Stiliana Nikolova has won the silver medal in the individual all-around at the 2026 Rhythmic Gymnastics World Championships in Frankfurt, Germany. She won Bulgaria’s first medal of the championships and secured the country a quota place for the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles.
Nikolova finished with a total score of 117.600 points, earning 30.150 on hoop, 29.250 on ball, 29.000 on clubs and 29.200 on ribbon.
The result makes Nikolova world all-around runner-up for the second consecutive time, following her silver medal in Rio in 2025. She is also the reigning European all-around runner-up, having won silver in Varna in 2026.
The Bulgarian gymnast now has 12 World Championship medals, one gold, eight silver and three bronze, as well as 18 European Championship medals, including nine gold, six silver and three bronze.
Germany’s Darja Varfolomeev claimed the world title with 119.500 points. In front of her home crowd, the Olympic and European champion became World champion for the third consecutive time.
Italy’s Sofia Raffaeli took the bronze with 117.550 points. Nikolova beat Raffaeli by just 0.050 points, repeating the podium finish from the 2025 World Championships.
Nikolova was extremely happy after securing the silver medal.
“I’m definitely pleased with myself. I’m especially happy that I secured the Olympic quota, that I’m a world silver medalist, and overall I’m very satisfied and relieved,” she said after the competition.
“This format is very demanding, and we are prepared for it. I realized that the competition was extremely strong and very difficult, but we were ready for that,” she added.
“Nothing is a matter of life or death. This wasn’t the last competition where an Olympic quota could be won. I’m very happy that I managed to secure it at the first opportunity. We have two years until the Olympic Games. That’s not such a long time, so I’ll keep working on myself and continue to develop,” the gymnast said.
She added that she would approach Sunday’s apparatus finals with the same level of determination.
