Eleven Bulgarian Weightlifters Test Positive For Steroids

Mar 20, 2015 by Kati Breazeal

With the European Championships fast approaching, the Bulgarian National Weightlifting team was hit with news no athlete ever wants to hear: positive drug tests.

The eleven Bulgarian lifters, which includes three European champions, have all tested positive for the banned anabolic steroid, Stanozolol, at a training camp held in preparation for the European Champs held in Tbilisi, Georgia, April 9-18.

The President of the Bulgarian Weightlifting Federation, Nedelcho Kolev, suggested an unknown absue may have been involved, commenting, “It’s an archaic substance in weightlifting, no one is using it, I’m shocked… My only explanation of its presence in the bodies of the weightlifters is that they had taken it through the food additives we are using for recovery.”

The food additives used for the athlete’s recovery will be tested in hopes of showing an unauthorized and unannounced presence of the steroid, which would become a foundation for an appeal to the penalties that will soon follow.

The following male lifters who tested positive are as follows:

Asen Muradov (56 kg)

Ferdi Nazif (56 kg)

Vladimir Urumov (62 kg)
Stoyan Enev (62 kg)

Ivaylo Filev (62 kg)

Deyan Minchev (69 kg)

Demir Demirev (77 kg)

Ivan Markov (85 kg)

The following female lifters who tested positive are as follows:

Nadezhda Mey (48 kg)

Maya Ivanova (53 kg)

Milka Maneva (63 kg)