Finally! Two Bulgarians in Top 8 and Ready for Medals

They train side by side and are great friends. They show unique moves with every apparatus. They use bold, exciting music. They are a joy to watch. Bulgaria hasn't shown two gymnasts of such high caliber since the 1990s. But Neviana and Katrin are not hear to defend the old glory of Bulgarian gymnastics. They are here to write history.

Russia and Belarus are the only two countries in recent years who have had more than one gymnast in the top, consistently. Other countries attempted but never quite accomplished this.

For Ukraine, while Maksimenko and Rizatdinova were both equally promising, Maksimenko's career was rather short-lived. Following Maksimenko's retirement, Victoria Mazur has been struggling to prove that she can earn the same scores as her illustrious teammate Rizatdinova. Prior to Rizatdinova's rise to number one, Anna Bessonova was the only medal-winning Ukrainian for awhile.

Israel has also had fantastic gymnasts in recent years and was especially strong during the times when Risenzon and Rivkin competed together. However, after Risenzon retired, various controversies and scandals prevented Filanovsky and Rivkin from consistently placing at the top spots and Rivkin ended going to the Olympics by herself. Now, with the rise of Linoy Ashram, who is the best Israeli gymnast, in my opinion, Israel may also break new ground by having two equally promising gymnasts in finals.

For Belarus, Cherkashina and Staniouta and then, Staniouta and Halkina had many strong and exciting competitions together where they both were up for the medals.

Russia, on the other hand, has regularly had two gymnasts on the podium together at big events such as Grand Prix competitions, World Cup tournaments, European and World Championships.

As for Bulgaria, for many years, only one gymnast showed world-class results. For a long time that gymnast was Simona Peycheva. Elizabeth Paisieva, who fully deserved to be right next to Simona, had unfortunate issues with coaching changes and very harmful federation politics,  so did not quite rise to Simona's level. Then, Silvia Miteva earned spots in finals as well as some medals from big events. But a second gymnast of the her caliber was never present.

Finally, in 2017, both Katrin Taseva and Neviana Vladinova are earning scores in the upper 18s. I really would like to see them reach for medals and stand next to one another in many prestigious events. They are very different in style, but each has amazing qualities as well as the ambition and resilience needed for great achievements.

Tsvetelina Stoyanova's MRI Results Bring Hope, Bulgarian Team Continues Strong

The Bulgarian media has announced that Tsvetelina Stoyanova's MRI has shown no serious spinal cord injury, which makes everyone hopeful for her future recovery. Various individuals who may or may not be familiar with Tsveti's situation, such as former individual gymnast Nastia Kisse and former group gymnast Maia Paunovska, have continued to blame the Bulgarian Federation for Tsveti's tragedy. The Bulgarian group members have all made statements saying that they always supported Tsveti and treated her like a sister and that the same applies for everyone on the team including the coaches. Hristiana Todorova and team captain Mihaela Maevska have expressed disappointment that some people have claimed the team should not compete in Holon. They asserted the position that they continue to do their work and work towards their Olympic dream while always thinking of Tsveti and dedicating their efforts to her.

In all of this turmoil, Bulgarian individual gymnasts, Neviana Vladinova and Katrin Taseva were unfortunately placed in the first group of the competition where the scoring started with a lower base. Vladinova did 4 very strong routines, but only received over 18 for her hoop.  Neviana has the pressure and responsibility to show that she is an amazing leader of the Bulgarian team and an example of other individual gymnasts. By placing in the top 10 at this European Championship, she has fulfilled that promise 100%. I think her resilience and courage can inspire the wonderful junior gymnasts Bulgaria has brought to this event such as Ioana Nikolova who has made the finals among juniors. 

I would specifically like to point out how strong and focused coach Branimira Markova has been in both working with Nevi and also encouraging her and supporting her even as routines were not performed cleanly. We have all seen tremendous growth in Nevi and it is only a matter of time before she truly masters additional difficulty to improve the quality of her routines. But it is also important that she step out as a very confident performer and the coaches are instrumental in building and nurturing this confidence. Branimira and Nevi show they have a beautiful bond and a fantastic coaching relationship.

Further to the joy of fans, Katrin Taseva made a very successful European debut with very, very strong ball routine, and finally  a cleanly performed ribbon! I truly believe that Katrin Taseva deserves to cross the 18.000 mark with the difficulty and risk in her routines and that it is just a matter of time and some additional confidence building before that happens.

For Katrin in particular, this was a first time at such a big event and she needed to have her teammates and coaches support her in a calm and focused manner. It is impossible for this kind of support to occur when media and even previous competitors such as Kisse have chosen to point fingers at people instead of being sympathetic to the entire team in this difficult situation. For this reason, the fact that Katrin looked stronger and stronger with each routine just points to the brilliant future ahead of her. I only wish Katrin had become part of the team earlier. 

Overall, I am deeply satisfied that Bulgaria is finally represented not by only one but two gymnasts who choose to reach out for new heights in their work by showing original elements, being expressive, staying focused and challenged and also being there for each other as teammates and friends. 

I believe that fans around the world need to hear that girls in the Bulgarian team are inspired and inspiring, that they love what they do and look forward to competing. It is both sad and unfair that some individuals have chosen to place the blame for Tsveti's situation on coaches and on gymnastics in general. As we observe both the group and the individual gymnasts on the Bulgarian team, we can see they are hard-working, spirited and compassionate people who constantly demonstrate both strength and caring for one another.  I wish them the best of luck before the Olympics.

Great Work, Katrin Taseva!

Finally, Katrin performed this intricate, risky routine cleanly much to the delight of her coaches and fans. Although Katrin has mostly been receiving compliments or her playful clubs routine and the wonderful ball routine, both of which placed her among the top 8 this year, I have always thought this routine has a lot of potential.

My hope is that, in the future, clear routines from Katrin will receive scores upwards of 18 points. This will be well-deserved and worth celebrating for the Bulgarian team, which has shown continued progress this season.

The only reason Katrin has not gotten higher scores is because she is not "established" with the judges yet but if she keeps performing like this, she will build up a very strong reputation.

Bulgaria's New Star

Katrin Taseva is looking more confident with every competition and has recently received high scores both in Bulgaria and at international event. I previously really liked Katrin's ball and clubs routines, but she has shown great progress in all four events so I would like to share her ribbon routine with the fans.




I really like that Katrin has both very clean lines and flexibility.Each movement she makes flows into the next one. In the future, we will see even more amplitude and expression in her routines so I really hope we get to see her at many world-class tournaments..

Katrin Is Ready to Show Playful, Glamorous Style

I have been following Katrin Taseva for a couple of years. I think the Bulgarian Federation made a mistake by not including he in the national team earlier and by not sending her to move international competitions last year.

Katrin is very flexible, has made a lot of progress with both her pirouettes and leaps, and, this year, she also has a lot more originality. Some of the risks with clubs you can see in this routine, despite the minor mistakes, are very different from the what most other gymnasts show on the carpet. Also, she is expressive, playful, and just fun to watch.

I am excited that this season she is showing off new and routines with very new and beautiful leotards that bring out her personality and style. I think she can be a real gymnastics diva, who can do perform to some very fun and fast music, and also really engage the audience, while not losing her focus on the difficulties that she is showing. I think these sparkly but elegant leotards will look even more beautiful with medals!


From the competition in Espoo, Finland, I like her clubs performance best, even though it was not the highest scored. This is very clearly a routine that has the potential to be remembered when Katrin becomes more confident.

This year at the Espoo International Tournament, Katrin got scores mostly around 16.8- 17.0. I think if the judges had seen her more last year, she would consistently receive over 17 even with some minor errors, just because at this point in there development she has enough difficulty to earn that. She usually appears very confident and I am pretty sure the mistakes will go away with time, too. At this stage, I definitely think Katrin has made more progress than Sara Staykova, who is the other candidate for the number 2 spot on the Bulgarian team. Sara had the chance to compete at a lot of events last year, and although she is very beautiful to watch, some of the inconsistencies in performance that we saw last year appear not to have changed at all.

I wish the Bulgarian Federation would consider investing some more time and effort in Katrin's international presence so that the judges will not perceive her as a brand new gymnast or as a "reserve" on the team, but rather as a competitor who can claim spots in the finals in the not so distant future. I have really enjoy how Katrin handles the clubs with her feet at the ending of this routine and I can't wait to see her perform it even better.

Happy Birthday to Branimira Markova!

Branimira Markova is the world team champion from Alicante '93 where she also placed 4th with rope and 8th with ribbon:



Right now she is coaching Katrin Taseva and Nevyana Vladinova, two of my favorite Bulgarian gymnasts.

I wish Branimira lots of health, patience, inspiration and luck with everything!