After a tumultuous few years that’s included multiple suspensions, Bulgarian Olympian Antani Ivanov has announced his retirement from competitive swimming.
Ivanov, 25, represented Bulgaria at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, placing 20th in the men’s 200 butterfly, but has been inactive for the past 17 months due to a pair of suspensions.
Ivanov was initially suspended in October 2022 for whereabouts failures, missing three doping tests after failing to update his current address in the anti-doping system. Ivanov appealed the suspension, which allowed him to compete through the early summer of 2023, but in late June, the suspension was upheld by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), rendering him ineligible through October 2024.
When the suspension was upehld, Ivanov told SwimSwam he believed the suspension was retaliation for speaking out against what he believed to be doping within Bulgarian swimming. In 2021, three young Bulgarian swimmers claimed their federation required them to take pills at a national team training camp, leading to the trio testing positive for stanozolol. At the time, Ivanov told Bulgarian media that he would not train with the national team until the entire coaching staff stepped down.
This past May, he was dealt a second two-year suspension from the Bulgarian Federation, which was upehld by World Aquatics, for a “disrespectful attitude,” having continued to be vocal about his belief there was doping going on within Bulgarian swimming, including claiming that rising star Petar Mitsin was using banned substances when he broke the World Junior Record in the boys’ 400 free in 2023. The national governing body disputed those claims.
In an Instagram post earlier this month, Ivanov said he was tired of waiting for justice from the federation and decided to call it quits.
Post translated from Bulgarian:
After yet another ridicule and things that will continue to happen anyway I think its time to announce my decision to end my swimming career. I have been fighting for the last 3 years against the injustice in this shitty country. I was promised all kinds of high-ranking people that this punishment would fall, that I would be back to the pool soon etc. nah, but to be honest I’m bored. I’ve been training and waiting for 3 years and it turns out I’ll be waiting for 3 more. My sentence will be up to 6 years for telling someone who is a thief and trash, that he is a thief and garbage and for competing in an amateur triathlon.
If I was on anabolic steroids I would be back in the pool by now but telling the truth is different.
Thank you all over the years for your support, but my nerves have gotten to this point. Can’t wait to watch various clowns compete and get the things I’ve fought for available for years on a National Team.
Also leaving my favorite photo of my career here as a last post.
View this post on Instagram
Ivanov was the 2017 World Junior Championship bronze medalist in the 200 fly, and also won silver at the 2016 European Juniors in the same event. In addition to the Tokyo Olympics, he also represented Bulgaria internationally at three World Aquatics Championships (2017, 2019, 2022), four SC World Championships (2016, 2018, 2021, 2022) and four European Aquatics Championships (2016, 2018, 2021, 2022).
He was on career-best form at the European Championships in 2021, placing 4th in the 200 fly in 1:54.50, a time that remains the Bulgarian Record. He was also 12th in the 100 fly, setting a personal best of 51.93.
Ivanov also spent four years representing Virginia Tech in the NCAA, placing 12th as a freshman in the 200 fly at the NCAA Championships in 2019. He went on to take 3rd in the 200 fly and 6th in the 100 fly at NCAAs in 2021, and added a 9th-place showing in the 200 fly in 2022. He was also a three-time ACC runner-up, placing 2nd in the 200 fly in both 2021 and 2022 and adding a runner-up finish in the 100 fly in 2022.
Some of these Eastern European federations are shady asf and if you don’t comply your career is basically over.
He is pretty old. No wonder he is retiring.
“has opted to call it a career at the age of 2025”
Truly the aquatic Methuselah of our times.
“In 2021, three young Bulgarian swimmers claimed their federation required them to take pills at a national team training camp, leading to the trio testing positive for stanozolol.”
Crazy how this line is dropped and some people still side against his claim
I get you swam with dude and have likely heard more than us. Do you know what those 3 athletes said when confronted with the statement? Having 3, or any of the 3, corroborating witnesses would be pretty damning/vindicating.