The Bulgarian sambo federation was created on January 21, 1995 with the independent status. Before that date sambo had been included into the Bulgarian wrestling federation for many years.
Since 2017 Georgi Yusev has been a president of the Bulgarian Sambo Federation.
After the superb organisation of the world sambo championship among youth and juniors in 1995 the level of operation of Bulgarian sambo federation raised dramatically. In 1997 the federation had got a license to run the sports activity.
Rumen Stoilov had been the president of the Bulgarian sambo federation since 2003 to 2017. Success of sambo in Bulgaria namely linked with his name in the country and worldwide. Thanks to this brilliant activity he was elected for the position of the ESF General Secretary at that time, currently he is also a member of FIAS Executive Committee. Under Rumen Stoilov’s management and with support of Georgy Youssev, vice-president of the federation (FIAS Referees Commission), the achievement of national team took a turn for the better. In 2006 at the world sambo championship the Bulgarian competitors brightly performed in Sofia. They won 3 gold, 4 silver and 6 bronze medals. For the first time Snezhina Vasileva became the world champion. The experienced competitor Elitsa Ryzheva repeated her achievement once again. Georgy Youssev entered the history of Bulgarian sambo among men. He won his second gold medal in the world championships among youth and juniors and reached the same level as the national team coach Vasily Sokolov.
This success was improved in 2007 at the European championship, which was held in the Bulgarian in the city of Pravets. The organisers won 5 gold, 4 silver and 3 bronze medals.
Sambo has been successfully developed in 50 clubs, including such famous clubs as Sofia CSKA, LEVSKI, LOKOMOTIV and AKADEMIK, as well as the clubs in the city of Panagyorishte, Sevlievo, Belitsa, Stara Zagora, Ikhtiman, Vidin, Kustendil, Varna, Burgas, Yambol and Lovech.
The total number of medals, which had been won during 50 years of sambo development from 1958 till 2008 in the world and European championships, is 649 medals : 96 gold, 223 silver, 330 bronze. For the last five years this number has considerably increased.
Champions and prize winners of Bulgaria 2017
European Championship among Youth and Juniors 2017 in the Czech Republic
Gold Medals:
Stoyanova Ilina (80 kg)
Silver Medals:
Blagoeva Blagoslava (56 kg)
Bronze Medals:
Khristova Isabela (56 kg)
Tsoneva Desislava (68 kg)
Lilkov Denis (52 kg)
Grigorov Luboslav (52 kg)
Pavlova Victoria (70 kg)
European Championship 2017 in the Republic of Belarus
Gold Medal:
Oryashkova Mariya (80 kg)
Silver Medal:
Martirosyan Ashot (74 kg)
Bronze Medals:
Nikolov Mihail (74 kg)
Tsvetanova Tsvetelina (48 kg)
Varbanova Magdalena (52 kg)
Krastev Ivan (68 kg)