Staniliya Stamenova donated her canoe to the Educational and Olympic Center at NSA

The most successful Bulgarian female canoeist, Staniliya Stamenova, donated her boat to the Educational and Olympic Center at NSA "Vasil Levski." The world champion in C-200 from Milan 2015, winner of three gold medals from European championships, and five more distinctions from major tournaments, donated the canoe with which she achieved her first major successes.

Stamenova symbolically handed over the valuable boat to the rector, Prof. Krasimir Petkov, at an official ceremony held at the center, in the presence of her first coach, Assoc. Prof. Vesela Treneva, and Senior Assistant Nikola Gospodarski (both from the Department of Water Sports), after which she received a certificate for the donation.

"First of all, a huge thank you to Staniliya for her attitude toward the National Sports Academy and for this valuable donation. It is absolutely true that if we do not preserve our history, we have no future. In that sense, everything Staniliya has achieved in sports is historical and extremely important," said Prof. Petkov. "I am pleased that the number of elite athletes donating their trophies and equipment to our Educational and Olympic Center is increasing. Such gestures are of great importance for educating the young people who visit the center and see with their own eyes what graduates of the Sports Academy have achieved..."

"I owe so much to NSA. I started studying at the Academy as a track and field athlete, but I suffered a very serious ankle injury and first redirected myself to rowing and then to canoe-kayak," said Staniliya Stamenova. "Here are the people with whom I started—Nikola Gospodarski in rowing and later Vesela Treneva in canoeing. I remember how, even while pregnant, she would drive me every day to Pancharevo so we could train. That’s how my sporting path in canoe-kayak began, and it is inextricably linked to the Sports Academy. I am deeply grateful and thank NSA for everything I achieved in sports, as well as all my coaches afterward, and of course, the Bulgarian Canoe Federation. It is an honor for me that this boat will be displayed in the Educational and Olympic Center alongside other exhibits that will inspire students and all young visitors."

Senior Assistant Nikola Gospodarski clarified that the late Prof. Rumyan Hristov played an important role in directing Stamenova toward canoeing: "He intervened at the beginning of Staniliya’s career in water sports, pointing out that in academic rowing and kayaking, she would have to compete with athletes who had been training for a long time before her. At that moment, women's canoeing in the country was just beginning to form, and Stamenova would have an equal start with everyone else. Prof. Hristov later turned out to be right, and his opinion was decisive in where Staniliya would focus her efforts," Gospodarski shared.

Currently, Staniliya Stamenova is the Deputy Mayor of Kuklen Municipality, responsible for municipal property and economic activities, transport, youth activities and sports, ecology, tourism, and cleanliness.