Maria Grozdeva
Bulgarian sport shooter
Maria Zdravkova Grozdeva-Grigorova (Bulgarian: Мария Здравкова Гроздева-Григорова; born on 23 June 1972) is a Bulgarian retired sport shooter, who competed in 25 metre pistol and 10 metre air pistol. She is the only woman to have successfully defended the 25 metre pistol title at the Olympic Games. She competed at the 2020 Summer Olympics, in Women's 25 metre pistol, and Women's 10 metre air pistol.
Apart from her five Olympic medals including two gold medals, Grozdeva also has been successful at CISM World Championships and ISSF World Cups. She is also the current holder of the final world record in 25 metre pistol. She was named the 2004 Bulgarian Sportsperson of the Year. She was also named the 2004 BTA Best Balkan Athlete of the Year.
01Life
Grozdeva was born on 23 June 1972 in Sofia. She began shooting at the age of 11, and graduated in sports shooting from the National Sports Academy. She is married to her coach Valeri Grigorov, with whom she has three children.
Grozdeva announced her decision to retire from professional sports after competing in the 2020 Summer Olympics. She was among the founders of the Bulgarian Shooting Union and served as its president between 2012 and 2022, being succeeded by Vesela Letcheva.
02Other endeavors
In, 2009 Grozdeva competed as a house guest in the third season of the reality show VIP Brother. She made it into the final three and then placed runner up for the season.
03Olympic results
04Records
| Current world records held in 25 metre pistol | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Women (CISM) | Individual | 590 | Li Duihong (CHN) Maria Grozdeva (BUL) Stephanie Thurmann (GER) Zhang Mengyuan (CHN) Doreen Vennekamp (GER) | 1993 1996 2015 June 2, 2018 June 2, 2018 | (NOR) (SWE) (KOR) Thun (SUI) Thun (SUI) | |||
Sources and credits
This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Maria Grozdeva”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.
Images, from Wikimedia Commons:
- Maria grozdeva.jpg by Biser Todorov, CC BY 3.0
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