site.btaVesela Lecheva Holds Working Meeting with Winter Olympic Games Milano Cortina 2026 Organizers

President of the Bulgarian Olympic Committee (BOC) Vesela Lecheva, the member of the Executive Bureau Volodya Zlatev and the Secretary General Danail Dimov held an online meeting with a representative of the Organizing Committee for the Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026. The next steps regarding the accreditation and accommodation of the Bulgarian delegation, specific deadlines and requirements were identified. So far, 20 Bulgarian winter sports athletes have quotas for participation.

“Our competitors in skiing, snowboarding and biathlon did quite well last season, so these Winter Games will be very important for them and for Bulgarian sport as a whole,” Lecheva said.

Olympic shooting medallist Vesela Lecheva was elected Bulgarian Olympic Committee President after a secret ballot at the General Assembly of the organization on March 19, defeating world high jump legend Stefka Kostadinova by 48:33 votes. Lecheva's leadership is now being challenged in court by sports officials loyal to her predecessor, Kostadinova. 

Last week, the BOC received a letter from the International Olympic Committee, which gave clear instructions on the next steps. To date, international institutions accept all documents concerning the international activities of the Bulgarian Olympic Committee only if they are signed by Vesela Lecheva. The accreditation of the Bulgarian delegation for the European Youth Olympic Festival in Skopje is coming to an end, and the next big event is the Winter Olympic Games in Milano Cortina.

At this stage the BOC staff are assisting the handling of documents for international competitions only after Lecheva’s approval. Access to the nocbulgaria@bgolympic.bg email, to other channels of information, and to the BOC office on 4 Angel Kanchev Street has not yet been granted to Lecheva, which makes the work of the new Executive Bureau difficult.

A letter sent on June 18, 2025, by the IOC said that "immediate action must now be taken to make sure in particular that you and the newly elected BOC leadership can access the BOC official email account nocbulgaria@bgolympic.org, the BOC headquarters and the BOC bank account on which payments from the Olympic Movement (and particularly from the IOC/Olympic Solidarity) have been received." "We reiterate that no power can be exercised by, or on behalf of, the BOC within the Olympic Movement, and no funding from the Olympic Movement can be used by the BOC, unless it is expressly approved and signed by you/the newly elected leadership."