Bulgaria is not exactly enjoying a great reputation when it comes to the Olympic Games and doping scandals. Unfortunately, many doping stories attest to this. Type in “Bulgaria” and “doping” in the same line on wikipedia and the names of many Bulgarian athletes, half of them weightlifters, will appear. 

With all this negative publicity it was extremely bizarre that all 11 members of the Bulgarian national weightlifting team gave positive doping tests, seemingly caught red-handed by doping cops.

The news broke on June 27 after the results of samples taken on June 8-9 were announced. Judging by the lack of proper reaction from the Bulgarian Weightlifting Federation, it was obvious that no one had anticipated such an outcome.

Never in Bulgaria’s sporting history have so many athletes who train together been tested positive for illegal substances. And, as in previous cases, all that federation officials could come up with was a conspiracy theory. Bulgarian Weightlifting Federation (BWF) president, Anton Kodjabashev, a former weightlifter himself, said that it made no sense that all 11 athletes could test positive for illegal substances.

In a statement sent to the media he said “traces of the substance for which the athletes were tested positive can be discovered for a minimum six month period after the drug is taken. That’s why it makes no sense for the athletes to take it 60 days before the Olympics, especially when they know that they are tested for doping every month”.

Kodjabashev talked about the sabotage of Bulgaria’s hopes for Olympic medals. “In light of the Olympics, our hopes are shattered and all our athletes’ efforts are meaningless. The tears that athletes usually shed on the Olympic podium, under the national flag, have now been replaced by tears of helplessness.”    

A similar reaction came from the Bulgarian Olympic Committee (BOC) who asked for coaches to be tested as well, implying that test results might have been linked to an outbreak of food poisoning. The other possible explanation was simple incompetence. 

After the shock wore off, however, BOC altered its position. On June 30 BOC president Stefka Kostadinova (no relation) said that the team would not be part of the country’s delegation to the Olympics this summer. The statement ended all hopes for the 11 weightlifters.

Furthermore, Kostadinova’s statement meant that Bulgaria was not sending a second team of weightlifters to the games. Such an idea had been circling in the Bulgarian media for a few days even though everybody knew that there was no B team to successfully replace the “guilty” weightlifters. At first, Kostadinova had supported the idea of a second team.

On June 30, however, BOC received a letter from the International Weightlifting Federation’s (IWF) Hungarian president, Tamas Ajan, saying that the athletes’ second test results would be announced during July. The letter, according to BOC, said nothing else on the issue but several hours later Kostadinova said that Bulgarian weightlifting would have no representation whatsoever at the Olympics for the first time in the country’s history.

The entire content of the letter is a subject of speculation but Bulgaria’s past history with Ajan may provide some answers. Bulgarian fans still remember the world weightlifting championship in Canada in 2003. Bulgaria had great hopes for gold medals with all of her top athletes taking part in the event. Days before the start of the tournament Ajan personally banned Bulgaria’s golden boys – Galabin Boevski, Georgi Markov and Zlatan Vanev – from participation. Ajan rationalised his decision by saying that he felt that results of doping tests on the three athletes, taken a few days before the event, had been “manipulated”. Bulgaria reacted angrily to the decision. Domestic media organised a campaign against Ajan. Despite the best efforts of media and sport officials, the three weightlifters were banned from the tournament. When tests proved negative after the tournament, Ajan was quickly declared Bulgaria’s number one enemy. 

In the end seven athletes tested positive at the tournament, none of whom were Bulgarian. The whole case was never forgotten in Bulgaria. It was even mooted that  Bulgaria would file a court case against Ajan. With Milen Dobrev’s sensational success in the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, however, such talk was quickly forgotten.
However, speculation that Bulgaria was a victim of double standards regarding its 11 weightlifters was reignited when 11 Greek weightlifters were also tested positive for doping earlier this year. They received a two-year ban, yet the country was allowed to send replacements to Beijing. Greece, however, does not have Bulgaria’s negative record and certainly does not have the same relationship with Ajan who still heads the IWF. Judging from Bulgaria’s previous experience with Ajan, it seems that Kostadinova simply chose not to take any risks and so decided to ban the athletes. This also means that Bulgaria could hardly hope to get a gold medal at the games. The big losers in this case are the athletes themselves. For some the ban will mean the end of their careers, just as the Canadian case was the end for Boevski.