Balkans in the Olympics: Kostelic Snags Silver

Ivica Kostelic, a 30-year-old alpine skier from Croatia, came in second in Sunday’s super-combined. The medal is Kostelic's second Olympic silver.

The first medal earned last week by an athlete from the Balkans was won by Croatian Jakov Fav, who scored bronze in the men’s 10-kilometre biathlon.

Bulgaria is not having much luck at this year's games, with one of its top snowboarders Alexandra Jekova dropping out of the running due to an injury.

Also, The Sofia Echo reports that Anastasia Kuzmina, who won the gold in the women’s biathlon 7.5km sprint and silver in the 10km, had initially wanted to compete for Bulgaria. Kuzmina is representing Slovakia at the games.

Boran Hadjiev, former head coach of Bulgaria’s national biathlon team, told Bulgarian news agency BTA that the country had a chance to snag the Olympic medalist last summer.

"In the summer of 2009, both Kuzmina and her husband were training in Bulgaria at the Belmeken sports facility," Hadjiev said. "It was then that Kuzmina asked me to do everything possible to help her with the procedure of getting a Bulgarian passport so that she could compete for Bulgaria. I talked about it with our federation, but eventually they turned her offer down."

Hadjiev added, "I can only regret it now, because with Kuzmina on board we could have had a strong team, something which we will not see happening in the next few years."

The closing ceremonies will be held on February 28.