiate At ...

volleyball team. While playing for the Toreros, she led her team to two impressive victories at the

West Coast Conference The West Coast Conference (WCC) — known as the California Basketball Association from 1952 to 1956 and then as the West Coast Athletic Conference until 1989 — is a collegiate athletic conference affiliated with NCAA Division I consisting of ...

Championships, and was also named the ''Defender of the Year'' in 1999 because of her tremendous impact to the university's volleyball program. Petia was named to the First Team All-American team (together with Misty May and Kerri Walsh) for two years in a row in 1998 and 1999. Petia was also honored in the San Diego Hall of Champions and was induced in the West Coast Conference Hall of Fame for her outstanding accomplishments at the University of San Diego. Since 1998, Yanchulova competed professionally at the FIVB World Tour along with her sister Tzvetelina. The Bulgarian tandem also made their official debut at the

2000 Summer Olympics The 2000 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXVII Olympiad and also known as Sydney 2000 (Dharug: ''Gadigal 2000''), the Millennium Olympic Games or the Games of the New Millennium, was an international multi-sport event held from 1 ...

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

, where they both placed seventeenth in the women's beach volleyball, defeating European bronze medalists Deborah and Rebekka Kadijk along the way. Four years later, at the

2004 Summer Olympics The 2004 Summer Olympics ( el, Θερινοί Ολυμπιακοί Αγώνες 2004, ), officially the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad ( el, Αγώνες της 28ης Ολυμπιάδας, ) and also known as Athens 2004 ( el, Αθήνα 2004), ...

Athens Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates ...

, the Yanchulova sisters qualified for their second Olympics in the same tournament by obtaining their berth from the FIVB Grand Slam Series in

Klagenfurt Klagenfurt am WörtherseeLandesgesetzblatt 2008 vom 16. Jänner 2008, Stück 1, Nr. 1: ''Gesetz vom 25. Oktober 2007, mit dem die Kärntner Landesverfassung und das Klagenfurter Stadtrecht 1998 geändert werden.'/ref> (; ; sl, Celovec), usually ...

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

. This time, defeating the reigning European Champions of Germany in pool play, the sisters advanced to the Round of 16, eventually losing in a dramatic battle against eventual Olympic silver medalists of Brazil,

Adriana Behar Adriana Brandão Behar (born February 14, 1969, in Rio de Janeiro) was one of the most outstanding volleyball players of her generation. Behar is Jewish. She moved to beach volleyball in 1993, after playing in the Brazilian women's national i ...

and

Shelda Bede Shelda Kelly Bruno Bede (born January 1, 1973) is a retired beach volleyball player from Brazil. She was born in Fortaleza, and won silver medals in beach volleyball at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney and the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athe ...

and placing 9th overall. When her elder sister retired from the sport in 2007, Yanchulova went on to play indoor volleyball professionally in Europe from 2008–2009.

References

External links

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Petia Yanchulova
at

Bio 1978 births Living people Bulgarian beach volleyball players Olympic beach volleyball players for Bulgaria Beach volleyball players at the 2000 Summer Olympics Beach volleyball players at the 2004 Summer Olympics Sportspeople from Sofia Volleyball players from San Diego University of San Diego alumni San Diego Toreros athletes Women's beach volleyball players Bulgarian emigrants to the United States {{Bulgaria-volleyball-bio-stub