Bulgarian Olympian Ivanov Suspended 2 Years: ‘Without Me, Bulgarian Swimming Dies’

The Bulgarian Olympic Committee’s two-year suspension of 23-year-old Olympic swimmer Antani Ivanov for missing three doping tests because he had not updated his current address was upheld by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) on June 26.

CAS had temporarily restored Ivanov’s right to compete internationally after he appealed the initial sanction last October, allowing him to compete at the FINA World Cup and Short Course World Championships last year. But the latest ruling now leaves the butterfly specialist ineligible until October of 2024, a period that includes the Paris 2024 Olympics.

“Without me, Bulgarian swimming dies,” Ivanov reportedly told Bulgarian media. “I will not give up. Even if the decision stands, even if they have this momentary victory, in a year, two or three, I will still be here and I will still be the best swimmer. There is no other current Bulgarian swimmer with seven consecutive World Championship finals.”

Ivanov told SwimSwam he believes the punishment is retaliation for speaking out against alleged doping in 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.

“If I stop fighting for my rights, our federation will be drugging people and having success like they did at European Juniors, but I am fighting for my voice and my rights because Bulgaria is full of corruption and if you don’t listen and do what they tell you, they do what they did to me,” Ivanov said. “I got life threats from Bulgarian Swimming Federation members at the latest National Championships right before my main event. They told me if I stop talking about corruption and how much they steal, etc., everything will be find but if I don’t then ‘two years suspension will be the least thing to worry about.’ That really scared me because I was with my family, my younger sister, and girlfriend, and it is hard to concentrate on swimming.”

Ivanov experienced his major breakthrough as a 17-year-old at the 2017 World Championships, breaking a national record in the 200-meter butterfly heats (1:55.55) before becoming the first Bulgarian swimmer to make a Worlds final in a decade. He won bronze at the 2017 World Junior Championships later that summer and went on to make consecutive 200 fly finals at the 2018 Short Course World Championships, 2019 World Championships, and 2021 Short Course Worlds. A 2022 graduate of Virginia Tech, Ivanov didn’t make it out of the heats at last year’s World Championships in Budapest, Hungary, finishing 17th in 1:57.00.

“That’s why my last two years have been that tough, because of the amount of pressure I have received from all the big institutions in Bulgaria to keep my mouth shut,” Ivanov added. “In many ways, but mostly with verbal threats and doping tests, because I have had maybe 100-150 in the last three years — all negative. But ever since I spoke out two years ago about all the problems in my federation and Olympic committee, I have only been abused, threatened, and they wanted to unban me if I never say a bad word about them.”

At the 2021 European Championships, Ivanov clocked a lifetime best (and current national record) of 1:54.50 in the 200 fly, taking bronze. But just two months later at the Tokyo Olympics, he failed to advance to the 200 fly semifinals with a 19th-place finish in 1:56.36.

CAS permitted Ivanov to compete earlier this month at the Bulgarian Open Championships, where he won the 50 fly (24.49) but placed second in the 100 fly (53.57), 200 fly (2:00.31), and 200 free (1:50.81).

“I am surprised by Anthony Ivanov’s statement that Bulgarian swimming will be dead without him,” said Bulgarian Swimming Federation (BSF) president Georgi Avramchev. “There was swimming in Bulgaria long before him and there will be long after him. We have huge successes — Olympic champion, world champion, eighth place at the Summer Olympic Games in Tokyo and many other great achievements. There is no president of a federation who does not try to support every single good athlete. I hope that this incident will be resolved soon because it is hindering the team before two big races. We have the world and European championships coming up, and we are dealing with who is the best.”

The BSF’s Disciplinary Committee could add to Ivanov’s punishment based on his recent comments. The BSF said it “finds the obscene and indecent statements of Ivanov to be detrimental to the prestige of the federation and strongly condemns this type of behavior by any Bulgarian swimmer.”