By Rohit Brijnath
MAYBE the secret lies in their Gyuvetch (a stew) recipe, or in the ingredients of their Tarator (a soup). But there has to be an explanation why Bulgarians, at the summer Olympics, have won most of their medals by throwing people around (wrestling, 67 medals) or hefting iron over their heads (weightlifting, 37 medals).
Yesterday, a 17-year-old from the south-eastern European nation provided a simple and smiling explanation: 'Because we are strong people.'
This was hard to argue with because she, Boyanka Kostova, was petite proof of a prodigious strength. Just 1.52m tall, weighing a mere 52.73kg, yesterday she demonstrated she could hoist a fridge over her head without breaking a sweat.
Wait. Let us make that a full fridge.
This is no joke. Yesterday, in the 53kg girls' weightlifting event at the Toa Payoh Sports Hall, she hefted a total of 192kg (snatch 85kg, clean-and-jerk 107kg) and then shyly admitted through an interpreter: 'It wasn't my best. In the clean-and-jerk I can do 120kg.'
Gulp.
Boyanka meets any dictionary's definition of a natural. The niece of a world-class lifter, she strolled into a gym years ago, fell in love with clanking bar-bells and started. Four years or so ago, she entered her first national competition and of course she won. Now she is Youth Olympic champion.
The Bulgarian had no competition yesterday, but the competition itself was scarcely dull. It began amusingly with two Japanese schoolgirls from the audience taking part in a mock contest. The one with the most convincing groan while lifting an imaginary weight was the winner. This was appropriate because weightlifting, where it almost seems you can hear muscles creak, such is the effort, can be an audible delight.
Lifters, who lack the defined musculature of bodybuilders but have a sturdy, contained power, dip their feet and hands in chalk, approach the bar, and then a theatre unfolds.
Indonesia's polite Dewi Safitri, the bronze medallist (171kg total), let go a wonderfully impolite shriek on gripping the bar. The Dominican Republic's Yineisi Reyes Marinez, looked up and murmured something, which turned out to be a simple: 'God help me.' One might say, He took her to fourth place.
Coaches were never quiet, barking advice, urging, challenging and doing their own lifting - of spirits. Tong Wi Ming, the Chinese Taipei coach, told his charge, Kuo Hsing-chun: 'Look out for your weaknesses, don't display them in competition'. She listened well and raised enough (174kg total) to earn silver.
Not all won, as an involved crowd looked on, some just learnt. Lomina Tibon, a policeman's daughter from the Marshall Islands (population 60,000), who first met a bar-bell five months or so ago, finished with a total of 65kg.
But her smile suggested just the experience was valuable. Said coach Mack Capelle: 'She's never seen anything like this, this sort of stage, media, even digital TVs (in the athletes' ready room).'
One day these fine islanders might make their mark, for as Capelle said, with a grin, their natural stockiness lends itself to 'weightlifting, wrestling and coconut-tree climbing competitions'.
Fortunately for them, the last named is not a known Bulgarian speciality. They are single-minded. When Boyanka finished her final effort, and finally allowed herself a smile, her coaches did the only thing they know. They lifted her.
