site.btaSnowboarder Zamfirova: I Want to Have Fun at Bansko World Cup

Snowboarder Malena Zamfirova said she was excited ahead of the Alpine Snowboard World Cup events in Bansko, she told BTA on Friday.

Two women’s parallel giant slalom races will take place on Saturday and Sunday on Banderishka Polyana, with the 16-year-old set to wear No. 15 in Saturday’s qualifying run.

“I’m excited and I feel good. To be honest, I have no expectations for Saturday, but I hope we have a good time and it turns into a nice, strong race. Above all, I want to have fun,” Zamfirova said.

She urged fans who planned to watch the competition to support the riders. “We snowboarders want the crowd to back us as much as possible, to make a lot of noise down at the bottom, and when we come down to the finish, to hear them,” Zamfirova added.

Zamfirova is a Bulgarian alpine snowboarder who competes in the parallel disciplines (parallel slalom and parallel giant slalom). She stepped onto the senior stage with her FIS Snowboard World Cup debut in Bansko in January 2025 and soon began posting standout results on the European circuit, including a second-place finish in her first European Cup final in Bansko and a European Cup bronze, as well as a runner-up placing in a FIS parallel giant slalom in Italy. In 2025 she also achieved major junior success, winning silver in parallel giant slalom and, together with her brother Tervel Zamfirov, taking gold in the mixed team event at the FIS Snowboard Junior World Championships, before continuing her rise with a fifth place in a Snowboard Alpine World Cup parallel slalom in Davos in December 2025. Her progress was recognized at continental level when she won the Winter Piotr Nurowski Prize of the European Olympic Committees for Europe’s best young winter athlete.