In age-group FIVB competitions Bulgaria have never won a medal. And in European Junior Championships last time they were on the podium was as far back as 1986, when they hosted the competition for a bronze.

Actually, this is the first time that Bulgaria compete in the U23 World Championship, having missed the inaugural edition in 2013.

Several of the players that currently make up the U23 squad in Ankara have seen quite some action this season, having competed in both the Baku 2015 European Games and the 2015 World Grand Prix Group 2.

The biggest success of Bulgarian women's volleyball came in 1980, when they won the bronze medal at the Moscow Olympics. This was capped a year later with the gold of the European Championships in Sofia. Bulgaria's women had been continuously on the podium of the European League since the introduction of the event in 2009, until 2014 when they failed to qualify to the final.