Adriana Dunavska () (born 21 April 1969) is a

Bulgaria Bulgaria, officially the Republic of Bulgaria, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern portion of the Balkans directly south of the Danube river and west of the Black Sea. Bulgaria is bordered by Greece and Turkey t ...

n individual

rhythmic gymnast Rhythmic gymnastics is a sport in which gymnasts perform individually or in groups on a floor with an apparatus: hoop, ball, clubs, ribbon and rope. The sport combines elements of gymnastics, dance and calisthenics; gymnasts must be strong, fle ...

. She is the 1988 Olympic All-around silver medallist, 1987 World All-around silver medallist, 1989 World All-around bronze medallist and the 1988 European All-around champion. She also won a gold medal at the 1987 World Championships with the rope. Her twin sister, Kamelia Dunavska was also a competitive rhythmic gymnast.

Biography

Dunavska was born on 21 April 1969. She was a star pupil at club CSKA in her hometown, where she was coached by Borislava Kuichkova until she was selected for the national team. She was one of the

Golden Girls of Bulgaria The "Golden Girls" of Bulgaria () refers to Bulgarian rhythmic gymnasts and particularly those who represented Bulgaria from 1976 to 1999, when the team was coached by Neshka Robeva. In this period, the Golden Girls won 14 Rhythmic Gymnastics Wor ...

that dominated Rhythmic Gymnastics in the 1980s. She made her international debut breakthrough with her 4th-place finish at the 1986 European Championships. In 1984,

rhythmic gymnastics Rhythmic gymnastics is a sport in which gymnasts perform individually or in groups on a floor with an apparatus: hoop (rhythmic gymnastics), hoop, ball (rhythmic gymnastics), ball, Clubs (rhythmic gymnastics), clubs, ribbon (rhythmic gymnastics), ...

officially became an Olympic sport . At the Olympics in

Seoul Seoul, officially Seoul Special Metropolitan City, is the capital city, capital and largest city of South Korea. The broader Seoul Metropolitan Area, encompassing Seoul, Gyeonggi Province and Incheon, emerged as the world's List of cities b ...

, the Bulgarian Gymnasts competed against Soviet gymnasts – Marina Lobach and Olexandra Tymoshenko. Her teammate Bianka Panova dropped a club in the preliminary competition, which eventually kept her out of the medals. Dunavska performed very well. She won the silver medal in All-around competition behind soviet gymnast Marina Lobach. She is her country's only Individual Olympic medallist in rhythmic gymnastics. Besides her Olympic silver from the 1988 Seoul Olympics, Dunavska had a successful career with many gold, silver and bronze medals at World and European championships. At the European Championships in Helsinki in 1988, she became the All-around gold medalist as well as winning gold with ribbon, clubs, and hoop. A year earlier, Dunavska was second at the 1987 World Championships in Varna. The 1989 World Championships would be Dunavska's final competition. After grabbing the bronze in the all-around she capped off her career by performing in all four event finals, where she won silvers with ball and ribbon.

References

External links

* * https://web.archive.org/web/20140420124013/http://sporta.bg/?load=OtherSports::Champion&id=259 ( Golden Girls of Bulgaria ) {{DEFAULTSORT:Dunavska, Adriana 1969 births Living people Bulgarian rhythmic gymnasts Gymnasts at the 1988 Summer Olympics Olympic medalists in gymnastics Olympic gymnasts for Bulgaria Olympic silver medalists for Bulgaria Bulgarian expatriate sportspeople in France Medalists at the 1988 Summer Olympics Medalists at the Rhythmic Gymnastics World Championships