By Riley Overend on SwimSwam
Bulgarian Olympic swimmer Antani Ivanov‘s battle with his national federation took another turn earlier this month as World Aquatics upheld his two-year suspension by the Bulgarian Swimming Federation (BSF) for allegedly disrespecting the organization.
Ivanov, who was already serving a two-year sanction through October for missed doping tests, is now ineligible to compete until March of 2026. The 24-year-old butterfly specialist believes his punishment is retaliation for speaking out against alleged doping in Bulgarian swimming.
In 2021, three young Bulgarian swimmers claimed their federation required them to take pills at a national team training camp, leading to the trio testing positive for stanozolol. At the time, Ivanov told Bulgarian media that he would not train with the national team until the entire coaching staff stepped down. Georgi Avramchev still serves as the president of the BSF today.
Ivanov has doubled down on his criticism of the BSF since his previous two-year suspension was upheld by the Court of Arbitration for Sport last summer. He claimed that rising Bulgarian star Petar Mitsin was using banned substances when he broke the world junior record in the 400-meter freestyle last year.
“The governing body of the federation considers unacceptable and aimed at defamation the allegations of the competitor of Professional Swimming Club Cherno More Varna [Antani Ivanov] that the world record holder in the 400 m freestyle for juniors Petar Mitsin achieved his results in 2023 by using substances that fall under the banned list of the World Anti-Doping Agency,” the BSF said. “Ivanov provides no evidence for these allegations.”
In February, Ivanov was reportedly detained for possessing less than a gram of marijuana. Last year, he told SwimSwam that Bulgaria is “full of corruption” and that he even received threats from BSF officials.
“If I stop fighting for my rights, our federation will be drugging people and having success like they did at European Juniors, but I am fighting for my voice and my rights because Bulgaria is full of corruption and if you don’t listen and do what they tell you, they do what they did to me,” Ivanov said. “I got life threats from Bulgarian Swimming Federation members at the latest National Championships right before my main event. They told me if I stop talking about corruption and how much they steal, etc., everything will be fine. But if I don’t, then ‘two years suspension will be the least thing to worry about.’ That really scared me because I was with my family, my younger sister, and girlfriend, and it is hard to concentrate on swimming.”
Ivanov experienced his major breakthrough as a 17-year-old at the 2017 World Championships, breaking a national record in the 200 fly heats (1:55.55) before becoming the first Bulgarian swimmer to make a Worlds final in a decade. He won bronze at the 2017 World Junior Championships later that summer and went on to make consecutive 200 fly finals at the 2018 Short Course World Championships, 2019 World Championships, and 2021 Short Course Worlds. A 2022 graduate of Virginia Tech, Ivanov didn’t make it out of the heats at the 2022 World Championships in Budapest, Hungary, finishing 17th in 1:57.00.
Read the full story on SwimSwam: Bulgarian Swimmer Antani Ivanov Dealt Another 2-Year Suspension for ‘Disrespectful Attitude’