site.btaUPDATED Bulgaria's Olympic Weightlifting Champion Karlos Nasar Makes It into Top 10 of BTA's Balkan Athlete of the Year Poll

Olympic, world and European weightlifting champion Karlos Nasar is in the top 10 of the 51st edition of BTA's Balkan Athlete of the Year Poll. The athlete set world records in the snatch, the clean and jerk, and the total lift.

In 2024, Nasar took the men's 89kg Olympic weightlifting title at the Paris Games with a total of 404 kg. He won the world title at the IWF World Championships in Manama with two world records: 183 kg in the snatch and an overall lift of 405 kg. 

The Balkan Athlete of the Year poll is conducted among the national news agencies of the Balkan countries: BTA (Bulgaria), ANA-MPA (Greece), Agerpres (Romania), Anadolu Agency (Turkiye), Tanjug (Serbia), MINA (Montenegro), MIA (Republic of North Macedonia), HINA (Croatia), FENA (Bosnia and Herzegovina), CNA (Cyprus) and ATA (Albania).

Bulgarian 800 m runner Svetla Zlateva is the winner of the very first edition of BTA's poll in 1973.

The winner of the 2024 poll and the ranking will be announced in January.

Top 10 in the BTA Balkan Athlete of 2024 Poll (in alphabetical order):

Apostolos Christou (Greece) - swimming

Barbara Matic (Croatia) - judo

David Popovici (Romania) - swimming

Dusan Mandic (Serbia) - water polo

Karlos Nasar (Bulgaria) - weightlifting

Kostas Sloukas (Greece) - basketball

Miltiadis Tentoglou (Greece) - athletics

Nikola Jokic (Serbia) - basketball

Novak Djokovic (Serbia) - tennis

Yusuf Dikec (Turkiye) - shooting.