Bulgarian Sambo Federation

On 1 January 1992, after many years of operating under the Bulgarian Wrestling Federation, an independent organisation is formed – the Bulgarian Sambo Federation.

A major event in the life of the young federation came in 1995, when the world sambo championships were held in Bulgaria and organised brilliantly by the federation. In 1997 it received a licence to run sports activities. From that moment, all feuding in the Bulgarian sambo world came to an end.

In 2003 Rumen Stoilov was elected chairman of the Bulgarian Sambo Federation. His name is associated with the increasing prestige of this combat sport in the country and of Bulgarian sambo around the world. Evidence of this was the election of Dr Rumen Stoilov as Secretary General of the European Sambo Federation (ESF) and as a member of the Executive Board of the International Sambo Federation (FIAS). The Bulgarian national team’s results saw a major improvement under his leadership and with the active support of Georgy Yusev, who in 1998 held the post of deputy chairman of the FIAS referees commission. The Bulgarian sambo wrestlers performed especially well at the 2006 world championships in Sofia, where they won three gold, four silver and six bronze medals. Snezhina Vasileva became women’s world champion for the first time, and her achievement was repeated by the experienced Elitsa Ryzheva. In the men’s sport, Georgi Georgiev also sealed his place in the history of Bulgarian sambo by winning his second gold medal in the world championships, equalling the achievement of Vasil Sokolov, the national team’s coach.

The following year the country’s competitors built on this success at the 2007 European championships, which took place in the Bulgarian city of Pravets, where the hosts took five first places, four second places and three third places.

Sambo is developing in Bulgaria in almost 50 centres, including such distinguished clubs as Sofia CSKA, Levski, Lokomotiv and Akademik, and also in clubs based in Panagyurishte, Sevlievo, Belitsa, Stara Zagora, Ikhtiman, Vidin, Kyustendil, Varna, Burgas, Yambol and Lovech.

Over the first 50 years of sambo’s development in Bulgaria (from 1958 to 2008) the country’s sambo wrestlers won a total of 649 medals at the world and European championships: 96 gold, 223 silver and 330 bronze. The last four years have seen a significant rise in these figures.