# Valentina Georgieva

Valentina Georgieva (Bulgarian: Валентина Георгиева; born 28 July 2006) is a Bulgarian artistic gymnast. She is the 2024 European silver medalist on vault. She missed nearly two years of competition due to an injury at the 2022 European Championships, but she returned to competition during the 2024 FIG World Cup series. She represented Bulgaria at the 2024 Summer Olympics.

## Early life

Georgieva was born on 28 July 2006 in Sofia. She began rhythmic gymnastics when she was four years old, but she switched to artistic gymnastics at age seven. She has an older brother named Nikolay.

## Gymnastics career
### Junior career

Georgieva competed at the 2020 Junior European Championships in Mersin, where she won the silver medal on vault behind Romania's Ana Bărbosu. She also finished 14th in the all-around, and the Bulgarian team placed eighth. She was also the Bulgarian junior national all-around champion between 2018 and 2021.

### 2022

Georgieva became age-eligible for senior competition in 2022 and made her senior international debut at the Baku World Cup. She was the top qualifier for the vault final, but she finished seventh in the final. She went on to compete at the Varna World Challenge Cup, where she qualified to both the vault and floor exercise finals, finishing seventh and sixth, respectively. She won her first senior international medal at the Osijek World Challenge Cup in Croatia, taking the gold medal in the vault final ahead of Teja Belak and Tjaša Kysselef. This marked the first time a Bulgarian female artistic gymnast won a medal at a FIG World Challenge Cup since 2017. Additionally, she finished seventh in the floor final.
Georgieva competed at the 2022 European Championships in Munich, where she qualified to the vault final in sixth place. However, she sustained an injury on the landing of her first of two vaults in the final, and could not finish the competition. It was later reported that she had suffered a femoral fracture and a torn ACL. On 9 September, she had surgery to repair her ACL as well as her meniscus.

### 2024

Georgieva announced that she would return to competition at the 2024 FIG World Cup series with the goal of qualifying for the 2024 Olympic Games. Her first competition was the Cairo World Cup where she placed second on vault behind North Korea's An Chang-ok. She next finished second at the Cottbus World Cup, once again behind An. At the third World Cup in the series, in Baku, she won the gold medal and secured her qualification for the 2024 Olympic Games. At the Doha World Cup, the final competition in the series, Georgieva won bronze on vault behind Karla Navas and An. In May Georgieva competed at the European Championships where she won silver on vault Coline Devillard.
At the 2024 Olympic Games Georgieva qualified to the vault final where she ultimately finished fifth.

## Competitive history

| Year | Event | Team | AA | VT | FX |
| Junior ||||||||
| 2020 |
| 2020 | European Championships | 8 | 14 | | |
| Senior ||||||||
| 2022 | Baku World Cup | | | 7 | |
| 2022 | Varna World Challenge Cup | | | 7 | 6 |
| 2022 | Osijek World Challenge Cup | | | | 7 |
| 2022 | European Championships | | | DNF | |
| 2024 | Cairo World Cup | | | | |
| 2024 | Cottbus World Cup | | | | |
| 2024 | Baku World Cup | | | | |
| 2024 | Doha World Cup | | | | |
| 2024 | European Championships | | | | |
| 2024 | Olympic Games | | | 5 | |