Bulgaria's Zlateva 'Quiet Achiever who will Light Up London'

Stanka Zlateva is pictured here celebrating her 5th world wrestling championship win in September 2011. Photo by BGNES

Bulgaria's top female wrestler Stanka Zlateva has found her way into a list of the ten top Olympians, whom everybody should watch even though they are flying under the radar.

Composed by Dominic Bossi for the Sydney Morning Herald, the ranking features stars like Laura Flessel-Colovic, Anky van Grunsven, Olafur Stefansson, Lin Dan.

Zlateva comes at spot three and is presented to the readers as the tough lady who managed to beat the heroics of Novak Djokovic and be crowned the Balkan Athlete of 2010.

"So fearsome is her reputation throughout Bulgaria that competitors have preferred to forfeit bouts in national finals instead of facing the champion wrestler. The five-time world and European champion rivals Manchester United's Dimitar Berbatov as the country's most prominent star," the article says.

At the end of 2011 Stanka Zlateva was named Bulgaria's best sports personality for a second year in a row.

Zlateva, who won that year her impressive fifth world title in female wrestling, was picked ahead of swimmer Petar Stoychev, while wrestler Elis Guri was declared third.

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