Stanka Zlateva

Stanka Zlateva Hristova ( _bg. Станка Златева Христова; born 1 March 1983 in Krushare, Sliven Province) is a female Bulgarian freestyle wrestler. She competed at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens and the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, where she won a silver medal. She was named World Female Wrestler of the Year in 2006 and 2007 and Bulgarian Sportsperson of the Year in 2007.

Zlateva has been engaged in wrestling since 1997, at age 14. Her first coach was Demir Demirev and then she trained with Valeri Raychev in the Kyustendil sports club and in the national team, as well as with Ognyan Raychev in the national team. Since 2006, she has been competing for Levski Sofia, where her coach is former world champion and triple European champion Simeon Shterev.

Zlateva came first in her category at the 2006 and 2007 World Championships (in Baku and Guangzhou respectively), fourth in 2004 (New York), fifth in 2005 (Budapest), seventh in 2001 (Sofia) and eight in 2002 (Chalcis). She's also a triple European champion, winning the 2006, 2007 and 2008 titles (Moscow, Sofia and Tampere respectively), as well as coming third in 2005 (Varna), fourth in 2003 and fifth in 2004.

She was the first Bulgarian female wrestler at the Olympics: women's wrestling debuted at the 2004 Olympics in Athens, and Zlateva represented Bulgaria there, coming twelfth. At the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, she was aspiring to win gold, but lost to the surprising Wang Jiao of the People's Republic of China in the final.

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