Ivet Lalova-Collio

At a glance

Source: Wikipedia: Ivet Lalova-Collio¹

Career beginnings

Lalova began competing in swimming and gymnastics at the age of 10, then switched to track and field. She became Bulgarian Youth champion in the 100 metres in 2000. At the 2003 European Athletics Junior Championships in Tampere, she won both the 100 metres and 200 metres.¹

In 2004, she ran 100 metres in 10.77 seconds in Plovdiv, a personal best, and finished fourth in that event and fifth in the 200 metres at the Athens Olympics. She won the 200 metres at the 2005 European Indoor Championships. In June 2005, a collision during a warm-up caused a fracture of her right femur and kept her out of competition until May 2007.¹

European medals

After returning to racing in 2007, Lalova competed at the Beijing 2008 Olympics and later moved to Italy to join coach Roberto Bonomi’s group. In 2012, she won the 100 metres at the European Athletics Championships in Helsinki. She reached the semi-finals of both sprint events at the London Olympics that year.¹

At the 2016 European Championships in Amsterdam, Lalova won silver in both the 100 metres and 200 metres. She also reached the 200 metres final at the 2015 World Championships in Beijing, finishing seventh after setting a personal best of 22.32 seconds in the semi-final.¹

Later career

Lalova competed at the Rio 2016 Olympics, placing eighth in the 200 metres final, and later took part in the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, held in August 2021. Her final competition was the 200 metres there, where she did not advance beyond the heats. She retired from athletics after a career that included five Olympic appearances.¹

In January 2026, the Athletics Integrity Unit issued Lalova-Collio with a provisional suspension. Re-testing of her Rio 2016 samples using modern techniques found ostarine.¹

In January 2026 she was provisionally suspended after a re-test of her samples from the 2016 Rio Olympics found ostarine.¹