Ivet Lalova was born on May 18, 1984, in Sofia.

She began in sport at the age of ten with swimming and gymnastics, but quickly gave transferred to track and field where she discovered her heart really lay.

Her father Miroslav Lalov was national sprinter with bests of 10.4 and 21.9 (Bulgarian champion at 200m in 1966). Also her mother, Liliya Petrunova was a talented sprinter with 12.2 and 25.4 personal bests.

Lalova's first coach was Konstantin Milanov.

In 2000 Ivet Lalova won a national title for the first time. That year she became Bulgarian Youth champion at 100m with 12.14 at the championships held in Sofia.

Lalova subsequently took fourth place at 200m at the IAAF World Youth Championships in Debrecen 2001.

In 2003 she became double European Junior champion at 100 (11.43) and 200m (22.88) in Tampere, Finland. At the 200m her supremacy over the Swede Jenny Ljunggren in second place was 0.47 of a second.

Lalova is the eighth European woman to have won this particular championship double - Lyudmila Zharkova (USSR) - 1968; Bдrbel Lockhoff (GDR) - 1977; Kerstin Walther (GDR) - 1979; Kerstin Berend (GDR) - 1985; Diana Dietz - 1987 (GDR); Zhana Tarnopolskaya (UKR) - 1991; Zina Schielke (GER) - 1999.

In 2004, in the indoor season Lalova strode to an indoor national record for 200m of 22.87 (February 1). She has also continued well outdoors over the longer sprint, with a 22.36 (+2.1) on 23 May, a 22.86 to win the national championships (June 6) and a 22.58 personal best on 20 June.

At 100m Lalova began her summer with a 11.14 outing at 100m (May 22) and then continued with 11.12 & 11.39 (29 May), 11.06 and 11.33 (May 30) and an 11.32 clocking in rainy Plovdiv (June 5) to win the national title.

The following race was her astonishing 10.77 national record run in Plovdiv on June 19.

Lalova became the third Bulgarian women - after Aneliya Nuneva (10.85) and Nadezhda Georgieva (10.95 windy) to run 100m in under 11 seconds.

During the Athens Olympics 2004 Lalova recorded Bulgaria's best performance so far, entering both 100m and 200m finals and ending fourth in the 100m finish.

She is now the future of Bulgarina sprinting following on from the illustrious feats of Ivanka Valkova, Lilyana Panayotova, Sofka Popova, Nadezhda Georgieva, Aneliya Nuneva and Petya Pendareva.