Natalia Valeeva

Natalia Valeeva (born November 15, 1969) is an athlete from Italy. She competes in archery.

Natalia Valeeva is the top female archer in Italy. She is a four-time Olympian, and a native of Moldova, having represented the C.I.S. and later, Italy, at the Olympic Games of 1992, 96, 00, and 04. She won the individual bronze medal in the 1992 Olympic Games.

In her latest Olympic appearance, Valeeva represented Italy at the 2004 Summer Olympics where she placed 9th in the women's individual ranking round with a 72-arrow score of 650. In the first round of elimination in high winds and difficult conditions, she faced 56th-ranked Jasmin Figueroa of the Philippines. The biggest upset of the round, this match saw Valeeva lose to Figueroa 132-130 in the 18-arrow match, dropping all the way to 53rd overall in women's individual archery.

In the World Championships of 2007, in Leipzig, Germany, Valeeva won the Gold Medal, beating Korean top archer Park, holder of the FITA world record for the qualifying round of 1405 points (of a possible 1440).

This was the second gold medal in the outdoor World Championships for Valeeva, the first one in 1995.

So far in her career, Valeeva has collected 7 individual gold medals in World Championships (indoor and outdoor), and she is one of the few archers in the world to have won the Indoor and Outdoor World Championship in the same year, in 1995.

She will participate in the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing (China), as she was the first Italian athlete to have gained the Olympic Card for 2008 OG.

Valeeva is the mother of twins, and is married to an Italian native. She is sponsored by Hoyt archery and Easton Technical Products as a member of their Pro Staff.