Rowing in Bulgaria: 2012 and beyond

To prepare the national team, a selection regatta is held in autumn from which is formed a large pool of rowers who all have a high chance of making it into the final team. After several training camps throughout the winter, which include on and off the water testing, the athletes are selected at the end of April to compete in the World Rowing Cups and the World Rowing Championships.

Qualification for the 2012 London Olympics is the aim for Bulgarian rowers at present and all sights are set on the final qualification regatta in Lucerne next May.  Perhaps their best chance comes in the form of single sculler Georgi Bozhilov who just missed out on qualification in Bled at the 2011 World Rowing Championships. Bozhilov is a silver medallist from the World Rowing Under 23 Championships. The lightweight men’s double sculls and the women’s pair are also in with a good chance of qualification.

However, rowing doesn’t stop after London 2012. The Bulgarian Rowing Federation are developing a programme which will give Bulgarian rowers the best chance of medal success in Rio de Janeiro, the host city of the 2016 Olympic Games. Some athletes have already been targeted for this but the federation knows it will be a challenge to keep them in rowing; these rowers are not full-time paid athletes and could be tempted to go elsewhere. Some former Bulgarians are now rowing for other countries, moving to America for example for the prospect of a career and university education, a problem not uncommon in other sports, as well as in Bulgarian society as a whole.

Despite struggles the team may have, there is hope. Rowing is one of the most popular sports in Bulgaria and the European Rowing Championships will be shown on live television each day, something that does not happen in many other sports in the country.  

The Bulgarian Rowing Federation is governed by a general assembly and the representatives of the 18 clubs elect 11 members to the Board, one of them being the President; currently FISA's events director Svetla Otzetova. 

The technical director of the federation is Rumyana Neykova, the 2008 Olympic Champion in the single scull and wife of the Bulgarian Minister of Sport, Svilen Neykov, Rumyana’s former coach. She is assisted by two coaches and a medical team. The funding of the federation comes predominantly from the government and from their sponsor, the United Bulgarian Bank.