All in Attitude!
“The golden fish” of Bulgarian swimming, Tanya Bogomilova:
It would not be an exaggeration to say that as an organized form of training, swimming is perhaps the most popular sport in Bulgaria. Most parents want their children to acquire a life-saving skill that will make them as healthy, hardened and disciplined as possible. And this service, with few exceptions, is available in all corners of the country. There are several cities with three or more teams, and in Varna and Sofia there are ten each. However, there are few enthusiasts who want to train for high sports mastery. Tanya Bogomilova - our only Olympic champion in the "blue sport" - explains exactly this subtle moment. The "golden fish" of Bulgarian swimming.
Episode 14 of the educational studio of NSK Olimp "We will meet at the top". Emphasizes the extreme importance of the coaching figure and the relationship between him and the athlete. Tanya Bogomilova advises young coaches to listen to the more experienced, knowledgeable ones, but to be ambitious and calm. High sportsmanship requires confidence and calmness, she is categorical.
The former general secretary of the BFPS sets an example with his personal mentors. Talking about the road to Olympus and her Seoul triumph, Tanya Bogomilova breaks down in tears at the 22nd minute of the video. Touches the audience with the confession that at the games in South Korea she did, because she wanted her work to be rewarded. It was worth it that she left Annie, who was born a year ago, to her mother's care, training with a postpartum hernia that literally threatened her life, and with pain in her knees. During all this time, her husband and personal trainer Georgi Dangalakov is by her side, who is present in Seoul in his role as masseur of the entire representative Olympic team, since the coaching quota is full. Tanya Bogomilova without hesitation points to the three strongest qualities that made her an Olympic champion:
1. Ambition
2. Sports stubbornness
3. Belief in what I do. Have a little doubt, and it will never happen!
"In my time, all the children were on the street and were playing freely. My parents sign me up in swimming for this very reason - to avoid being on the street all day. I used to go to the Krasna Polyana swimming pool. I also went to gymnastics, English, accordion play, all the possible things a parent could sign their child up to. Gradually (the individual pursuits) began to fall away one by one. In gymnastics I had to do a dozen pull-ups. I did not succeed. I was recorded on the accordion by my mother, who played to see if I had these tendencies. I would leave the house with the accordion and hide to play. My mother once met the teacher, who told her that I hadn't attended class for a month."
"I was always cold in the pool. I didn't like it. But gradually I started swimming under my first coach - Petar Kostov. We were swimming for the student sports school, which is very important. We all came out of there. Swimming came easily for me. I quickly learned crawl, backstroke.
My coach often held parent-teacher meetings to point the progress of each swimmer and I, because I was in love with my coach, in the sense that I respected him a lot, lied to my mother that the parent-teacher meeting would be with children so they could see as well what will be discussed. After asking me to leave the room, he addressed the parents: This is the future Olympic star. This kid is very ambitious. No matter that she appears feeble, she is a great talent, a great champion, and performs at 200 percent. What the coach used to instruct me, I did it three times.
My first success came in III-IV grade, I became a master of sports. My idols then were Cornelia Ender (DDR) and Mark Spitz (USA) – great luminaries in the world of swimming and heroes of the Olympic Games in Munich (1972). That's where my ambition started - one day I'll be there too."
"Swimming training is always hard. Our sport is boring - between four walls you are alone with yourself. You're talking to yourself. You train. You do it. It's difficult. Especially when I became famous and entered the world elite, I did three training sessions on water, two dry. I have reached up to 20 km a day, in peak situations. At times when I needed to gain volume, strength.
That's thanks to the coach who thought so. There must be a tandem between the coach and the athlete. I have said more than once that my successes are not mine only. Most of them are of the coach himself. He is the engine. He makes the plan that I have to carry out. How I execute it is up to me.
A coach is much more than a parent. You have to share absolutely every pain, desire with him. How are you, what is it. What is your problem, in order to solve it. Because these problems affect the training. I have had moments when I have not entered the water. I haven't been feeling well - something has or simply had no effect on what my trainer has planned for me to train. Therefore, the competitive athlete must speak to his coach. "
“I have often visualized the swim I had to do in a competition. I've counted my grabs in my head. I have imagined how I should swim. I closed my eyes and in many cases my results matched what the coach had written. I didn't need a sports psychologist. I didn't need him to set me up, to calm me down. I'm not afraid. I believed in myself.”
"The atmosphere when we were training was wonderful. We were a fellowship, one unit - everywhere at camps. The competition between us was very strong. At the start we were rivals, the rest of the time we were friends. At the moment it is not like that. I do not want to comment.
Before, the state cared much more about sports. There was absolutely everything necessary for every athlete. Now you have to fight for this thing. There are no funds. Maybe there are, but they are not being used properly. Back then the parents didn't pay fees. Now every parent has to pay for their children to play sports.
This is not a small thing. And that makes the sport inaccessible. We're missing out on a lot of children. And among those who can pay, there are untalented ones. Unfortunately, the parents are boasting about it."
"I've been teaching for 2-3 years and I notice that children are massively enrolled in swimming. Most parents enroll them in several sports, several languages, several musical instruments. It is bad for the child, they engage his whole day. The child must be concentrated in one sport to develop. There are many children in swimming, but they enroll them to learn to swim. There are few who stay and have the ambition to do something.”
Tanya Bogomilova believes that one of the big mistakes of the built competitor is to succumb to the star disease. She is categorical that the swimmer who has reached the above ages should be more modest. "Just because you're 13-14 doesn't mean you'll be like that in a few years. Star disease must stay aside, if you want to prove you're somebody, you have to go all the way to the end.''
"One of the important things for young coaches is to learn from older coaches. They have achieved something though. Young coaches should take an example, read a lot, be ambitious. They should be confident, moving towards the ultimate goal they have set for themselves. To make a competitor of my rank, the coach must be very calm and unfazed. It's not for everyone.
I never wanted to deal with high sportsmanship as a coach. I don't have the nerve or the calmness to do it. Not every coach becomes a specialist in high sportsmanship. He must know what his possibilities are and be honest - with the parents and the competitor, to connect the swimmer with someone who will do it. To say: I've been here, I can help you to reach whatever!
However, all coaches in Bulgaria have ambitions, but there are few people who can. You can see that. I teach somewhat. Then the next coach takes it from there.
When we worked in Greece, this was their swimming training scheme (each higher level is handled by more highly qualified coaches). This does not exist in Bulgaria. That is why we are at such a level. This is my opinion. I'm not engaging anyone. I have changed several stages coaches. The basic coaches are important. They provide the foundation for proper swimming."
"Parents use to meddle a lot in the coaching profession without being qualified. Too many ambitious parents enroll their child knowingly, that an Olympic champion is not made immediately, many years pass, many hundreds are conquered," Bogomilova continues.
When asked what changes are needed in Bulgarian swimming in order to have a new Olympic champion, the long-time general secretary of the Bulgarian Swimming Federation answers that the coaches in the clubs must show with work and solidarity that they want it. "Each club is a separate individual. It must create its own rules to produce contestants, but must comply with the rules above. Let's not try to play tricks and keep blaming the federation."
All shows in the series ‘We will meet at the top’ (see here)
