The celebration of the 95 years since the establishment of the Bulgarian Olympic Committee

Bulgaria celebrated the 95th anniversary of its National Olympic Committee (BOC). The ceremony was held at the “Vasil Levski” National Sports Academy and welcomed several athletes, legends, managers, coaches, teachers, journalists, and representatives from the sport movement of Bulgaria.

The NOC of Bulgaria was founded on the 30th March of 1923. However, some years later, in 1944 it was destructed by the communist regime and the whole NOC’s property was nationalized. In 1951, BOC was re-established and resumed its activity. The first participation of Bulgaria at any Olympics was in Athens 1896, whereas the first Bulgarian Olympic medal was won by boxer Boris Georgiev in Helsinki 1952, where 63 athletes from Bulgaria participated, 9 of which were women. The first Olympic gold was achieved four years later in 1956 in Melbourne by freestyle wrestler Nikola Stanchev.