Valentina Georgieva

Valentina Georgieva (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 and qualified for the 2024 Olympic Games. As a junior, she won a silver medal on vault at the 2020 European Championships.

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.

Junior
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, and she placed second on the vault behind North Korea's An Chang-ok. She also finished second to An at the Cottbus World Cup. Then at the Baku World Cup, she won the gold medal and secured her qualification for the 2024 Olympic Games.