Sports (Week 2)

Sports in Bulgaria

Bulgaria has established traditions in a great variety of sports. The most popular disciplines are Football, Skiing, Basketball, Volleyball, Wrestling and Weight Lifting. The country has a total of 214 Olympic medals (51 golds, 85 silver and 78 bronze), with almost half of them coming from wrestling and weight-lifting. Bulgarian weightlifters debuted at Olympic Games in Melbourne in 1956 when Ivan Abadzhiev placed 7th while Ivan Vasilev was fifth. The first medal for Bulgaria in weightlifting came in 1872 in Munich when Norair Nurikyan won the gold in the 60kg category. Yordan Bikov and Andon Nikolov also won gold medals in their categories. Mladen Kuchev, Atanas Shopov, and Alexander Kraichev added up to the success with 3 silver medals. This way the first Olympic Games became the most successful ones for Bulgaria’s weightlifting. From then on the sport brought a lot of glory to the country.
The best achievement of the national football team was a fourth-place finish at the 1994 FIFA World Cup in the United States. Even though more than 20 years have passed, Bulgarians still have great memories about that summer. One of the most iconic phrases in Bulgarian football comes from the qualifying game between France and Bulgaria. In that match Emil Kostadinov (Bulgarian forward) scores a 90th-minute winner and the commentator (Nikolay Kolev) repetitively starts to scream “God is a Bulgarian”. The phrase has become a symbol of all the positive emotions related to that memorable summer.
More recent successful athletes form the country are Grigor Dimitrov (Tenis), Ivet Lalova (Sprint), Dimitar Berbatov (former footballer), Kubrat Pulev (Heavy-Weight Boxer), Matey Kaziyski (Volleyball), Tsvetana Pironkova (Tenis) and others.

Sports in Indonesia

Like some other countries in the world, Indonesian people have so many passion about Football. As a matter of fact, it is the biggest sport in the country in terms of both participation and spectatorship. When it comes to football, the whole nation comes together as one to support the eleven players on the field. Despite having no major achievements in the last 20 years or so, the fans are still supporting the team with a heart full of passion and dreams. That is just how it is in Indonesia, people are CRAZY about football. Indonesian football, however, also has its dark side. When supporting teams turn into a massive brawl, it is not a new thing in our country. To a larger extent, when two arch rivals face each other, it is no longer about the outcome of the match, it is a matter of who and how many will make it home and alive. Luckily, the Indonesian Football Federation, PSSI, had took actions regarding this issue. In the last few years, no away fans are allowed to even come to the city and support their team when facing a bitter rival.

After football, it is safe to say that badminton comes 2^nd in terms of the most famous sports in Indonesia. Not only it is popular in our country, unlike football, we are good at it, in fact we are one of the best in the world. According to the Badminton World Federation (BWF)’s website, an Indonesian athlete is ranked #5 in the world’s men’s singles ranking. In the women’s singles ranks, the best Indonesian athlete is ranked #24 in the world. In the men’s doubles category, our athletes are absolutely dominating. Out of the top five pairs in the world, three of them are Indonesians who are ranked #1, #2, and #5 in the world. In the women’s doubles and mixed doubles category, Indonesian athletes are also showing their capability to the world, with the best being ranked #8 and #5 in their respective category.

As a country with a very rich culture and history, Indonesia also has some traditional sports, such as Pencak Silat and Karapan Sapi. Pencak Silat is a martial-arts discipline which focuses on striking. In this sport, every part of the body is used to attack the opponent. Since 1987, Pencak Silat has been contested in the Southeast Asia Games, and in 2018, the sport made its debut in the Asian Games. The sport is co nsidered as an Intangible world heritage by UNESCO in December 2019. On the other hand, Karapan Sapi has never been contested internationally. It is basically the same as horse-racing, but instead of horse, it is actually a Sapi or cow that is competing. The sport is popular in the East Java territory.