2024-09-04 01:00:28
The representative of Bulgaria at the Paralympic Games in Paris in the discus throw, Stella Eneva, admitted upon her return to Bulgaria that she failed to achieve her goal.
Eneva, 49, placed fourth in the F57 class, her first major competition after a nine-year absence from the sport.
“There is no athlete who does not chase a medal, especially at the Olympics, but I was not lucky, and to be honest, I needed more preparation. Then I would have won the medal, but this year was also the strongest in my discipline. The discus is thrown with love, that’s why everyone is there, including me. I’m grateful that I was able to compete again after such a long period of time I am preparing for the games in Los Angeles,” Eneva told reporters at Sofia Airport.
“In Paris, I saw people I hadn’t seen for a long time. Coaches told me I was a phenomenon, that I was competing again. In discus, growth is two meters a year. I started at 20, and the 31 I achieved are impossible for a normal person. I put a lot of work, a lot of discipline, as they say, just to be able to win a quota first. I was confident that I would be able to participate , but I didn’t have that confidence at the Olympics itself. Maybe I needed a little more time to prepare. They say that the fourth place is a wooden medal and that it hurts the most along with the second one,” added Eneva, who has silver medals in the same discipline. from the Olympics in Beijing in 2008 and in London in 2012.
“I’m already quite old, and even though you can compete in the throws even at 60, the idea is to be in the top three, not just to participate. I’ve seen a lot of Olympics and I want to be on the podium. When they were awarding Ruzhdi, I cried myself and stood up when I heard the anthem of the Republic of Bulgaria. It moved me a lot,” she said.
“Now, at the Olympics, I was alone with my coach. It’s good to be able to rely on a bigger team – physiotherapists, psychologists, even nutritionists. You should have at least 5-6 people behind you, but for these things you also need a stable sponsor. The Bulgarian is used to succeeding at the very least – you see, with a small group of three people we have one gold medal and two fourth places.