Bulgarian athletes certainly have a knack of making a name for themselves in the arena of international sports - but most of the time for all the wrong reasons. Never mind the Twilight Zone of institutional corruption plaguing Bulgarian football for years; chronic problems are on every level of Bulgarian sports bar none. Take, for example, the entire national weightlifting team which was gloriously withdrawn from the 2008 Beijing Games. A total of 11 athletes had tested positive for steroid use and were promptly told to stay home and watch the greatest sports event in the world on TV. It was the latest in a long line of drug embarrassments for Bulgaria. The saddest, most bitter pill to swallow is that Bulgaria ranks second only to the former Soviet Union in the number of Olympic weightlifting medals won. But did they learn from that latest fiasco?

Another upcoming star sprinter Tezdjan Naimova (21) was handed a two-year ban from all competitions, by the Bulgarian Athletics Federation (BAF) which took the decision at its final meeting of the year on December 30 2008. Naimova, who won a brace of titles for Bulgaria at the 2006 World Junior Championships in Beijing, was found guilty of manipulating another doping test. BAF was apparently tipped off about the aforementioned  by the  International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) on September 9 2008. Naimova was consequently banned from competing from September 30 2008, which means that she will be fit to compete again on September 30 2011, if she is fit to compete by then at all. Reportedly, Naimova has confessed her guilt and has accepted the minimum - in such cases - two-year ban without complaint. The Naimova case is by no means the icing of the cake; that would be to imply that we had had enough (which we have) and that it will not occur again (which it will). The list is long, about as long as the history of Bulgarian athletics.

Take the case of Sesil Karatancheva, the hope of Bulgarian female tennis. Back in 2005, her victory over Williams on Paris clay brought worldwide acclaim for the young Bulgarian, this being her breakthrough season. She started off her year at a tournament in Gold Coast, Australia, by qualifying, and then defeating the tournamentÕs number seven Elena Likhovtseva before being overcome in the quarterfinals. The 15-year-old Bulgarian went on to crush Emanuelle Gagliardi in the fourth round, before she succumbed to Likhovtseva in the quarterfinals. Karatancheva became the youngest woman to reach the quarterfinals of a Grand Slam tournament since Martina Hingis in 1996. However, things went downhill for Karatancheva about as quickly as they had risen. On December 20 2005, the French LÕEquipe newspaper reported that Karatancheva had failed a drug test earlier in the year at Roland Garros, and that she had appeared in front of a three-person panel of judges to explain the results. The newspaper also claimed that Karatantcheva revealed that she was pregnant at the time of the test, which would explain the high levels of nandrolone in her system. Karatantcheva has denied all allegations, saying "I am shocked. I have not appeared before judges of the international federation."

Come January 11 2006, the International Tennis Federation ITF finally implemented a two-year ban after drug tests proved positive for nandrolone. Karatancheva has continuously defended herself, arguing that the test results can be attributed to the fact that she was pregnant, but on July 3, 2006, the Court of Arbitration for Sport denied her appeal to overturn the ban. In its ruling, the court reasoned that the level of nandrolone was found in concentrations that were inconsistent with normal levels for that stage of pregnancy. Neither Karatancheva, nor Naimova were the first, and they are unlikely to be the last Bulgaria athletes who take doping voluntarily, are given doping by their superiors without their knowledge or consent, and who ultimately fall victims to lengthly international bans.

August 2006: weightlifter Rumiana Petkova tested positive for stenozol, a forbidden drug, banned for two years. April 2005 - after the European Wrestling Championship in Varna, classical-style wrestler Nikola Stoynov tested positive, banned for four months. September 2004 - weightlifter Alan Tsagaev tested positive just before the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, banned for two years.

November 2003 - weightlifters Galabin Boevski, Zlatan Vanev and Georgi Markov tested positive and were banned for 18 months. August 2000 - Iva Prandjeva tested positive twice for drugs and was banned for life.