She is blond and beautiful and has big muscles. She is a champion in the biggest martial art competitions and a winner at the professional ring. Bulgarian athlete Albena Sitnilska earned a series of medal in her rich sports career. So far she won 28 European and 3 world titles in different taekwondo disciplines. She also has 2 European and a world titles in kickboxing. When she was a teenager her desire to practice sports took her to the martial arts training hall quite accidentally, I didn’t choose taekwondo. It chose me, Albena contends and adds that she has been part of that sport for twenty two years now:

My first taekwondo sparring match was in 1998 and my opponent knocked the wind out of me, Albena Sitnilska recalls. My mother also attended the event. Then, she told me: You should give up this sport, because I don’t like it. However, I continued practicing taekwondo and many years later I am still part of it. I liked taekwondo the moment I stepped inside the training hall, because the boys and the girls from my taekwondo club had just returned from a competition and had won many medals. They told me stories from their sparring matches. I was captivated by their stories and wanted to know how it feels to be a winner.

Bulgaria’s champion fills with adrenaline and faces challenges on the taekwondo ring. This makes her feel alive. Fighting became her lifestyle. That is why she imprinted her philosophy in a large tattoo of a female samurai on her hand.

The strong will, the desire for victory and the ability to give my best are perhaps my strongest features, Albena Sitnilska went on to say. Of course the physical qualities we built through the years and in the course of many practices also matter. However, strong will and big heart help a lot, because the will to win also comes from the heart. 

Despite the dangerous situations and moments on the taekwondo ring, Albena has never thought of giving up. However, her most severe injury took her out from sports for one whole year, because she suffered an ACL injury on her knee. However, her ordeal in sports was compensated by a huge joy – the birth of her daughter Hristea.

I think I am a strong person, I know what I want and do my best to achieve my goals, Albena Sitnilska, who had a triumph comeback in taekwondo, contends. I heard many things about myself such as:”Wow, look how big her biceps are!” This is so, because I give complexes to some men with my physics.

Recently Albena started practicing kickboxing as well. She already had two matches in a cage and won two victories at K 1 gala evenings. The Bulgarian athlete signed a two-year contract with SFC – The Matrix and has to play at least four more professional matches. Meanwhile, she will attend the World Taekwondo Championships in Plovdiv in August.

My most precious medal is the first gold medal from European Taekwondo Championships, Albena Sitnilska recalls. The competition was held in Bulgaria in 2004 and was incredible, because the Bulgarian audience was very euphoric. The other precious medal is from the World Kickboxing Championships in 2013. It may sound a little immodest, but I did not face strong competition at this championship and I won the title quite easily, which made me believe that I can participate successfully in this discipline as well, all the more this was only my second international competition.

Albena Sitnilska has not yet fulfilled her dream to compete at Olympic Games. However, taekwondo and kickboxing have not yet become Olympic sports. Currently, talks are underway to make kickboxing part of this huge sports forum. Time will show whether the world’s most dangerous woman will participate at the Tokyo Summer Olympics next year.

English version: Kostadin Atanasov