site.btaBulgarian Athletes Arrive in Italy to Compete in 2026 Winter Olympics

A team of 20 Bulgarian athletes will compete in Italy at the 25th Winter Olympic Games from February 6 to 22, and expectations though measured are rather optimistic. Bulgaria will not be relying on numbers but on individual talents who have shown that they are capable of competing with the world's elite in their disciplines, which can end the 20-year national wait for an Olympic medal.

Biathlete Vladimir Iliev has already secured his spot in the golden pages of Bulgarian sports history, as this will be his fifth appearance in Winter Olympics. This achievement puts him on a par with short-track speed skating legend Evgenia Radanova, the woman who won half of Bulgaria's six Olympic medals – a silver and a bronze from the 2002 Games in Salt Lake City, and another silver from the 2006 Games in Turin. Thirty-eight-year old Iliev, who won silver from the 20km individual at the 2019 Biathlon World Championships in Ostersund, Sweden, will be Bulgaria's flag bearer at the opening ceremony in Cortina on February 6, while figure skater Alexandra Feigin will be flag bearer during the main ceremony in Milan's San Siro Stadium.

Bulgaria's participation in the Winter Games began nine decades ago, in 1936, in Garmisch-Partenkirchen. The delegation included athletes in alpine skiing, cross-country skiing, and Nordic combined. The first notable Bulgarian result was the sixth place in the triple combination achieved by alpine skier Georgi Dimitrov in the 1956 Winter Olympics in Cortina d'Ampezzo, after he finished 13th in the slalom, 18th in the downhill, and 34th in the giant slalom.

Bulgaria's first Olympic medal came in 1980 with Ivan Lebanov's bronze in the 30 km cross-country skiing event, and the country's only Olympic gold was won by biathlete Ekaterina Dafovska in Nagano in 1998 in the 15 km individual event.

The 2002 Games in Salt Lake City proved to be the most successful for Bulgaria in terms of number of medals, as Irina Nikulchina also won a bronze from the 10 km pursuit event.

Torino 2006 was the last time that Bulgaria won a medal from Winter Olympics. Several athletes finished in the top 10, with alpine ski racer Albert Popov being the last of them, as he finished 9th in the slalom event held at the Yanqing National Alpine Ski Centre in Yanqing District, China, in 2022.

Bulgarian athletes arrived in Italy hoping to break into the top 10, with the highest hopes coming from alpine skiing, snowboarding, biathlon, and ski jumping.

Twenty-year-old snowboarder Tervel Zamfirov will make his Winter Games debut as the reigning world champion in parallel slalom and winner of the World Cup parallel giant slalom in Bansko in mid-January, just three weeks before Milano Cortina 2026. His form puts him among the favourites.

Zamfirov is joined by the experienced 36-year-old Radoslav Yankov, a name that has kept Bulgaria in the elite of alpine snowboarding for more than a decade. With four wins and 13 top three finishes in the World Cup, Yankov is also capable of fighting for a podium place in his fourth Olympic appearance. He already won a bronze medal at the 2026 Snowboard World Cup in Bansko.

A new star is rising in the parallel disciplines of snowboarding - 16-year-old Malena Zamfirova, who is already competing with the world's best, having recorded second and third place in the Women's World Cup starts.

In alpine skiing, the main focus is on 28-year-old Albert Popov. The Italian slopes suit him well, as evident from his victory in the World Cup slalom in Cortina D'Ampezzo in January 2025.

In biathlon, Bulgaria will be represented by full teams of four men and four women. All eyes will be on 28-year-old Milena Todorova, the leader of the women's national team, who enjoyed the strongest season of her career in the World Cup, finishing third in the sprint in Oberhof, Germany, in January 2025 and second in the mass start in Pokljuka, Slovenia, in March.

In ski jumping, 32-year-old Vladimir Zografski is in the best shape of his career ahead of his fourth Winter Olympics. He achieved a historic fourth place for Bulgaria in a World Cup competition in Ruka, Finland, in November. In December, he ranked sixth in Wisla, Poland. He achieved a national best 14th place in the final ranking of the prestigious Four Hills Tournament. Just days before the start of the Games, he achieved a new top 10 ranking for the World Cup with eighth place in Willingen, Germany.

Bulgarian athletes are in the final phase of preparation for their starts at the Games in Italy, where they are coming without grandiose promises, but with well-measured expectations. In the face of strong competition, any top 10 finish will be a success, and any medal would be a real triumph.