Leaving aside the defeat of the Bulgarian women’s ice hockey team by 82-0 which obliterated any dreams of a trip to Vancouver, the performance of this country’s athletes at the Winter Olympics has been less than stellar.

At this writing, the best performer has been speed skater Evgeniya Radanova, and even she has had no chance of getting close to that photo opportunity so clichéd and now also known to be risky, nibbling at a gold medal.

Radanova’s fellow speed skater turned in an abysmal showing, and two other hopefuls, Alexandra Zhekova and Stefan Georgiev, got no further than being injured in training.

The major question, however, is the extent to which this is the fault of any of Bulgaria’s representatives. As with the summer Olympics and other major sports, it appears that little or nothing is done by the state or its agencies to provide serious support for those destined for international competition. The result of this omission tends to be international humiliation.

In the context of a global financial crisis that has hit Bulgaria very hard, it is understandable that serious monetary support for sports training may not be high on the list of official priorities.

But if that is indeed to be the case, there is one more logical step for Bulgaria to take, and that is to send only the very, very best, and to save on the air fare of its proportionately large delegation – officials included – rather than embark on journeys that can only end downhill, in an unfortunate way.