Good Example Of Research Paper On Sports In Bulgaria

1. Introduction
Bulgaria is located between the Turkey and Romania in the Southeastern Europe and has a variety of different sports practiced by its citizens. The country of more than seven million citizens has been part of the summer and winter Olympics game from their early start. In the country the most popular sports are football - soccer, volleyball, various different gymnastics, wrestling, weight lifting and others. There are various different sport figures popular in the country, but they do not fully address the international sporting achievements of Bulgaria on the international level. The paper will present the country’s most important Olympics achievements, the most successful sports with the most popular sport figures and overall sport situation in the country which is the result of the past state noninvolvement in the sports area and centralized approach, which has also impacted the area of physical activity of its citizens.
2. Olympics achievements
Based on the official site of the Olympic Movement (n. p.), Bulgaria has been participating in both the summer and the winter Olympics game. The first participation occurred in the year 1896 with one Bulgarian citizen participating. The first team participated in the summer Olympic game in the year 1924. The country has been seen in the summer Olympics game since the year 1924 except for the years 1932 and 1884 in Los Angeles and 1948 in London, because of different reasons of economic and political conditions. Bulgaria has won 1 silver and one bronze medal in the London summer Olympics game in 2012. The results were better in previous games in Beijing in the year 2008, with 1 gold, 1 silver and 3 bronze medals. The success of the country was greater in the past since in Athens in the year 2004 2 gold, 1 silver and 9 bronze medals were won. Sydney 2000 brought to Bulgaria 5 gold, 6 silver and two bronze medals and in Atlanta 1996 3 gold, 7 silver and five bronze medals. Participating in the Barcelona in 1992 resulted in 3 gold, 7 silver, and 6 bronze medals and in previous Seoul summer Olympics game 10 gold, 16 silver and 17 bronze medals. The similar success was seen in Moscow games in 1980, where 8 gold, 16 silver and 7 bronze medals were won. In Montreal 1976 Bulgaria won 6 gold, 9 silver and 7 bronze medals. In Munich in 1972 there were 6 gold, 10 silver and 5 bronze medals that went to the Southeastern European country. The medals were also won on Mexico 1968 – 2 gold, 4 silver and 3 bronze. Tokyo 1964 resulted in 3 gold, 5 silver and 2 bronze medals and Rome in the year 1960 1 gold, 3 silver and 3 bronze medals. The Bulgaria has won 1 gold one bronze and 3 silver also in Melbourne/ Stockholm 1965 1 gold, 1 bronze and 3 gold medals. The first summer Olympics game that brought medals to the country occurred in 1952 with winning 1 bronze medal. All in all Bulgaria has in all summer Olympics games won 51 gold, 85, silver and 78 bronze medals which means total 214 medals in the year it participated. The most medals in the summer Olympics game were won by wrestling and weight lifting. The athletics, shooting, boxing, canoeing, rowing, gymnastics and swimming also brought a success, but not as many medals as wrestling where Bulgaria won 68 medals and 36 in weightlifting. Medals bronze and silver were won also in judo, basketball, football, volleyball, tennis and equestrian. The most medals – 5 in the summer Olympics game were won by athlete Mariya Grozdeva (Olympic Movement, n. p.).
Bulgaria has been first participating in winter Olympics game in the year 1936 and has been present every year after that. In the year 1980 Bulgaria won 1 bronze medal. The success was achieved in the year 1998 with 1 gold medal in biathlon and in the year 2002 in Salt Lake City with 1 silver in short track speed skating and 2 bronze medals. Winter Olympics game in Turin 2006 brought 1 silver medal in short track speed skating. The bronze medals were won in biathlon, short track speed skating and cross country skiing. Bulgaria has so far won 6 medals in winter Olympics game. The medals in winter Olympics were won by Evgenia Radanova with 3 medals, Irina Nikuluchina 1 medal, Ekaterina Dafovska 1 medal and Ivan Lebanov 1 medal (Olympic Movement, n. p.).
3. Most popular sports and Bulgarian sports figures
Bulgaria has seen various sports achievements with impressive sports records in wrestling, modern rhythmic gymnastics, and tennis and in recent times in football, which have been regarded as the national pride and has brought international recognition as in almost all countries in the world. The population in Bulgaria is the most impressed over the football – soccer teams and its players has seen various important players in the recent past. Post-Soviet country has become world known because of different popular sports figures that will be further introduced.
3.1. Football- soccer
Based on the Kay (60) the Bulgarians are passionate about their football and have a lot of interests also in foreign football teams in other countries. The capital city of Bulgaria has two football teams CSKA and Levski. The most known figures in football in the country are Hristo Stoichkov and Dimitar Berbatov (Kay, 60). The country’s most popular sport is soccer. And the most known achievement was winning the quarter finals of the World Cup against Germany in the year 1994. The soccer players are treated as celebrities in the country and are famous as the rock stars in the United States. The most popular is the player Petar Stoyanov, which was the president of the country from 1996 to 2001. He is currently a free agent and has played for Silven 2000, CSKA Sofia, Olympiacos Colou and Lyubimets and attended the Bulgarian Cup and Super cup (Otfinoski, 87).
Fans of the football are admiring the 16 Bulgarian premier leagues of which four are based in Sofia: already mentioned CSKA and Levski and also teams of Salavia and Lokomotiv. In the soccer the most popular figure is Hristo Stoichkov, who has begun to play soccer at his early age of 12 and is written in the history of Bulgarian sport as one of the fiercest competitors. He had a contract with the CSKA Sofia. His sports carrier is marked with the lifetime ban because of the match fighting, which was lifted after less than a year with Bulgaria qualifications for the World Cup in 1986. He has earned the title of the Europe’s leading scorer player with 38 goals in 1989. In the year 1991 he signed with FC Barcelona, which won the European Cup in 1992. He has also earned the title of the European Player of the year. He has shifted teams more than once. He had helped the Bulgaria win the famous game in 1994 World Cup, where the country has failed to gain the victory in five previous participations. They have not managed to beat Italy, which would bring them to the finals. The Stoichkov was the leading goal scorer of the tournament. After the retirement he became a coach of the Bulgarian national team and in 2007 resigned because of the poor results (Britannica, 30-31). The country also gives the titles of the football players of the year and this year the football player of the year is Ivelin Popov. There are various different popular football players since the country has various different clubs at different levels, such as national and regional and under the professional group there are subdivisions as it is common in different countries. The most known figures were mentioned, but there are a lot of others very popular football players in the country.
3.2. Boxing
Boxing is not one of the major sports in Bulgaria, but they have developed excellent amateur boxing teams which were also participating in the Olympic Games. The whole regions of the former Iron Curtain have developed sports such as boxing. The Boxing Association is administering the box sport area in the country. The country first participated in the year 1952 in the Olympics boxing competition. The country is ranked on the 15th placed compared to the all nations with winning 18 medals in the boxing in the years of the attendance. Among the medals so far the Bulgaria has 4 gold, 5 silver and 9 bronze medals in boxing in the light and flyweights categories. The individuals who achieved the gold medals are Georgi Kostadinov in 1972, Petar Leson in 1980, Isamil Mustafov in 1988, in 1996 Daniel Bozhinov and are the best known in the country. On the professional boxing level the country does not have many boxers, but there were Asan Yuscinov, Borislav Abadijiev, Stiliyan Kostoc, Martin Krastec, Alexey Ribchev, Spas Spassov, Konstantin Semerjiev who have achieved great results (Grasso, 72).
Bulgaria is also hosting annual tournaments of amateur boxing since the year 1950 onward. Boxers from all over the world are annually participating in the qualifications for the upcoming Olympic competition (Novosti Pridnestrovya, n. p.). The Bulgarian athletes are world known and the various Olympic champions in the sport area where the credit of the known Ivan Abadijev coach, who introduced innovative training practices. The Bulgarian athletes have achieved various good results with lifting as much as three times their weight. One of the known figures is champion Naim Sulemanglu who was competing for the country until the year 1986 (Britannica, 30). Boxing has been traditionally present in the country for a long time and therefore in the county have been various different popular sport figures that got the national and international attention.
3.4. Rhythmic gymnastic
As well as wrestling also the athletic is part of the tradition in Bulgaria. The greatest achievement in athletics is seen from the medals won in the Olympics games. In the year 1996 the women’s rhythmic gymnastics team won a silver medal with including the Bulgarian folk music. The big issue of the Bulgarian athletes was the drug issues. One of the famous rhythmic gymnastics figure expelled because of those issues is also Simona Peycheva in 2003 on the World Gymnastics Championship in Hungary (Otfinoski, 87). One of the most popular rhythmic gymnasts in Bulgaria also world known is Maria Petrova, who has been a World all-around champion in the years 1993, 1994 and in the year 1995 and three times the European Al-around champion in years 1992, 1993 and 1994. The rhythmic gymnastics results of the Bulgaria were the most impressive during the communist rule in which time the most wins were gained by the Eastern European country. Bulgaria rhythmic gymnastics and women’s participation group were present in the 5 summer games in 5 different countries with 26 participants and achieved one silver and one bronze medal. Individual participation of the Bulgarian individuals resulted in one silver medal achieved in the year 1988 by the Adriana Dunavska. Bulgarian participants have during the years achieved from second place onward and were very successful in all 7 summer games participations (Olympic Sports, n. p.).
Sylvia Miteva and Boyanka Angelova were also very popular with theirs great achievements. In the recent years the Group rhythmic gymnastics is more popular with the most known individuals Katerina Marinova, Boryana Kaleyn and Neviana Vladinova. There are various names that are known worldwide in this area of sport and among today’s most well-known and famous are Elena and Hirstiana Todrova, Katrin Velkova, Michaela Maevska, Ralitsa Mileva, Renata Kamberova and others that can be seen in the contemporary competitions. The success of the individuals and groups has been in the gymnastics in the post-Soviet and Eastern European countries known from the past and there are many new popular individuals present in this sport in the country today that will definitely win many victories for the Bulgaria on national, European and International level.
4. Sports and physical activity in Bulgaria
The country is based on the Eurobarometer report (European Commission, 4) among the countries where the population is at least active in all of the European Union members. Most respondents in Bulgaria and hence 78% never play sports or exercise. Bulgaria has beside Italy the fewest percentages only 2% of the citizens who play sport and regular exercise at least five times a week. It is concerning that the proportion of the population that does not exercise has increased during the last years (European Commission, 7-8). More than half of the population is never involved in physical activities such as cycling, dancing, gardening and others. In the country among all of 28 countries compared in Bulgaria was found of the greatest percentages of respondents that were in the last week not involved in any exercising (European Commission, 11-16). On the other side country has the highest proportion of the population – 55% who were physically active for more than an hour and who are more likely to walk for ten or more minutes at least four days per week (European Commission, 19-28). In the Eastern European countries, it is more common and popular to do sport and physical activity at home with 52% doing it in Bulgaria and one of the lowest percentage of people using fitness centers – 5%. The outdoor physical activity has been on the decrease (European Commission, 38-39). The country is also one of the countries that have a low proportion of people who are motivated to improve their health with the physical activity – 34% (European Commission, 48). In the country the half of the participants expressed high disagreement in relation to the opportunities offered by the local sport clubs in the country (European Commission, 61). This statistic can definitely improve with the country’s enthusiasm over football and other sports figures that are being the most popular in the country.
The physical inactivity can be the fact of the late emerging of modern sport in the country at the beginning of the nineteen century with the lack of state backing. The international results and the most successful Bulgarian sports have never come from the mass membership and large participation. The organized sport in Bulgaria is very limited and includes 98.000 registered members in around 3.668 sports clubs included in 93 National Sport Organization, which results in very low membership - 27 members per club. The sports dependence on state increased with the capitalism, socialism and Europeanization. The state intervened in sport with promoting democratization in the sports with the promotion of healthy lifestyles and athlete international standing (Houlihan et al., 92-99). Based on the Houlihan et al. (105) the Bulgarian sports participations policies were too broad and disjoint, which resulted in elitism on the expense of mass participation, without the development of local level capacities. The analyses of the sport in the country are rare because of the lack of analysis of the sport policies have and because of the lack of annual reports from sports organization which has been improved in the recent past.
5. Conclusion
Bulgaria has been internationally known because of sports such as weight lifting, boxing, wrestling, gymnastics and tennis, but it’s most popular sport and sports figures are found in the football area. The country has won various medals from different sports in winter and summer Olympics game and has undergone different challenges in the political and economic sphere that impacted the sports in the country. There are various popular sports in the country, but the most popular is definitely the soccer which players are being admired and regarded as celebrities. The overall country enthusiasm over football outranks all other sports, even though they are more internationally known and have achieved greater results in the international level and in the Olympics game. The results on the international area are also the results of the traditional sports in the country which have been present and practices long period of time and there are many popular sports figures in the country that has been the host for different sports events.
6. Work cited
Britannica. Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia. Britannica Educational Publishing: New York. 2014. Print.
European Commission. Special Eurobarometer 412: Sports and Physical Activity. 2014. Web.11 May 2016. <http://ec.europa.eu/health/nutrition_physical_activity/docs/ebs_412_en.pdf>
Grasso, John. Historical Dictionary of Boxing. Scarecrow Press Inc.: United Kingdom. 2014. Print.
Houlihan. Barrie, Hoye, Russel, Nicholson, Matthew. Participation in Sport: International Policy Perspectives. Routledge: London. 2011. Print.
Key, Annie. Bulgaria. 2008. India: Illustrations Copyright. Print.
Novosti Prinestrovya. Tiraspol Boxer Secures Medal at Strandzha Cup. 2016. Web. 11 May 2016. <http://www.gazettelive.co.uk/sport/boxing/?pageNumber=3>
Olympic Movement. Bulgaria. N. d. Web. 11 May 2016. <http://www.olympic.org/bulgaria>
Olympic Sports. Bulgaria Rhythmic Gymnastics. Web. 11 May 2016 <http://www.sports- reference.com/olympics/countries/BUL/summer/RGY/>
Otfinoski, Steven. Nations in Transition: Bulgaria. Facts On File Inc.: New York. 2004. Print.