Bulgaria’s Golden Girls
In 1987, 17-year-old Bulgarian gymnast Bianka Panova made sporting history by scoring perfect 10s in all eight of her routines at the Rhythmic Gymnastics World Championships. A member of Bulgaria’s celebrated “Golden Girls”, Panova was trained under an unforgiving regime where athletes were expected to embody the pride of the Communist state.
But behind her extraordinary success was a young body pushed to its limits, and at the 1988 Seoul Olympics, injuries and one mistake saw her finish fourth and be branded a traitor in her homeland.
She tells Hester Underhill why she quit gymnastics and then, with the support of the doctor who would become her husband, how she made a remarkable comeback the following year.
(Photo: Bianka Panova . Credit: Bianka Panova)
But behind her extraordinary success was a young body pushed to its limits, and at the 1988 Seoul Olympics, injuries and one mistake saw her finish fourth and be branded a traitor in her homeland.
She tells Hester Underhill why she quit gymnastics and then, with the support of the doctor who would become her husband, how she made a remarkable comeback the following year.
(Photo: Bianka Panova . Credit: Bianka Panova)