Mariya Grozdeva has been a fixture in Olympic pistol shooting finals since her début at the 1992 Olympics. There she won a bronze in the air pistol, a feat she repeated at the Atlanta Games. Four years later, she improved to gold, albeit in the sporting pistol event. She retained that title in Athens, while winning a third bronze in the air pistol. She reached her sixth Olympic final in Beijing, but with a fifth place, it became the first in which she did not medal. Remarkably, Grozdeva has never won a World Championship medal in her sport. In fact, she only twice competed in a World Championship final, once in 1994 (seventh in the air pistol) and again in 2002 (fourth in the sporting pistol). Grozdeva did claim various other prizes, including two World Cup Finals (1998, 2004), 15 World Cup wins, and seven European titles (air pistol 1994-95, 2009, sporting pistol 1997, 1999, 2003, 2009). In 2004, Grozdeva was voted Athlete of the Year in Bulgaria, the second time, after Vesela Lecheva, that this honor was won by a shooter.
Bulgaria