Bulgaria’s Olympic gold medal-winning gymnasts catch the eye at Expo 2020 Dubai

When Cristiano Ronaldo showed up at Expo 2020 Dubai two weeks ago, there was, unsurprisingly, a frenzy to catch a glimpse of one of the greatest footballers of all time.

Before that, superstars like Lionel Messi and Usain Bolt had been among the many athletes to visit to the exhibition.

Expo 2020 has provided a platform for participating nations to showcase the best of their athletes to live audiences.

This week, Bulgaria’s gold-winning rhythmic gymnastics team at the Tokyo Olympics performed for crowds over two nights, one on the country’s special Expo Day.

“It was a real pleasure to be part of Expo 2020 in Dubai and perform two nights representing Bulgaria,” said Simona Dyankova, who was joined by colleagues Stefani Kiryakova and Erika Zafirova at the Bulgarian pavilion.

“The experience has been incredible. The crowd was very lively and we were warmly welcomed. We are extremely impressed by the hospitality and Expo 2020 hope that will come back soon again.”

For the young athletes, it was a chance to receive the acclaim that years of hard toil — and eventual success — deserved, but that had been denied to them as they performed and received their gold medals behind close doors in Japan.

“We’ve been together since 2016 until the Olympics,” said Dyankova. “Because the Olympics were postponed for one year, we had two years to prepare that amazing routine we did. And it was changing all the time during these two years, getting more complicated, and more complicated to make it perfect.”

The delay brought about by the pandemic had its negatives and positives.

“At the beginning it was very difficult for us of course, knowing that it’s postponed with that one year it was difficult to accept it,” said Zafirova. “Also