Raw talent, tough-minded ambition and an attractive personality have made wrestler Stanka Zlateva a hot property at a time when sport in Bulgaria desperately needs new heroes.
Female wrestling will develop fast with athletes like Stanka, feel experts
Angel Krasimirovm, Belmeken (Bulgaria)
Raw talent, tough-minded ambition and an attractive personality have made wrestler Stanka Zlateva a hot property at a time when sport in Bulgaria desperately needs new heroes.
Wrestling is hugely popular in Bulgaria, where it has been practised since ancient times. Women’s wrestling, though, is relatively new and will be on the Olympic programme for only the second time in Beijing. “Our sport...is very young and has yet to win fans around the world,” twice world champion Zlateva said on Wednesday.
“Women’s wrestling is very attractive and I have no doubt that soon many people will turn their attention to it.” Bulgaria is looking to Zlateva, who won her third European title last month, to help restore its reputation at the Olympics. The Balkan country finished third in the medals table at the boycott-hit 1980 Moscow Olympics but lost ground after the fall of communism in 1989 and won only two gold medals in Athens four years ago, neither of them in wrestling — a sport which has given Bulgaria 16 Olympic and 52 world titles.
Wrestler Nikola Stanchev became Bulgaria’s first Olympic champion when he won gold at the Melbourne Games in 1956. “She has the winning instinct, she has the ambition too but I want her to become aware that the Olympic Games are something very special,” Shterev, himself a former world and European champion, said.
Technical Skills
Zlateva (25) switched to freestyle wrestling from pentathlon eight years ago. Zlateva dominates her 72-kg category and her wide range of technical skills makes her a tough opponent. “She doesn’t rely only on her power. She uses her brain and heart and she’s the best in the world,” said seven-times African champion Hassan Medany of Egypt.
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