BFB — Българска федерация по борба

What it is

The Bulgarian Wrestling Federation governs wrestling in Bulgaria, a historic power in the sport. Stanka Zlateva, three-time world champion and double Olympic silver medallist, was elected president on 11 March 2025. The federation publishes its complete presidential list from 1932 onwards.^[1] [2]

Its aggregate record: 73 Olympic medals (18 gold), 529 world medals and 993 European. Nikola Stanchev's freestyle gold at Melbourne 1956 was the first Olympic gold medal won by any Bulgarian athlete in any sport, and Bulgaria took its first world team title in Sofia in 1971, seventeen points clear of the Soviet Union.^[3]

How the national team is selected

There is no standalone selection-criteria document. Selection is evidenced by three published instruments read together.

First, the binding annual regulation for the state championships makes participation an eligibility gate in terms: taking part in the national individual and individual-team championships "is a requirement for determining the national teams for international events" — and national competitors with ambitions for the European Championships, World Championships or Olympics must compete in the same weight category they are claiming. Exceptions require board permission on a reasoned application from the club or coach, agreed with the national coach.^[4]

Second, the final squad is settled by published head-to-head wrestle-offs, after which the federation publishes the team by weight, name and club — for instance recording that a wrestler "won the starting place with two victories to nil at 68 kg."^[5]

Third, the exception clause preserves a residual board and coach discretion over the whole process.

So the documentary trail for a Bulgarian wrestler is the championship entry list and protocol, the published wrestle-off result, and the published squad list. The federation's results archive is genuinely good — annual competition protocols published as one document per year from 2010 to 2024, plus a searchable medallist database.^[6]

A 2026 inspection report offers the clearest published illustration anywhere on this site of how a foreign-born athlete becomes eligible for a national team: it records the federation initiating a citizenship procedure by reasoned proposal to the sports ministry, and states that the transfer-of-allegiance compensation payable to the world governing body is a necessary condition of representing Bulgaria. More on changing the country you represent.^[2]