Erika Karabeleva
Erika Karabeleva () is a Bulgarian taekwondo practitioner. Competing in the 53 kg division, Karabeleva represents the Bulgaria national team. She won the silver medal in the women's 53 kg event at the 2026 European Taekwondo Championships in Munich, Germany.
Career
Karabeleva competed internationally from the children's and cadet age categories onward. In 2017, she represented the Bulgarian national team at the Hereya Open in Sofia and won the children's 34 kg event. In 2019, she won the children's 36 kg event at the European Clubs Championships in Thessaloniki, Greece.
In 2021, Karabeleva won the gold medal in the 41 kg event at the Multi European Games in Sofia. In 2022, she again won gold at the same event, this time in the 44 kg division. She also competed in the 44 kg event at the 2022 World Cadet Taekwondo Championships held in Sofia. She defeated Alexis Reid of the United States and Greece's Eygenia Parapagkidi, before losing to Thailand's Yada Sangthong in the quarter-finals and finishing fifth.
In 2023, Karabeleva won junior-level gold medals in the 49 kg event at the Austrian Open in Innsbruck, the Skopje Open, the European Clubs Championships in Sofia and the Serbia Open in Belgrade. The same year, she won the bronze medal in the 49 kg event at the European Junior Championships in Tallinn, Estonia. She defeated Sara Pejnović and Nurselin Aydemir, before losing 2–1 to Turkey's Elif Sude Akgül in the semi-finals and finishing third.
In 2024, she moved up to the junior 52 kg division. She won the silver medal at the Slovenia Open in Ljubljana, and gold medals at the Skopje Open and the Austrian Open in Vienna. At the 2024 World Junior Taekwondo Championships held in Chuncheon, South Korea, she defeated Malak Chahid and Jiang Yi-syuan before losing 2–1 to Turkey's Sıla Irmak Uzunçavdar in the quarter-finals.
In 2025, Karabeleva won gold medals in the 52 kg event at the Slovenia Open in Ljubljana, the Bulgaria Open in Sofia, the Serbia Open in Belgrade and the Spanish Open in La Nucia. The same year, she won the European edition of the WT President's Cup in Sofia after defeating Monika Ilieva and Inari Susiluoto. In July 2025, Karabeleva won the gold medal in the girls' 55 kg event at the 2025 European Youth Summer Olympic Festival in Skopje, North Macedonia. In the final, she defeated Turkey's Sıla Uzunçavdar 2–0 to win the title. Before the final, she also defeated opponents from Finland, France, Belgium and Spain. Later in 2025, Karabeleva began competing at senior level in the 53 kg division. She won gold medals at the Montenegro Open in Podgorica and the Balkan Cup in Dupnitsa. At the Balkan Cup, she defeated Alejandra Frutos Fernández Cañadas and Athina Makrygianni by 2–0 scores to win the title. At the 2025 European Junior Championships in Aigle, Switzerland, she competed in the 52 kg event. She defeated Maya Shwartz 2–0, but lost 2–0 to Sıla Irmak Uzunçavdar in the quarter-finals and finished outside the medals. At the 2025 World U21 Taekwondo Championships in Nairobi, Kenya, she reached the quarter-finals of the women's 53 kg event. She defeated Milina Mesko and Ariel Vigdor, before losing to Bosnia and Herzegovina's Ada Avdagić and finishing fifth.
In 2026, Karabeleva won the bronze medal in the 53 kg event at the Belgian Open in Lommel. At the 2026 European Taekwondo Championships held in Munich, Germany, she won the silver medal in the women's 53 kg event. She defeated Great Britain's Jodie McKew 2–0 in the semi-finals to reach the final. In the final, she lost 2–0 to Turkey's Merve Dinçel Kavurat and finished as European runner-up.