Medals and Awards
Zlateva came first in her category at the 2006, 2007, 2008, 2010 and 2011 World Championships (in Baku, Guangzhou, Tokyo, Moscow and Istanbul respectively), third in 2009 (Herning), fourth in 2004 (New York), fifth in 2005 (Budapest), seventh in 2001 (Sofia) and eight in 2002 (Chalcis).
She also has 5 European championships, winning the 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010 titles (Moscow, Sofia, Tampere, Vilnius and Baku respectively), as well as coming third in 2005 and 2011 (Varna and Dortmund), fourth in 2003 and fifth in 2004.
She was the first Bulgarian female wrestler at the Olympics as women's wrestling debuted at the 2004 Games in Athens, and Zlateva represented Bulgaria there, coming twelfth. At the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, she was aspiring to win gold, but lost to the surprise champion Wang Jiao of the People's Republic of China in the final. She has qualified for the 2012 Olympics automatically as the Gold medalist in the 2011 World Wrestling Championships.
On 19 December 2011, Zlateva was honoured with the title of Bulgarian Sportsperson of the Year for the third time since the start of her wrestling career, becoming joint equal with Boyan Radev regarding the number of times a Bulgarian wrestler had won the distinction.
On 9 August 2012, she reached the final of the Women's freestyle 72 kg wrestling competition at the 2012 Summer Olympics, but was defeated by Russian Natalia Vorobieva. Zlateva won the first period by a score of 1:0, but her opponent managed to pin her during the second one, which secured Vorobieva's title. Zlateva was her country's flagbearer during the closing ceremony of the games.
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