Bulgaria - a Self-Proclaimed Olympic Failure

Novinite Insider » EDITORIAL | Author: Irina Samokovska |August 1, 2012, Wednesday // 14:51
Bulgaria: Bulgaria - a Self-Proclaimed Olympic Failure

The world's eyes are on London as the 2012 Olympic Games unfurl.

Bulgaria sent 63 athletes to the 30th Olympics and all of them fought or are still fighting a tough battle.

Bulgarian media, which are crucial for communicating the events in London, especially for the part of the population which does not speak English or any other foreign language and is unlikely to use the Internet to dig deeper into the topic, are doing a questionable job.

Success stories will be success stories, and as such they will always get (more than) enough publicity.

However, how do we deal with the no-success stories? Vulture-style?

In the case of Maria Grozdeva, for instance, a two-time Olympic shooting champion and five-time medalist, who did not manage to reach the 25-meter pistol final, a range of media outlets came up with titles like "Failure for Maria Grozdeva."

Although she had warned upon her departure for London that people were expecting too much of her and it was a burden, the journalists were hot on her heels all of the time, especially after "the failure."

Certain media outlets appear creepily happy about having Grozdeva, who is still extremely sensitive about her performance, burst into tears while trying to account for her mistakes.

Try googling the names of Bulgarian athletes who did not make it into the semi-finals or finals of their disciplines.

You are certain to find a series of articles titled "Failure for X."

Among "the failures" are top tennis players Grigor Dimitrov and Tsvetana Pironkova, who lost their singles matches and will not compete in the couples tournament, badminton player Petia Nedelcheva, who was defeated by Adrianti Firdasari, archer Yavor Hristov, who was eliminated in the 70 m archery tournament, you name it.

If media outlets are so eager to report alleged downfalls, where were they all of the years the athletes spent preparing for the big race?

Non-specialized newspapers, as well as TV and radio programs in Bulgaria, have 90% of their coverage devoted to FOOTBALL.

It is football, football players, football scandals, football transfers, football-driven heaps of money, football fans, football hooliganism, you name it.

Why are Bulgarian media so grossly preoccupied with football, which is actually one of Bulgaria's major failures?

Where is the support media outlets owe to the other athletes, or is it that they are learning their names just now?

Whose failure is it that Bulgaria's non-football sport stars have no loud and cohesive fan base?

Is it the mediators' failure? How about a more modest approach with titles then?

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Tags: London 2012, London Olympics

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