Born on 20.12.1964 in Svilengrad
Ognyana Dusheva won a bronze medal at the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul, South Korea, at K4 – 500 m. In 1984 at the Berlin Olympics in Germany, she ranked fourth at K2 with Ivanka Badalska and fifth at K4 – 500 m. At the 1987 World Championship in Duisburg, Germany, she won a bronze medal at K2 – 500 m and ranked fourth at K4 – 500 m. She is also winner of the Bulgarian Olympic Committee Cup for Best Kayaker from 1987.
Dusheva started training kayaking in 1976 at the Trakiya Army Sports Society. She graduated from the Vasil Levski National Sports Academy. In 1980 she became part of the national youth team. In the period from 1981 until 1986 she was invariably part of the first six at World Championships.
In 1992 Dusheva ended her active sports career. She and her husband, the kayaker Adriyan Dushev, have a son and daughter – both national kayak contestants.
From 2002 until 2007, Ognyana Dusheva was a teacher at the Sv. Konstantin-Kiril Filosof Secondary School in Plovdiv. From 2008 until 2011, she was a coach in Turkey, and her competitor won a European title in Zagreb, Croatia, at K1 – 200 m. She continued her new career in Iran and in 2012 won a silver medal at the World Cup during new women’s canoe competition. At the 2013-2014 Southeast Asian Games Dusheva was the coach of the Thai national team, which won 10 medals (5 of which gold) and was ranked first for medals in the team rankings. In 2015 she was a coach in Shanghai, China, and in the National Games of the country ranked sixth at C1 – 200 m (the biggest success for this province). She also achieved high scores with the Philippine team in 2016 at the World Youth Championship. Since 2017 Dusheva has been a coach of Para Canoe Team in Germany, Saxony-Anhalt Province, which won a bronze medal at the European Championship in Belgrade, Serbia in 2018, at canoe-kayak VL3 discipline, as well as fourth place at KL2. Ognyana Dusheva is also an international canoe-kayak judge.
Interview with Ognyana Dusheva: Coach without dreams and motivation is like a sailless ship
Project № BG06-103 "Establishing a Youth Centre in the City of Plovdiv" under the programme "Children and Youth at Risk", component 1 "Care for Youth at Risk" with the financial support of Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway by the Financial Mechanism of the European Economic Area 2009-2014.
Project № BGLD-1.003-0002 "Youth Centre Plovdiv - a powerful factor for local development" under the programme “Local development, poverty reduction and enhanced inclusion of vulnerable groups” funded by the Financial Mechanism of the European Economic Area 2014-2021.