[1] Born in Parvomay of Turkish ethnicity,[2] Naimova took up athletics at the age of 10 and was initially trained by Tanyo Tanev, but changed to former triple jumper Stoyko Tsonov, who has been her coach since seventh grade.

In August, Naimova won two titles at the 2006 World Junior Championships in Athletics in Beijing, in the 100 (11.28 seconds) and 200 metres (22.99, a personal best), thus completely dominating the sprint disciplines.

[2] In 2009 it became known that Naimova received a two-year ban from competition from the Bulgarian Athletic Federation, after that body found that she had manipulated the results of an out-of-competition IAAF urine test on 28 June 2008.

[6] In 2013 Naimova tested positive for the banned steroid drostanolone right after winning the 60 metres event at the 2013 European Athletics Indoor Championships held in Gothenburg in March.

Subsequently Ukraine's Mariya Ryemyen, who came second in the Gothenburg final, was declared the gold medalist of the 60m event, with France's Myriam Soumaré taking the silver medal and Bulgaria's Ivet Lalova the bronze.