Valentina Georgieva, who turned 18 during the Olympic Games in Paris, performed admirably, finishing 5th in the vault final.
So she repeated the achievement of her coach Filip Yanev from Athens 2004.
The two returned from the French capital today, and for them there was a special welcome at the Sofia airport by the little athletes of the “Levski-Spartak” club.
“I still cannot realize what I have done, what I have achieved. Subsequently, I began to realize that this thing that I did is actually history. There are many emotions, really many emotions”, were Georgieva’s first words.
She returned to the gym at the beginning of this year after a serious knee injury and performed very strongly at the world cups.
“For me, it will remain sealed that for my 18th birthday I gave such a gift by winning a place in the final. And separately, this final will also be unforgettable, because it was a debut for me. I really did not expect, I entered with a 9th grade , I finished fifth, I couldn’t be more satisfied,” said Georgieva.
“For me it was not extremely important to be in this final, because I performed in the way that is best for me, I stayed healthy and actually the final was a bonus. I say again, I did not expect it. And all these hours – that it was our longest day. The last score came out at 11.00pm and we’ve been up since 5.00am and when we saw the score that I was in the final eight, it was just then that everyone exploded.
In the final there was this banter with the coach and I said to myself that I want to improve his achievement, but fourth place hurts more, in my opinion, than fifth,” said the gymnast.
According to her, participating in the final along with star Simone Biles motivated her.
“I was concentrating entirely on my performance and that being in the same final with her motivated me and I had the sportsmanship to show her that I can do it too, and that she is not the only one,” shared Georgieva.
