Other than Zlateva, these medals were taken by Stefka Yordanova, Rositsa Pekhlivanova, Nikolina Shtereva, Lilyana Tomova and Totka Petrova.

At the 1972 Summer Olympics she competed in 800 metres, winning her initial heat with the result 1:58.93 minutes.

[1] 1:58.93 was an Olympic record, and Zlateva even led the first 600 metres of the final race, but was overcome by both Hildegard Falck, Nijolė Sabaitė and Gunhild Hoffmeister; Falck deleting Zlateva's Olympic record.

[11] However, Zlateva improved Falck's world record by 0.97 seconds, when she ran in 1:57.48 minutes in Athens on 24 August 1973.

She retained the record until 12 June 1976, when Soviet Valentina Gerasimova ran in 1:56.0 minutes.