One can hardly say that the Olympic Games in Salt Lake City saw a flying start by Bulgarians.
Far from being a leading force in winter sports, the Bulgarian delegation was among the first to settle in the Olympic village in Salt Lake City, almost two weeks before the official opening on February 8.
The early arrival on US turf was necessary for acclimatisation.
On arrival, the Bulgarian delegation found that most facilities were still out of use. For this reason, short track speed skating team had to fly to Colorado. Top Bulgarian figure skater Ivan Dinev had to leave for Los Angeles.
Unfortunately, there he sprained his left ankle while attempting a quadruple loop.
Bobsledders had to reduce their trainings to off-the-track exercises, primarily fitness. Unexpected problems befell ski-jumper Georgi Zharkov, whose luggage was lost en route to the Olympic capital.
And an overly conscientious customs officer damaged the outfit of the lady from the figure skating dance pair Albena Denkova, who had to search for an emergency solution.
All this started before the opening of the Games, but this was only the beginning of the bad spell. In the first start of Olympic Games 2002, Zharkov, together with other competitors, failed to set off at the prescribed time because bad weather and strong wind forced organisers to postpone the competition on the 90km track. On the next day (February 9), the competition took place and Zharkov delivered a performance that was widely predicted. He finished 57th out of 60 participants. Having in mind that Bulgaria has no standardised ski-jumping track and that the Bulgarian veteran’s trainings are reduced to trainings abroad, he showed a decent performance.
Immediately after Zharkov, another Bulgarian, Slavcho Batinkov, set off on the 30km distance, the opening event of the ski-running programme. Experts predicted a good performance, since the 29-year Bulgarian had been training in the US and he should not have faced acclimatisation problems. Nonetheless, immediately before the start, the trainers’ team announced that Batinkov would miss the competition, because he had angina.
The same team precluded from participation the other Bulgarian representative, 19-year Ivan Bariakov, on the grounds that he would hardly endure the excessive overload. In any case, the strong disciplines of the two Bulgarian ski runners are on 10 and 15km, where they have much better chances for success.
On the 15km start, Bariakov has been given a starting number 2, while Slavcho Batinkov will set off 20th. According to experts, this should give an advantage to Batinkov, who will run on a harder and quicker track and will be aware of the movement of his main contenders.
Similar problems were experienced by the Olympic Champion from Nagano 1998 Ekaterina Dafovska, who started 48th in the individual 15km run for women. All other favourites for the medals were to get going after her. The five-time World Cup Winner and World Champion Magdalena Forsberg started 65th, the triple World Champion Olena Zubrilova from Ukraine left 59th and the big favourite Liv-Grete Poiree from Norway – 56th. Only the bronze medalist from Nagano Uschi Disl from Germany had an earlier number than Dafovska, who started 39th. Still, specialists reminded that Dafovska had won the gold on the 15km in Nagano, after starting 18th.
This time, though she made only one mistake on the shooting, Dafovska remained fifth at about 50 seconds from the winner Andreal Henkel from Germany, who is a former junior champion. Henkel had an earlier starting number from all favourites, 26th, however this did not preclude her from achieving an outstanding result. Silver medal was won by Poiree from Norway, while the bronze went to Forsberg from Sweden. Fourth was the world champion from the relay Olga Pyleva from Russia. The other three Bulgarians Pavlina Filipova, Iva Karagiozova and Irina Nikulchina finished respectively 20th, 32nd and 43rd.
“The fifth spot was the maximum my current form allows,” said Dafovska after the competition. “During the competition, I kept telling myself that I have to give all that I could to achieve maximum concentration. A quiver on the second shooting led to a mistake, which, though small, reflected on the final result. But that is sports and I am not sorry for anything. The fifth spot in Salt Lake City is my best performance for the season and I managed to do it at the Olympic Games,” Dafovska said.
After the biathlon came the figure skaters’ turn. The Bulgarian’s hope Dinev got a starting number 21 in the short programme that took place in the middle of the week. Dinev is in one group with the season’s leader Evgeni Pluschenko from Russia. The bad news is that in the jury there is no Bulgarian, because the president of the Bulgarian Skating Federation Evgenia Karnolska will judge the dance pair tournament, where Bulgarians Albena Denkova and Maxim Stavijski will participate.
The tournament of the dance pairs will start with the two original dances tomorrow. It is worth noticing that judges from Russia, Ukraine, Azerbadjan, Bulgaria and Germany wrap up the judge team, while there are no representatives from Canada, France and the U.S., who are major forces in the discipline.
Bulgaria has the greatest hopes for the performance of the short-track prima Evgenia Radanova, who appeared on ice along wih figure skaters. The chairman of the Bulgarian Olympic Committee and leader of the Bulgarian delegation for the Olympic Games Ivan Slavkov said on Tuesday that he expects a medal from short track competitions, though the performance of the Asian women is impressive.
“I am worried by the fact that the track in Salt Lake City was not ready on time and our competitors had to train in Colorado. This frustrated their preparation, but I believe in Evgenia Radanova,” Slavkov said.
Bulgarians fully share this hope.
Far from being a leading force in winter sports, the Bulgarian delegation was among the first to settle in the Olympic village in Salt Lake City, almost two weeks before the official opening on February 8.
The early arrival on US turf was necessary for acclimatisation.
On arrival, the Bulgarian delegation found that most facilities were still out of use. For this reason, short track speed skating team had to fly to Colorado. Top Bulgarian figure skater Ivan Dinev had to leave for Los Angeles.
Unfortunately, there he sprained his left ankle while attempting a quadruple loop.
Bobsledders had to reduce their trainings to off-the-track exercises, primarily fitness. Unexpected problems befell ski-jumper Georgi Zharkov, whose luggage was lost en route to the Olympic capital.
And an overly conscientious customs officer damaged the outfit of the lady from the figure skating dance pair Albena Denkova, who had to search for an emergency solution.
All this started before the opening of the Games, but this was only the beginning of the bad spell. In the first start of Olympic Games 2002, Zharkov, together with other competitors, failed to set off at the prescribed time because bad weather and strong wind forced organisers to postpone the competition on the 90km track. On the next day (February 9), the competition took place and Zharkov delivered a performance that was widely predicted. He finished 57th out of 60 participants. Having in mind that Bulgaria has no standardised ski-jumping track and that the Bulgarian veteran’s trainings are reduced to trainings abroad, he showed a decent performance.
Immediately after Zharkov, another Bulgarian, Slavcho Batinkov, set off on the 30km distance, the opening event of the ski-running programme. Experts predicted a good performance, since the 29-year Bulgarian had been training in the US and he should not have faced acclimatisation problems. Nonetheless, immediately before the start, the trainers’ team announced that Batinkov would miss the competition, because he had angina.
The same team precluded from participation the other Bulgarian representative, 19-year Ivan Bariakov, on the grounds that he would hardly endure the excessive overload. In any case, the strong disciplines of the two Bulgarian ski runners are on 10 and 15km, where they have much better chances for success.
On the 15km start, Bariakov has been given a starting number 2, while Slavcho Batinkov will set off 20th. According to experts, this should give an advantage to Batinkov, who will run on a harder and quicker track and will be aware of the movement of his main contenders.
Similar problems were experienced by the Olympic Champion from Nagano 1998 Ekaterina Dafovska, who started 48th in the individual 15km run for women. All other favourites for the medals were to get going after her. The five-time World Cup Winner and World Champion Magdalena Forsberg started 65th, the triple World Champion Olena Zubrilova from Ukraine left 59th and the big favourite Liv-Grete Poiree from Norway – 56th. Only the bronze medalist from Nagano Uschi Disl from Germany had an earlier number than Dafovska, who started 39th. Still, specialists reminded that Dafovska had won the gold on the 15km in Nagano, after starting 18th.
This time, though she made only one mistake on the shooting, Dafovska remained fifth at about 50 seconds from the winner Andreal Henkel from Germany, who is a former junior champion. Henkel had an earlier starting number from all favourites, 26th, however this did not preclude her from achieving an outstanding result. Silver medal was won by Poiree from Norway, while the bronze went to Forsberg from Sweden. Fourth was the world champion from the relay Olga Pyleva from Russia. The other three Bulgarians Pavlina Filipova, Iva Karagiozova and Irina Nikulchina finished respectively 20th, 32nd and 43rd.
“The fifth spot was the maximum my current form allows,” said Dafovska after the competition. “During the competition, I kept telling myself that I have to give all that I could to achieve maximum concentration. A quiver on the second shooting led to a mistake, which, though small, reflected on the final result. But that is sports and I am not sorry for anything. The fifth spot in Salt Lake City is my best performance for the season and I managed to do it at the Olympic Games,” Dafovska said.
After the biathlon came the figure skaters’ turn. The Bulgarian’s hope Dinev got a starting number 21 in the short programme that took place in the middle of the week. Dinev is in one group with the season’s leader Evgeni Pluschenko from Russia. The bad news is that in the jury there is no Bulgarian, because the president of the Bulgarian Skating Federation Evgenia Karnolska will judge the dance pair tournament, where Bulgarians Albena Denkova and Maxim Stavijski will participate.
The tournament of the dance pairs will start with the two original dances tomorrow. It is worth noticing that judges from Russia, Ukraine, Azerbadjan, Bulgaria and Germany wrap up the judge team, while there are no representatives from Canada, France and the U.S., who are major forces in the discipline.
Bulgaria has the greatest hopes for the performance of the short-track prima Evgenia Radanova, who appeared on ice along wih figure skaters. The chairman of the Bulgarian Olympic Committee and leader of the Bulgarian delegation for the Olympic Games Ivan Slavkov said on Tuesday that he expects a medal from short track competitions, though the performance of the Asian women is impressive.
“I am worried by the fact that the track in Salt Lake City was not ready on time and our competitors had to train in Colorado. This frustrated their preparation, but I believe in Evgenia Radanova,” Slavkov said.
Bulgarians fully share this hope.
