In separate interviews with The Sofia Echo, two of Bulgaria’s best-known and well-loved women athletes talk about what it took to reach the apex in their sport. Tennis pro Katerina Maleeva and Olympian gold medallist Maria Grozdeva helped to make their country a dominant force in their respective athletic arenas. They tell Teanna  Sunberg how it feels to be at the top of the game and what it took to get there.

Mention the name Maria Grozdeva to most Bulgarians and a glimmer of national pride begins to surface. In the hearts and minds of her fellow citizens, she is one of them – an average girl who made it good. Perhaps she embodies the hopes and dreams of everyone who came of age as change swept through Bulgaria.

Her skill with a pistol has brought Bulgaria worldwide acclaim. She currently holds a world record with the air pistol and several Olympic medals of varying hues decorate her wall of achievements. Billboards in the city and along Bulgarian highways advertising for First Investment Bank carry her image; her face glows and her hair is stylishly coiffed – she appears anything but ordinary. Still, the word on the street regarding this four-time Olympian ranges from “Isn’t she beautiful?” to “She seems to be a down-to-earth person”. The average citizen seems to really enjoy and rejoice over the success of their Bulgarian golden girl.

When asked about her achievements, Grozdeva’s comments are modest but her face lights up. “I am very happy to have won those medals,” she says. “After so many years of work, it is a wonderful feeling to win a medal. I can’t explain the feeling, it is unbelievable, you simply fly; it is a very special feeling.” Perhaps she communicates that quality which the Bulgarians find so endearing in her next comment: “After the Olympics, many people wanted to meet me and asked for my autograph. It is a wonderful feeling to bring joy to other Bulgarians.”

Grozdeva’s sport is shooting. She has broken both world and Olympic records within her sport and has won five Olympic medals, beginning with a bronze from the 1992 Barcelona games. Most recently, she came home from the 2004 games in Athens with a bronze medal in the 10-metre air pistol and a gold medal in the 25-metre pistol competitions. In all, she holds two gold and three bronze medals, no small achievement for this 33-year-old mother of two.

How does a seemingly average Bulgarian girl find the opportunity or the inner strength to become an Olympic competitor? She explains that her father was a teacher, and one of the disciplines that he taught was shooting. He shared with both Grozdeva and her older brother the art of aiming and firing. Grozdeva began training at the age of 11 and when she entered the sixth class, went to a school that specialized in sports. She attended Sofia’s National Sport Academy and at the age of 20, she earned her first Olympic medal. It was a bronze in the 10-metre air pistol competition from Barcelona in 1992.

Grozdeva says that the most important skill for a shooter is not physical stamina, although that is definitely important. Shooting is a psychological competition. The winner will be the person who can control his or her inner emotions and channel that adrenaline into a steady hand. A match spans several grueling hours of eliminatory rounds, which, according to Grozdeva, take their toll emotionally. In the last round, when accuracy counts the most, the emotional discipline of each athlete determines the outcome. She breathes deeply, determines to do her best, takes aim and pulls the trigger.

Physical training is also a factor. During off periods, she trains two hours a day, but leading up to a competition those hours of training increase. Her regime includes jogging, swimming and a lot of breathing exercises.

Interestingly, she says that a swimmer can make a better competitor than a weight lifter. In the end, bulging muscles may even hinder the steadiness of the hand while the sinewy strength in a swimmer’s arm can translate into a steady aim.

Shooting is a unique sport in that she was able to compete while pregnant, even winning an event in the 1998 World Finals when she was six months along. In the interim leading up to both the Sydney and Athens games, she gave birth. It is indeed a unique characteristic of her sport, which allows an individual to maintain both a family and a career as an athlete. Even today, with her eyes set on the 2008 Olympics in Peking, she juggles her personal training sessions with the normal activities of a mom – birthday parties and gymnastics class. In an average year, she will compete in four major competitions.

As she speaks about the inner drive that motivated her to become a superior athlete, her words echo those of Katerina Maleeva, Bulgarian tennis star. Both of the women began their athletic careers at the end of the communist years and they point to athletic achievement as one of the major avenues for crossing the borders of Eastern Bloc countries. Athletes were some of the few who were rewarded with the opportunity to travel.

In a society where everyone, regardless of career or intellectual achievement, lived an equal life, athletic skill offered an avenue for better opportunities. That hunger for something different, something better, fed the will to win and it created a generation of Eastern European youth who excelled and dominated in a variety of athletic arenas.
That philosophical perspective on the making of an athlete influences Grozdeva’s predictions for future competitors in shooting. According to her, China and Russia are the countries to watch. There is still some young talent in Bulgaria, but bigger and richer countries have siphoned off much of the training strategies that once made Bulgaria a dominant force in this event. The bigger countries have more money to invest in their young talent and over time, it has diminished the once-robust pool of athletic talent that existed in Bulgaria.

An additional factor is the vast opportunities younger Bulgarians now enjoy. While athletics were once the clearest avenue to a better life, today a solid education opens those doors of opportunity to travel, to invitations to the West and to a higher standard of living. It is a gamble to place all of your hopes on becoming an accomplished athlete. Education is a much more stable bet.

With Bulgaria’s upcoming entrance into the European Union, a subject on every citizen’s mind, Grozdeva’s opinion reflects her optimistic perspective on life in general. She admits that the first few years will be difficult, especially for the older generations, the pensioners. In spite of these difficult first years, she believes that the result will be a better tomorrow for Bulgaria’s children. Their future holds promise because of the sacrifices that an older generation will make today.

It is a unique experience to watch an Olympic gold medallist engage in the very normal activity of shuttling her two active children to gymnastics class as she waves goodbye and pets a neighbourhood dog. It seems that she has learnt the art of keeping worldwide fame and Olympic achievement in perspective. Perhaps the psychological and emotional strength that has brought five Olympic medals also steadies her course for the average activities of a down-to-earth life.

Though she communicates a sense of happiness when speaking about both subjects, the glow that lights up her face as she flips through photos of her children surpasses the glow when she speaks of her medals. Even with the 2008 Olympics in her sights, Bulgaria’s golden girl, Maria Grozdeva, maintains a steady focus on her future and on her family.