Boryana Kaleyn

Boryana Nikolaeva Kaleyn (; born 23 August 2000) is a Bulgarian retired individual rhythmic gymnast. She is the 2024 Paris Olympic all-around silver medalist. She is the 2023 European all-around champion, the 2024 European champion with hoop, the 2021 and 2022 European all-around silver medalist, and the 2022 European champion with ball, ribbon, and in the team competition. Kaleyn is also the 2023 World Team all-around champion and the 2022 World Cup Series all-around champion in Sofia and runner-up in Baku. She competed at the 2020 Summer Olympics, finishing fifth in the all-around.

At the national level, she is a four-time Bulgarian National Champion (in 2019, 2020, 2021, and 2022), twice silver medalist (in 2018 and 2023) and once bronze medalist (in 2017).

Personal life

Kaleyn started rhythmic gymnastics at age six. Her favorite gymnast is Maria Petrova. Outside of gymnastics, she enjoys painting and has said she would like to do an exhibition of her work in the future.

Career

Junior

Kaleyn began appearing in international junior competitions in 2008. She competed in the Junior World Cup and the Junior Grand Prix events. In 2013, she broke her left leg at her first Junior World Cup event. On June 10–16, 2014, Kaleyn competed at the 2014 European Junior Championships. Together with Erika Zafirova and Katerina Marinova, she finished fourth in the team event. She qualified to the ball final and won the bronze medal, which was the only medal won by a Bulgarian at the event. In 2015, Kaleyn won the all-around bronze at the 2015 Sofia Junior World Cup.

Senior

2016

Kaleyn debuted as a senior in the 2016 season. She finished 10th in the all-around at the Baltic Hoop International tournament. In her next event at the end of March, the Lisbon Senior International Tournament, she finished 4th in the all-around. She qualified for all the apparatus finals and won silver in hoop and ribbon and bronze with clubs and ball. In May, she broke her left ankle and was not able to compete at the European Championships. Later in the season, she finished 10th in the all-around at the Corbeil-Essonnes Cup.

2017

In the 2017 season, Kaleyn competed at the Moscow senior International Tournament, where she won silver in the all-around. She won bronze in the all-around at the 2017 Bulgarian National Championships behind Neviana Vladinova and Katrin Taseva.

She then competed at the 2017 Tashkent World Cup, where she finished 4th in the all-around behind teammate Katrin Taseva and qualified to three event finals. In the finals, she won bronze in clubs and placed 7th in hoop and ball. Her next competition was at the 2017 Baku World Cup, where she finished 9th in the all-around behind Nicol Zelikman.

On May 3–7, Kaleyn won gold in the all-around at the MT Sofia Cup. On May 12–14, Kaleyn competed at the 2017 World Challenge Cup in Portimao, where she finished 4th in the all-around behind Victoria Veinberg Filanovsky. She qualified to three event finals, where she won bronze in clubs and finished 5th in hoop and 6th in ball.

Kaleyn competed at the 2017 World Games in Wrocław, Poland from July 20 to 30. However she did not advance to any of the apparatus finals.

2018

In the 2018 season, Kaleyn participated in the 2018 Grand Prix Moscow, finishing 10th in the all-around. She qualified to three finals and won gold with ball, silver with hoop and bronze with ribbon. On March 30 – April 1, Kaleyn began competing on the World Cup circuit with the 2018 Sofia World Cup. She finished 6th in the all-around; she qualified for two event finals, where she won bronze in hoop and finished 5th in ball. On March 23–25, Kaleyn competed at the 2018 Grand Prix Thiais, where she won the bronze medal in the all-around competition ahead of teammate Katrin Taseva. In the apparatus finals she won bronze with ball and clubs and finished 5th in hoop and 9th in ribbon.

On April 20–22, at the 2018 Tashkent World Cup, Kaleyn finished 9th in the all-around and qualified to two apparatus finals. She won bronze in hoop and finished 8th in ribbon. On April 27–29, Kaleyn competed at the next World Cup event, the 2018 Baku World Cup, where she finished 9th in the all-around. She qualified for two apparatus finals and took silver in clubs and finished 4th in hoop.

At her first World Championships, held in her hometown of Sofia, Kaleyn won a silver medal with the Bulgarian team. In the qualifications, she received the highest score on hoop of the Bulgarian gymnasts, but she received the lowest with ball after missing a difficulty, which she expressed disappointment about. She won silver in teams with the other Bulgarian gymnasts and qualified to two apparatus finals.

2019

Kaleyn started her 2019 season competing at the GCP Lisbon senior International Tournament, where she ranked 5th in the all-around. She qualified to two finals, winning gold with hoop and bronze with ball. On March 28 – April 1, she competed at the 2019 Grand Prix Thiais, where she placed 4th in the all-around behind Arina Averina, Linoy Ashram, and Dina Averina. She qualified for three apparatus finals, winning silver with ribbon and placing 5th with ball and 8th with hoop.

Kaleyn then competed at the 2019 Pesaro World Cup, where she won her first World Cup all-around medal by finishing in third place behind Dina and Arina Averina. She qualified for three apparatus finals, winning silver in ball, and placing 4th in hoop and 5th in clubs. At her next event, the 2019 Tashkent World Cup, Kaleyn won silver in the all-around and qualified to all four apparatus finals; she won silver with ball and ribbon and finished 7th with clubs and 8th with hoop.

On April 16–19, she competed in the 2019 European Championships with her teammates Katrin Taseva and Neviana Vladinova, with whom she won the bronze medal in the team event. She qualified for three apparatus finals, winning bronze in ball and ribbon and placing 7th with hoop.

2021

Kaleyn represented Bulgaria at the 2020 Summer Olympics and finished 5th in the individual all-around final. She said that she was glad that she had qualified for the Olympics, but expressed disappointment and frustration with the mistakes she made.

2022

At the European Championships in Tel Aviv, Kaleyn won the all-around silver and also won the team gold along with the other Bulgarian gymnasts. In the event finals, she won gold with ball and ribbon and bronze with hoop. At the World Games in Birmingham, she won hoop gold and silver for ribbon. She was selected to compete in the 2022 World Championships; however, she missed competing there as she was hospitalized with a high fever due to a virus.

2023: European title

At the European Championships in Baku, Kaleyn won her first European title after competing the last routine in the all-around final. She also won gold in the team competition, silver with clubs, and bronze with hoop. At the World Championships in Valencia, she came in sixth in the all-around final after dropping her apparatus in two routines. However, she won team gold with the rest of the Bulgarian team, along with silver medals in clubs and ribbon.

2024: Olympic silver medalist

Kaleyn's routines for the 2024 season were unusual in that they were connected rather than separate and intended to portray the personal story of her career. Her ribbon music was composed especially for her.

In April, Kaelyn competed at the World Cup held in Sofia, Bulgaria. There she won the all-around ahead of fellow Bulgarian Stiliana Nikolova and Daria Atamanov. She qualified to every apparatus final and won silver with clubs. Both Kaleyn and Nikolova expressed gratitude for the supportive home crowd and stated that they were aiming to win gold at the upcoming 2024 Summer Olympics. At the end of April, she competed at the next World Cup in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, where she came in bronze in the all-around; she again qualified to every apparatus final and won a second bronze with hoop.

Ahead of the European Championships, Kaleyn participated in the inaugural Rhythmic Gymnastics European Cup, which had an unusual knock-out round format for the all-around final. In the apparatus finals, she won gold in ball and ribbon and silver with hoop behind Sofia Raffaeli. She said that she was happy to be competing in the same arena where had won the European Championship the previous year. At the European Championships, she ended in fourth place in the all-around after mistakes in her hoop and ball routines. However, she went on to win bronze in the clubs final and gold in the hoop final, the first European hoop title for Bulgaria since 1988, and she won gold in the team competition with the other Bulgarian competitors.

Kaleyn was chosen to represent Bulgaria at the 2024 Olympics. After the European Championships, she revised her routines. At the last competition before the Olympics, the World Challenge Cup in Cluj-Napoca in July, she finished fourth in the all-around and qualified for three apparatus finals. She won a bronze with ball.

In August, she competed at the 2024 Summer Olympics. She qualified for the all-around final in third place. In the final, she won the silver medal, which was the first for Bulgaria in individual rhythmic gymnastics since Adriana Dunavska won silver at the 1988 Summer Olympics. She said afterward, "When I was six years old I started to train gymnastics with this dream to win an Olympic medal. That finally came true."

After the award ceremony, Iliana Raeva, the president of the Bulgarian Rhythmic Gymnastics Federation, called Kaleyn ‘The Queen’ and said she had never had such a successful competition, with eight out of eight routines performed with a high level of difficulty and without mistakes.

Kaleyn announced her retirement from the sport on December 9. At the same time, the Bulgarian Rhythmic Gymnastics Federation announced the final selection for the new individual national team. Kaleyn was replaced by Eva Brezalieva. She said that she planned to become a coach.

Style

Kaleyn is distinctive in her approach to rhythmic gymnastics for her routine music choices, which use a diverse array of styles from folk music to heavy metal and alternative rock. She has said that "If I listen to the music for the first time and I cannot imagine how I would perform to that music or what movements I would do and where, I know this is not my music." Her choreography has been described as creative. She is also known for her strong work with fouetté turns and her ability to perform a number of revolutions.

Kaleyn's routines for the Paris Olympics are considered innovative, as the four routines were connected to tell her story about her path in rhythmic gymnastics. The storyline begins with the hoop routine, which focuses on her childhood years in the gym when everything was easy. The ball routine is about the time when Kaleyn began winning medals at major competitions, while the clubs routine is about the difficulties she experienced. The story ends with the ribbon routine and is about the last part of her career, in which she found faith in herself. The music and the final poses of the four compositions serve as a link between them. Each routine begins with the final music and the final pose of the previous one in the sequence.

Detailed Olympic results

Competitive highlights

''(Team competitions in seniors are held only at the World Championships, Europeans and other Continental Games.)''

Routine music information

References

External links

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Kaleyn, Boryana
2000 births
Living people
Gymnasts from Sofia
Bulgarian rhythmic gymnasts
Medalists at the Rhythmic Gymnastics World Championships
Medalists at the Rhythmic Gymnastics European Championships
Olympic gymnasts for Bulgaria
Gymnasts at the 2020 Summer Olympics
World Games gold medalists
World Games medalists in gymnastics
World Games silver medalists
World Games medalists for Bulgaria
Medalists at the 2022 World Games
Gymnasts at the 2024 Summer Olympics
Olympic silver medalists for Bulgaria
Olympic medalists in gymnastics
Medalists at the 2024 Summer Olympics
21st-century Bulgarian sportswomen