The BTA Best Balkan Athlete of the Year, Balkan Athlete of the Year, or simply Athlete of the Balkans is an annual sports athlete of the year award. The winner of each year's award is announced by the Bulgarian News Agency (BTA). The award is given to the year's top performing individual athlete that has citizenship from one of the nations of the Balkans region, which includes the twelve nations of: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia, and Turkey, and previously included the former nations of Yugoslavia, FR Yugoslavia, and Serbia and Montenegro. The award winners are chosen by the votes of a panel of sports journalists and editors from the following ten Balkan nation's news media outlets: the Albanian Telegraphic Agency (ATA), the Bulgarian News Agency (BTA), which also announces each year's winners, the Romanian AGERPRES, the Greek Athens-Macedonian News Agency (ANA-MPA), the Turkish Anadolu Agency (AA), the Croatian News Agency (HINA), the Bosnia and Herzegovina Federal News Agency (FENA), the North Macedonia Media Information Agency (MIA), the Montenegrin News Agency (MINA), and the Serbian Tanjug.