It has been a long but fruitful adventure for two of the top acrobatics coaches from Bulgaria. Now they have realized their dream of coming to America and being a part of helping the sport of Acrobatic Gymnastics to grow not only in the USA but worldwide. Rumen Lachkov and his wife Radostina Lachkov grew up with gymnastics in Bulgaria. Rumen started in Men’s Artistic Gymnastics, and as he grew up changed to Power Tumbling and finally Sports Acrobatics. He and his partner Vladimir Vladev, owner of AGSA, became two time World Champions as a Men’s Pair. Radostina competed as a Trio and finally a Women’s Pair when her group achieved the title of National Champion and also competed internationally. They both began coaching and achieved the acclaimed title of Master of Sport. They married in 1983 and a perfect pair was made.
In 2002 BGC owner Lorna Spellman contacted Rumen in her search for a coach to start an Acrobatics program at her gym. Rumen took the chance to take the position and moved to Texas. A year later Radostina and their kids moved here too. Starting a team from scratch was a challenge but Rumen and Radostina quickly learned the USAG system and started producing top notch athletes. They helped to establish two more coaches for Acro programs in the San Antonio area. With many National Champions and a Silver Medal at the 2008 World Age Group Competition in Glasgow, Scotland for Women’s Pair DeShay Eisenmenger and Hayley Lemmons their program has had much success.
Their dream was not only to start a local program but to share their talents with other countries and to have Acro accepted as an Olympic sport. To become an Olympic sport there have to be a certain number of countries competing at an international level. Rumen and Radostina have been mentoring Calgary Gymnastics in Canada and we now understand that there are several other clubs in Canada with Acro programs ready to begin competing. Recently they hosted a Men’s Pair from Columbia, South America who hope to compete at the World Championships this year. They said many gyms in South America are interested in starting Acro programs.
With all these projects on their plate Rumen and Radostina felt they had one more important job to do. They put in their applications, studied the requirements, passed the test and were recently sworn in as American Citizens. They are very proud to be new citizens and as we say in Texas “They are fixing to stay”.
