Everyone who thought Bulgaria would do this badly at the Olympics, please raise your hands. Given how criminally underfunded sport is in Bulgaria, one could argue that it is a miracle that its athletes won any medals, but five overall and one gold is, at best, half of what was expected.

Statistically, it is Bulgaria's worst medal haul in almost half a century, but as the older generation that still caught the tail end of the communist regime and the state's strong funding of sport retires, it is not entirely unthinkable that four years down the line in London the outcome could be even worse.

After all, most of Bulgaria's hopes for medals were tied to established competitors with impressive silverware collections, who, it was hoped, would find enough strength in the twilight of their careers for one last hurray that would mask the dreadful state of Bulgarian professional sport and allow the Government to take credit for something that, by right, they had no hand in. Alas, those hopes have been dashed, with only Roumyana Neykova finally grabbing an Olympic gold medal that her career richly deserved.

In the absence of the weightlifting team, disqualified for doping a month before the Beijing games began, the other sport that Bulgaria is famous for, wrestling, provided the rest of the medals - a silver and three bronzes. I guess some traditions do not disappear overnight, but even there Bulgaria has been slipping behind countries that hardly have the same historic track record - even Canada got a gold!

In the wake of Bulgaria's disappointing performance, a lot of voices on Bulgarian forums have bashed the athletes and their results. In some way, criticism of under-performing is understandable as, after all, it fits in just right with the competition that is the essence of sports. Whoever still believes that sport is about participating and not winning, please get in touch with me, I have a cartload of magic beans I'd like to sell to you (as an aside, Mr Rogge, Usain Bolt was right to celebrate his world record the way he did).

What is wrong, however, is having lofty expectations that are not backed by sufficient evidence. While it would be too much to expect the Government to spend as lavishly on sport as the Communist state did (35 medals, including 10 gold in 1988 in Seoul), given how many other pressing needs this country has, total neglect is hardly the way forward either, if one wants to win anything.

To state the blindingly obvious, success in sport costs money and a lot of it. At a time when Bulgarians desperately need something, anything, to cheer about, sport is definitely one of the few things that could have provided that source of positive emotions and thus worth investing in. Instead, it is other podiums that Bulgarians will have to contend themselves with - corruption, inflation and lowest wages.