Bulgaria - A country with boxing traditions and successes

In the distant 1894, the Bulgarian Ministry of Education invited 12 Swiss physical education teachers to the country, who introduced two new disciplines into the curricula - gymnastics and French boxing.

After the First World War, occupation officers brought the first boxing gloves to Bulgaria, and English soldiers made demonstration matches in Sofia.

The spark is lit ... Hundreds of Bulgarian youths, mostly Sofia residents, are beginning to study the "noble art of self-defense".

Bulgaria became a country with authority in world boxing in the second half of the 20th century. Boxer Boris Georgiev becomes the first Bulgarian athlete to win a medal at the Olympics. At the Helsinki Games in 1952, he won a bronze medal in the 75 kg category, in which Olympic champion became 17-year-old American Floyd Patterson. At the 1972 Munich Games, Georgi Kostadinov became the first Bulgarian to become Olympic Boxing Champion. Peter Lesov became Olympic champions in 1980, Ismail Mustafov in 1988 in Seoul and Daniel Petrov in 1996 in Atlanta. At the Olympic Games the Bulgarian boxers won 4 gold medals, 5 silver and 8 bronze Olympic medals.

Bulgaria participated in the first World Amateur Boxing Championships in 1974 in Havana and has been a constant among participants and medalists ever since. In 1982, in Munich the "fly" Ismail Mustafov became the first Bulgarian to become the world amateur boxing champion. Seraphim Todorov, who has won the highest ladder of the World Championships three times, is the record holder.

To date, Bulgaria has won 293 medals from the Olympic Games, World and European Championships, of which 61 gold, 90 silver and 142 bronze medals. One of the big names of World Boxing is the Bulgarian - boxing academician Emil Zhechev, who was the long-time head of the International Amateur Boxing Judges Committee (AIBA) and long-time president of the European Boxing Federation / EABA /. of the AIBA Merit Order.

Bulgaria has twice hosted the European Amateur Boxing Championships - Varna in 1983 and Plovdiv in 2006. And for six decades, the capital Sofia has hosted the Strandja Tournament, considered one of the oldest and most respected boxing tournaments in the world.

Sofia - a city of about 1.2 million people, located at the foot of Vitosha Mountain, is also the boxing capital of Bulgaria. From Sofia are the strongest boxing clubs - CSKA, Slavia, Levski, Lokomotiv, there are also over 50 youth clubs out of a total of 100 youth boxing clubs in the whole country.

"Boxing is an outstretched hand for young people - it gives them a good chance to succeed in life," says Bulgarian Amateur Boxing Federation President Krasimir Ininski, who is soon saying goodbye to his youth.