Historic win for Bulgaria: Snowboarder Tervel Zamfirov takes Olympic bronze

Bulgarian snowboarder Tervel Zamfirov claimed the bronze medal in the men’s parallel giant slalom at the Milan–Cortina Olympic Games. This is Bulgaria’s first Winter Olympics medal since 2006.

• Bulgarian snowboarders train in Livigno ahead of Winter Olympics

• Bulgaria sends its strongest team in recent decades to the Winter Olympics

• Bulgarian hopes in alpine snowboarding at the Olympics in Italy

Tervel Zamfirov chose the red course against the Olympic silver medalist from Beijing 2022, Tim Mastnak of Slovenia. The Bulgarian started aggressively and led by 0.3 seconds at the first checkpoint. In the end, however, the race was decided by a photo finish. With this achievement, Zamfirov became one of only five athletes from Bulgaria to earn medals from Winter Olympic Games.

February 8 brought exceptional emotions for all Bulgarians – three Bulgarian snowboarders reached the main stage of the competition in the parallel giant slalom.
Malena Zamfirova qualified for the round of 16, and just 2 hundredths of a second kept her from entering the Top 8 in her Olympic debut at only 16 years old.

The team veteran, Radoslav Yankov, completed the course without errors but lost to Arnaud Gaudet and was eliminated in the round of 16 in the parallel giant slalom. Just 11 hundredths of a second separated the Bulgarian snowboarder from a spot in the quarterfinals.

Bulgaria’s fourth athlete, Alexander Krashniak, didn’t make it past the qualifying round in his Olympic debut. The Bulgarian alpine snowboarder told public service broadcaster BNT that he is leaving the Milan–Cortina Olympics full of positive energy and important lessons!

Tervel Zamfirov’s achievement brought Bulgaria its seventh medal at the Winter Olympic Games. Bulgaria now has 1 gold, 2 silver and 4 bronze medals, reported BTA.

Edited by Elena Karkalanova

Translated by Kostadin Atanasov