104 days remaining until the first day of Sochi 2014. Up next on the countdown: Bulgaria.
Bulgaria debuted in the winter Olympics at Garnisch Partenkirchen in 1936. Bulgarians in the winter games have achieved the goal of earning six medals, including a gold medal.
Ekaterina Dafovska (pictured) won Bulgaria's only gold medal in the winter games, when she won the women's 15k biathlon race at Nagano 1998.
Bulgaria will send six biathletes (and six biathletes only) for Sochi; five men and one women. That is all for Bulgaria at Sochi.
Malmo 2013 '39 For 39' continues as I preview Stoyan Yankoulov and Elitsa Stodorova's "Kismet" "Samo Shampioni."
"Samo shampioni" translates from Bulgarian language to English as "only champions." Yankoulov and Stodorova, for the second time together, will represent Bulgaria in EUROVISION at Malmo 2013.
In 2007, the duo made the final, finishing 6th overall with "Voda." The only time Bulgaria has made the final in EUROVISION.
"Samo Shampioni" combines a whole lot of genres, from alternative rock and electronic fused in with some dubstep (I really hate dubstep). Take a listen:
For the record, this will be the ninth consecutive year Bulgaria is part of the ESC since their debut in 2005. BNT and the Bulgarian ESC handpicked them to represent the country, instead of the traditional national final filled with various artists (the last one was 2012). Three songs were selected. The fans selected "Samo Shampioni" but "Kismet" won. A song change a few weeks later suggested that "Kismet" had copyright issues and thus the change to "Samo Shampioni."
As for the song, I can say this. It is just as good and equal in awesomeness as "Lubov bez Granici," by Sofi Marinova, last year's Bulgarian ESC representative, who missed out on Bulgaria's second final appearance due to a tiebreaker with Tooji in the second semifinal at Baku (Sofi's placement is the second highest amongst Bulgarian ESC entries). Don't compare. If you're a true ESC fan (and music fan in general), you would appreciate both this and "Lubov bez Granici."
Check out this man, presumably a registered delegate with the Movement of Rights and Freedoms party hold a gas pistol toward MRF leader Ahmed Dogan in Sofia Tuesday...
The response of the gunman getting his ass kicked is hilarious. Even Bulgarian PM Borisov (leader of the majority CEDB/GERB party) doesn't like it...
The MRF is a party that represents ethnic turks and minorities, and very liberal. It has been under fire for friction within the party and rigging votes in elections.
182 days to go until London. Next up on the parade of nations: Bulgaria (BUL).
Since the first modern day Olympics of 1896, the nation has garnered 212 medals, including 51 gold. The most golds won individually (and as a whole) was by Nikolay Bukhalov at Barcelona 1992. There, the rower won gold in the 500m and 1000m Canadian.
The country's most recent medalist is Rumyana Neykova. The rower won gold at Beijing 2008 in single sculls.
The country overall is a big wrestling and weightlifting powerhouse, where wrestlers have scored 16 gold medals, while weightlifters won 12 in the summer Olympics.
As of now, 34 Bulgarian athletes will be represented in nine sports, including wrestling, athletics, boxing and swimming.
