Rumyana Stefanova

Rumyana Stefanova
Country represented	Bulgaria
Born	(1949-08-11)11 August 1949 Varna, Bulgaria
Died	16 March 1978(1978-03-16) (aged 28)
Discipline	Rhythmic Gymnastics
Level	International Elite
Years on national team	1965-1971
Club	CSKA Sofia
Retired	yes
Medal record Representing  Bulgaria World Championships 1971 Havana Group 1969 Varna Free-hand 1967 Copenhagen Group

Rumyana Stefanova (11 August 1949 – 16 March 1978) was a Bulgarian rhythmic gymnast and coach.^[1] She won multiple medals at the World Championships.

She was one of the best rhythmic gymnasts in the second half of the 1960s and early 1970s. Before joining the Bulgarian national team, she trained at the CSK club in Sofia.

In 1965 she took part in the World Championships in Prague, where she took 9th place in the All-Around.^[2]

At the following edition, in 1967, she was part of the Bulgarian group that won bronze in the final behind Soviet Union and Czechoslovakia.^[3][4]

At the 1969 World Championships in her native Varna, she won the silver medal in the hands-free final. She was also fourth in the hoop final and fifth in both the individual All-Around and in the rope final.^[5][6][7]

In 1971 she was again incorporated into the national senior group. They won gold at the World Championships in Havana.^[4][8]

After her retirement, she became an assistant to the coach of the Bulgarian rhythmic gymnastics team, Julieta Shismanova.

On March 16, 1978, she died in a plane crash in a TU-134 plane along with Shismanova and the gymnasts Albena Petrova and Valentina Kirilova when they were on their way to a competition in Poland.^[9] As a tribute to Rumyana Stefanova and Albena Petrova, a rhythmic gymnastics tournament called "Rumi and Albena" has been held in their honor every year since 1997 in Varna.^[1]