Bulgaria's Kalina Slavcheva placed ninth in the women's taijiquan combined at the Dakar 2026 Youth Olympic Games with 16.386 points, competing with a knee injury, one place outside the top-eight final.

Bulgaria's Kalina Slavcheva has completed her Youth Olympic Games in ninth place in the women's taijiquan combined at Dakar 2026, one spot outside the top eight who went through to the final.

Slavcheva opened on 1 November with taijishan (fan), scoring 8.430 for ninth place in that routine. A day later she added 7.956 in taijiquan, tenth in that discipline, for a combined total of 16.386 points.

Competing through a knee injury

The Bulgarian had been dealing with a recurring knee injury that flared up again about three weeks before the Games. After the competition she said the injury had stopped her from performing some of the more difficult elements, which cost her points. She still described the Games as a great experience, highlighting the Olympic atmosphere, meeting athletes from other countries and getting to know other sports.

Her taijishan routine was performed to "Dance of the Phoenix", a piece written for her by Bulgarian composer Minko Lambov.

Bulgaria's Youth Olympic wushu history

Slavcheva is the second Bulgarian to compete in wushu at a Youth Olympic Games. In Nanjing 2014, when wushu was part of the Sports Lab demonstration programme, Kamelia Koleva placed seventh overall. Dakar 2026 is the first time wushu has awarded official medals at an Olympic event.

The women's taijiquan combined final was won by Singapore's Ng Zhe Nin ahead of Chu Yu-En of Chinese Taipei and Germany's Mia Aurelja Xianglin Zhuo. All results: Wushu's first Olympic champions.

Sources: Sportal.bg, Chernomorie-bg.com, Boec.bg. Photo: Bulgarian Wushu Federation.

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