Natalia Valeeva

Like many other Soviet athletes, who continued their athletics career after the fall of Soviet Union, Natalia Valeeva represented many nations throughout her career. At the start of her career she represented the Soviet Union and then her birth country Moldova until she married an Italian archer Roberto Cocchi in late 1996 and gained Italian citizenship and has represented her husband's birth country since. She has been the top female archer in each country she has represented and has been ranked as the number one female archer in the world several times, most recently in 2008, just before the Beijing Olympics. Although Valeeva was one of the best female archers in the 1990s and 2000s, she has struggled at the Olympics. Having participated in five Olympic Games, she medaled only in her first games in 1992, winning bronzes in both the individual and team events. At the World Championships, Valeeva has been much more successful, winning World individual titles in 1995 and 2007, as the only non-Korean female competitor to do so since 1989. She also won a World team title in 1999, and silvers in the team event in 1991 and 2001. At the World Indoor Championships, Valeeva has won the individual title four times (1991, 1995, 1999 and 2001) and a team title in 2009, while taking individual silvers in 1993 and 2009. At the European Championships, Valeeva won the individual title in 2002, silver in 1996 and bronze in 1998, team silvers in 1998 and 2004, and a bronze in 2000. Valeeva is also a three-time European Indoor individual champion (1989, 1996, 2002), while winning a team title in 1989 and individual silver in 2004.