Boise State's last Olympian finished as Ivanov suffers first round wrestling defeat

Boise State sent a record 6 alums to the Rio Olympics and all performed admirably for their respective countries, but the last was eliminated today and there will be no blue and orange gold (that would be a bad combo anyway). George Ivanov, a former Boise State wrestling standout, was competing in the 74kg weight class (don't ask me to math) for his home country of Bulgaria, but was unable to advance after a defeat at the hands of Georgia's Jacob Makarashvili. Ivanov held leads of 4-0 and 6-4 before Makarashvili rallied for a 13-8 decision. Because of the nature of the Olympic tournament format, the defeat meant that Ivanov would only advance if the Georgian made the finals—which he did not.

“The match started out really well, but I don’t really know what went wrong after that,” Ivanov said. “It was really disappointing to lose like that. I’m really happy to be competing in the Olympic Games, but I should’ve wrestled better than that. It’s amazing to be here, it’s like no other tournament. But it’s tough to go out like that.” (Source)

Ivanov was the last former BSU athlete to compete in this year's games, finishing a day after Boise State decathlete Kurt Felix, who finished 9th in the decathlon while competing for Grenada. Bringing home a medal is obviously the goal of all athletes at the Olympics, but short of that they can settle for an amazing lifelong memory. We're proud of all our alumni at the games and will be sure to add more Bronco Olympians in the future.