Stiliana Nikolova (Bulgarian: Стилияна Николова, born 22 August 2005 in Cairo, Egypt) is a Bulgarian individual rhythmic gymnast. She is the 2024 European all-around champion, the 2022 World all-around bronze medalist and hoop, clubs, and ribbon silver medalist, the 2023 World ball bronze medalist and team competition champion, and a two-time (2022, 2023) European all-around bronze medalist and champion in the team competition. At the national level, she is a two-time national champion (in 2023 and 2024) and the 2022 national all-around silver medalist. She competed at the 2024 Summer Olympics, where she came in 11th place.
| Stiliana Nikolova | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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 Nikolova in a press conference during the 2022 Rhythmic Gymnastics World Championships in Bulgaria. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Personal information | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Full name | Stiliana Nikolova | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Nickname(s) | Stili, Stilito | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Country represented |  Bulgaria | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born | August 22, 2005 Cairo, Egypt[1] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Hometown | Sofia | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Residence | Sofia | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Height | 143 cm (4 ft 8 in) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Weight | 37 kg (82 lb) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Discipline | Rhythmic gymnastics | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Level | Senior International Elite | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Years on national team | 2019–present | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Club | SC’Iliana’ | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Head coach(es) | Valentina Ivanova [2] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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At the junior level, she is the 2020 European Junior ribbon champion and ball silver medalist and the 2019 and 2020 Bulgarian Junior all-around champion.
Personal life
editNikolova was born 22 August 2005 in Cairo, Egypt. Her father, Iliya Dyakov, was a football player who represented Bulgaria at the 1986 Football World Cup in Mexico. Her mother, Paulina Nikolova, was a group rhythmic gymnast who competed for Bulgaria and is the 1985 World Group all-around champion.[3] Nikolova has one sister, Paola, and a brother, Denis.
Since a very young age, Nikolova spent all her time at the training all together with her mother and older sister, who both work as rhythmic gymnastic coaches in Egypt. She moved alone to Bulgaria in 2018 at age of 13 to join the Bulgarian national team.[4] She speaks four languages - Arabic, Bulgarian, English and Russian.[5]
Career
editJunior
editShe competed at the 2019 Bulgarian Junior National Championships, where she won the gold medal in the all-around in addition to the ball and ribbon finals, and the silver medal in the rope and clubs finals.[6] She competed at the 2019 Junior World Championships in Moscow, Russia, where she placed 8th in the team competition and 16th in clubs qualifications.
In 2020, she became the Bulgarian junior national all-around champion once again. She also won gold with ball, clubs and ribbon and abronze medal with rope. She competed at the International Tournament in Moscow, where she and her teammate Eva Brezalieva took 2nd place in the team competition. She also won the gold medal in the all-around at the International Tournament Corbeil-Essonnes in France. In the finals, she placed 1st with rope and ball and 3rd with ribbon. She competed at the 2020 Junior European Championships in Kyiv, Ukraine and qualified for two apparatus finals. She won the gold medal with ribbon and the silver medal with ball.[7]
Senior
edit2022
editIn the 2022 season, she participated at the 2022 Grand Prix Marbella, where she won the all-around bronze. She qualified for three apparatus finals, winning gold in hoop and clubs and taking the silver in the ball final. On April 8–10, she competed at Sofia World Cup, where she placed third in the all-around. She also won gold in clubs and silver in the ribbon final. In May, Nikolova participated at the 2022 World Challenge Cup in Pamplona where she won silver in the all-around behind teammate Boryana Kaleyn. She also won the gold in the clubs final and silver in ball. On June 3–5, she competed at the Pesaro World Cup, where she finished 3rd in the all-around and qualified for three apparatus finals, winning bronze medals with clubs and ball and silver in hoop.
From June 15–19, Nikolova competed at the 2022 European Championships in Tel Aviv, Israel, where she won gold as part of the Bulgarian team and bronze in the all-around. On August 26-28, she competed at the 2022 World Challenge Cup Cluj-Napoca and won the silver in all-around. She also won two medals in the apparatus finals - gold in clubs and bronze in the hoop final.
She was then selected to compete at the 2022 Rhythmic Gymnastics World Championships, in Sofia, Bulgaria, along with teammate Boryana Kaleyn. She qualified to the individual all-around final and three apparatus finals. In the all-around final, she won bronze, and she also won three silver medals in the hoop, clubs and ribbon finals. She also won an Olympic quota for Bulgaria.
2023
editHer first competition in the 2023 season was Grand Prix Miss Valentine in Tartu, Estonia, where she finished second in the all-around and qualified to the ball, clubs and ribbon finals.[8] She won both the ball and clubs finals.[8]
Afterward, she competed at the 2023 Grand Prix Marbella, where she won silver in the all-around. She qualified for all four apparatus finals, winning gold in ball and clubs and bronze in hoop and ribbon.
She also took part in the Athens World Cup, where she won silver in all-around, gold in ball and bronze in the ribbon final. At the next World Cup in Sofia, she won the all-around. She qualified for all four finals, winning three more gold medals with hoop, ball and clubs. Two weeks later at the Baku World Cup, she again won gold in all-around as well as gold in the hoop, clubs and ribbon finals.
Nikolova was then selected to compete at the 2023 Rhythmic Gymnastics European Championships, in Baku, Azerbaijan. She qualified in first place for the all-around final and also for three apparatus finals. In the all-around final, she won bronze, repeating her achievement from previous year. In the event finals the next day, she also won silver with ball and bronze with ribbon.
At the 2023 World Championships, Nikolova came in fourth in the all-around final after several mistakes. She had a drop in her ball routine, and she did not hear the signal to start her ribbon routine on time; on restarting, she had a knot in her ribbon.[9] However, she and the rest of the Bulgarian gymnasts won first place in the team competition.[10] She also qualified to the hoop and ball finals. Although she ended in eighth place in the hoop final, she won bronze with the ball behind Darja Varfolomeev and Sofia Raffaeli.[11]
2024: First European title
edit
In March, Nikolova participated in the Grand Prix stage in Marbella, Spain. She was first place in the all-around ahead of Takhmina Ikromova and the previous season's World champion, Varfolomeev. She also won the clubs and ribbon finals.[12] Her next competition was the World Cup held in Sofia, Bulgaria. There she won the all-around silver behind fellow Bulgarian Boryana Kaleyn and ahead of Daria Atamanov. She also qualified to three of the apparatus finals: hoop, ball, and ribbon. Nikolova won the ball final with the highest score that had been awarded thus far under the 2022-2024 Code of Points, and she also won the ribbon final and took silver with hoop.[13] Both Nikolova and Kaleyn expressed gratitude for the supportive home crowd and stated that they were aiming to win gold at the upcoming 2024 Summer Olympics.[14]
Nikolova participated in the inaugural Rhythmic Gymnastics European Cup, which had an unusual knock-out round format for the all-around final. She was the event's first winner, and she expressed interest in the new competition format.[15]
At the 2024 European Championships, Nikolova won her first European all-around title ahead of Raffaeli and Varfolomeev.[16] She also won a silver medal in the hoop final, and she placed fourth in the ribbon final and fifth in the ball final.
In August, Nikolova competed at the 2024 Summer Olympics. In the qualifying round, she made multiple mistakes in her routines, especially in her club routines, where she dropped her apparatus twice. She finished in 11th place, meaning that she did not advance to the final, though she was the first reserve.[17][18] An an interview afterward, Nikolova said that she had felt nervous before the beginning of the qualifying round. She added that while she found watching the final difficult after failing to qualify, she was very happy for her friend Kaleyn, who won the silver medal.[19]
Routine music information
edit| Year | Apparatus | Music title |
|---|---|---|
| 2024 | ||
| Hoop | Hello by Lionel Richie | |
| Ball | Arabian Nights/Harvest Dance – Cover by Grace Park, feat. Waltz/Alan Menken | |
| Clubs | Хубава си моя горо by Kristina Kokorska & Krasimir Todorov | |
| Ribbon | Anastasia - Paris, Tu Nous Ouvres Ton by Stephen Flaherty & David Newman | |
| 2023 | ||
| Hoop | Mama by Gianna Nannini | |
| Ball | Arabian Nights/Harvest Dance – Cover by Grace Park, feat. Waltz/Alan Menken | |
| Clubs | Jailhouse Rock – Elvis Presley/ The Blues Brothers | |
| Ribbon | Paris Holds The Key (To Your Heart) – Lynn Ahrens, Stephen Flaherty | |
| 2022 | ||
| Hoop | Вярвам в чудеса (feat. Hassan & Ibrahim) by Krisia Todorova, Ku-Ku Band and Slavi Trifonov | |
| Ball | Beauty Never Lies by Bojana Stamenov | |
| Clubs | Maniac (remix) by Prime Orchestra | |
| Ribbon | Les Yeux Noirs (Dark Eyes) cover by Polmamoose ft The Vignes Rooftop Revival | |
| 2021 | Hoop | |
| Ball | All About That Bass by Postmodern Jukebox | |
| Clubs | Maniac (remix) by Prime Orchestra | |
| Ribbon | Infernal Galop (Can Can) by Jacques Offenbach | |
| 2020 | Rope | Money, Money, Money by Meryl Streep & Julie Walters & Christine Baranski |
| Ball | All About That Bass by Postmodern Jukebox | |
| Clubs | Flight of the Bumblebee by Rousseau | |
| Ribbon | Infernal Galop (Can Can) by Jacques Offenbach | |
| 2019 | Rope | Money, Money, Money by Meryl Streep & Julie Walters & Christine Baranski |
| Ball | ||
| Clubs | Flight of the Bumblebee by Rousseau | |
| Ribbon | Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go bt Wham! |
Competitive highlights
edit(Team competitions in seniors are held only at the World Championships, Europeans and other Continental Games.)
| International: Senior | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Event | AA | Team | Hoop | Ball | Clubs | Ribbon |
| 2024 | Olympic Games | 11th (Q) | |||||
| World Challenge Cup Cluj-Napoca | 1st | 2nd | 2nd | 2nd | 5th | ||
| European Championships Budapest | 1st | 1st | 2nd | 5th | 4th | ||
| European Cup Baku | 1st | 2nd (Q) | 8th (Q) | 1st | 4th (Q) | ||
| World Cup Sofia | 2nd | 2nd | 1st | 9th (Q) | 1st | ||
| Grand Prix Marbella | 1st | 6th | 1st | 1st | |||
| 2023 | World Championships Valencia | 4th | 1st | 8th | 3rd | 6th | |
| World Cup Milan | 3th | 6th | 3rd | 3rd | 7th | ||
| European Championships Baku | 3rd | 1st | 7th | 2nd | 10th (Q) | 3rd | |
| World Cup Baku | 1st | 1st | 8th | 1st | 1st | ||
| World Cup Sofia | 1st | 1st | 1st | 1st | 4th | ||
| World Cup Athens | 2nd | 6th | 1st | 9th (Q) | 3rd | ||
| Grand Prix Marbella | 2nd | 3rd | 1st | 1st | 3rd | ||
| Grand Prix Tartu | 2nd | 9th (Q) | 1st | 1st | 3rd | ||
| 2022 | World Championships Sofia | 3rd | 2nd | 11th (Q) | 2nd | 2nd | |
| World Challenge Cup Cluj-Napoca | 2nd | 3rd | 5th | 1st | 8th | ||
| European Championships Tel Aviv | 3rd | 1st | 8th | 4th | 5th | 4th | |
| World Cup Pesaro | 3rd | 2nd | 3rd | 3rd | 14th(Q) | ||
| World Challenge Cup Pamplona | 2nd | 8th | 2nd | 1st | 4th | ||
| World Cup Sofia | 3rd | 8th | 11th (Q) | 1st | 2nd | ||
| Grand Prix Marbella | 3rd | 1st | 2nd | 1st | |||
| 2021 | World Challenge Cup Minsk | 10th | 10th (Q) | 9th (Q) | 10th (Q) | 10th (Q) | |
| World Cup Pesaro | 9th | 10th (Q) | 16th (Q) | 8th | 12th (Q) | ||
| International: Junior | |||||||
| Year | Event | AA | Team | Rope | Ball | Clubs | Ribbon |
| 2020 | Junior European Championships | 6th (Q) | 2nd | 16th (Q) | 1st | ||
| 2019 | Junior World Championships | 8th | 16th (Q) | ||||
| National | |||||||
| Year | Event | AA | Team | Hoop | Ball | Clubs | Ribbon |
| 2024 | Bulgarian Championships | 1st | |||||
| 2023 | Bulgarian Championships | 1st | 3rd | 1st | 1st | 3rd | |
| Q = Qualifications (Did not advance to Event Final due to the 2 gymnast per country rule, only Top 8 highest score); WR = World Record; WD = Withdrew; NT = No Team Competition; OC = Out of Competition(competed but scores not counted for qualifications/results), DNS = Did Not Start, DNF = Did Not Finish | |||||||
See also
editReferences
edit- ^ "Stliana Nikolova/Birth Place". International Gymnastics Federation.
- ^ "Stiliana Nikolova/Coach". International Gymnastics Federation.
- ^ Приказка от Египет - историята на най-новото златно момиче на България [A tale from Egypt – the story of Bulgaria's newest golden girl]. 24chasa.bg (in Bulgarian). Retrieved 2023-03-18.
- ^ Аз съм... Стилияна Николова [I am... Stiliyana Nikolova] (in Bulgarian). Bulgarian National Television. Retrieved 2023-03-18.
- ^ "NIKOLOVA Stiliana/Athlete profile/Spoken languages". Retrieved 2024-07-14.
- ^ Николова Стиляна [Stiliana Nikolova]. gimnastika.pro (in Russian).
- ^ "Gold, silver and bronze for Bulgarian rhythmic gymnasts from contest in Ukraine" (in Bulgarian). 28 November 2020.
- ^ a b "ksis". rgform.eu. Retrieved 2023-03-18.
- ^ "Стилияна Николова е четвърта, а Боряна Калейн шеста в многобоя на световното по художествена гимнастика във Валенсия" [Stiliana Nikolova is fourth and Boryana Kaleyn sixth in the all-around at the World Rhythmic Gymnastics Championships in Valencia]. bntnews.bg (in Bulgarian). 26 August 2023. Retrieved 2024-05-25.
- ^ "България спечели отборната титла на световното по художествена гимнастика във Валенсия" [Bulgaria won the team title at the World Rhythmic Gymnastics Championships in Valencia]. bntnews.bg (in Bulgarian). 25 August 2023. Retrieved 2024-05-25.
- ^ "Стилияна Николова спечели бронз във финала на топка на световното по художествена гимнастика във Валенсия" [Stiliana Nikolova won bronze in the ball final at the World Rhythmic Gymnastics Championships in Valencia]. bntnews.bg (in Bulgarian). 23 August 2023. Retrieved 2024-05-25.
- ^ "La gimnasta búlgara Stiliana Nikolova gana el Grand Prix de Marbella 2024" [Bulgarian gymnast Stiliana Nikolova wins Marbella Grand Prix 2024]. www.marbella24horas.es (in Spanish). March 10, 2024. Retrieved 2024-05-25.
- ^ "Stiliana Nikolova steals the show while Israel's group dominates in Sofia". International Gymnastics Federation. 16 April 2024. Retrieved 2024-05-25.
- ^ "Боряна Калейн и Стилияна Николова: Целите ни за Париж са златните медали" [Boryana Kaelyn and Stiliana Nikolova: Our goals for Paris are the gold medals]. bntnews.bg (in Bulgarian). 14 April 2024. Retrieved 2024-05-25.
- ^ "Stiliana Nikolova crowned inaugural European Cup Champion". European Gymnastics. 4 May 2024. Retrieved 2024-05-25.
- ^ "Bulgaria's Stiliyana Nikolova Wins All-Around Gold at European Rhythmic Gymnastics Championships". Novinite. 25 May 2024. Retrieved 2024-05-25.
- ^ "Bulgarian Boryana Kaleyn Advances to Rhythmic Gymnastics Final in Paris". www.novinite.com. 8 August 2024. Retrieved 2024-08-10.
- ^ Yordanov, Stefan (2024-08-08). "Огромна болка за Стилияна Николова! Само Боряна Калейн ще се бори за медалите в Париж" [A huge pain for Stiliana Nikolova! Only Boryana Kaleyn will fight for the medals in Paris]. Actualno.com (in Bulgarian). Retrieved 2024-08-10.
- ^ Vasileva, Elka (13 August 2024). "Стилияна Николова: Ще мисля всичко стъпка по стъпка" [Stiliana Nikolova: I will think everything through step by step]. Bulgaria Dnes (in Bulgarian). Retrieved 2024-11-24.