Bulgaria at the 2012 Summer Olympics
| Bulgaria at the 2012 Summer Olympics |
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| IOC code | BUL | ||||||||
| NOC | Bulgarian Olympic Committee | ||||||||
| Website |
www |
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| in London | |||||||||
| Competitors | 63 in 16 sports | ||||||||
| Flag bearer |
Yordan Yovchev (opening) Stanka Zlateva (closing) |
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Medals Ranked 63rd |
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| Summer Olympics appearances (overview) | |||||||||
Bulgaria competed at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, United Kingdom from 27 July to 12 August 2012. It was the nation's nineteenth appearance at the Summer Olympics, having missed the Olympics on three different occasions, including the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles because of the Soviet boycott. Despite this being London's third Olympic Games, this was the first time a Bulgarian team appeared at a London Olympics. The Bulgarian Olympic Committee sent the nation's smallest delegation to the Games, tying the record with Helsinki in 1952, and with Tokyo in 1964. A total of 63 athletes, 36 men and 27 women, competed in 16 sports. Men's volleyball was the only team event in which Bulgaria was representated in these Olympic games. There was only a single competitor in badminton, sprint canoeing, fencing, and judo.
The Bulgarian team featured three Olympic medalists from Beijing in freestyle wrestling: Stanka Zlateva, who won the silver, Radoslav Velikov and Kiril Terziev, who both won the bronze. Among these medalists, only Zlateva managed to repeat her silver medal in London, losing out to Russia's Natalia Vorobieva in the final match. Two Bulgarian athletes, on the other hand, made their sixth Olympic appearance: pistol shooter, two-time gold medalist, and former Olympic record holder Maria Grozdeva, and rings gymnast and multiple-time Olympic medalist Yordan Yovchev, who was also the nation's flag bearer at the opening ceremony.
Bulgaria, however, failed to win the gold medal for the first time since 1952, after achieving poor athletic performance at these Olympic games. Only two medals were awarded to the athletes, including the bronze medal won by heavyweight boxer Tervel Pulev.
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