Val and Sandra Bezic, brother and sister, are famous Canadian figure skating pair. They were champions of Canada in the period of 1970-1974, and representatives of Canada in the Winter Olympic Games, Munich, 1972 (placed ninth). Sandra Bezic is known as one of the best figure skating choreographers in the world. For many years, Bezic served as producer, director, and choreographer of the touring show Stars on Ice. Sandra Bezic also worked on highly acclaimed “Carmen on Ice.” She designed programs for Olympic champions Brian Boitano and Kristi Yamaguchi, and wrote the book The Passion to Skate, which was made into a documentary. Bezic also choreographed the routines of figure skaters Kurt Browning, Josée Chouinard, and Katarina Witt for 1994 Olympics.

European champion Nikolay Pechalov (of Bulgarian origin) won Croatia’s Olympic gold medal in weightlifting in men’s 62 kilogram class in Sydney in 2000. He set an Olympic Games record of 150 kg in the snatch and lifted 175 kg in the clean and jerk for a combined total of 325 kg, an Olympic record. His principal sponsor was Goran Ivanisevic.

Dean Lukin is a famous weigthlifter in Australia. He has Croatian roots: his father Dinko Lukin, a famous tuna farmer in Australia, is from Croatia. In 1984, with the assistance of an Eastern European and USSR boycott of the Los Angeles Games, Dean Lukin won Australia’s first weightlifting gold medal at an Olympic Games.

His win was in the Super Heavyweight category (approximatly 140 kg), and in fact he was the first ever in the history of the sport to do so (snatch 172.5 kg, clean & jerk 240 kg, total 412.5 kg). Dean, a full-time tuna fisherman and part-time weightlifter, had the honour to carry the Australian flag during the closing ceremony of the 1984 Olympic Games.

Dean Lukin 1982 Commonwealth Games, YouTube

Dean Lukin jerks 227.5kg 1983,YouTube

1985 Dean Lukin 240.5kg Jerk, YouTube

Run Your Best … One great achievement is to do a “P.B.”: personal best. They want to achieve the Olympic motto “Citius–altius–fortius”: “Faster, higher, stronger”. Whenever an athlete achieves beyond his or her best ever achievement, then you have a success, whether a medal is won or not. One personal best which stands out in my memory, resulted in a gold medal for Dean Lukin in the Los Angles Games 1984. Dean Lukin, from Port Lincoln, South Australia, was an amateur in Olympic weight lifting. He was the son of a fisherman who worked for his dad. He built massive legs and arms hauling in huge blue fin tuna from the southern ocean. He was 24, already a millionaire, owning a white Mercedes and two light planes. He won gold in the super-heavyweight division in the Commonwealth Games and the national titles. He trained only in the 16 weeks prior to the Olympics because work came first. The super heavyweight lifters from Russia, the Eastern block countries and America trained full-time, held all the records, and had won every previous Olympic gold medal. At Los Angles Dean Lukin was to lift his personal best. Dinko “Dean” Lukin After the first round he trailed in third place behind the American Mario Martinez who was the favourite and Manfred Nerlinger from West Germany. Dean Lukin, after the snatch was 15 kilos behind Mario allowing for the personal weight difference. In the final clean and jerk Mario lifted 220 kilograms, his personal best. But Lukin with a great effort lifted 222 kilograms. The West German tried for his personal best but fell flat on his back. Then Lukin lifted 227.5 kilos, his personal best. Lukin was now guaranteed at least a silver medal. Mario then lifted another personal best of 225 kilos. 10,000 American spectators roared, certain their man had won the gold medal. Mario Martinez came back on stage for three encores. Lukin was, on the combined weights 12.5 kilos behind, and he had just lifted his personal best for the second time. The speakers announced “Dean Lukin will pass other lifts and go for gold. He has ordered the bar to be loaded to 240 kilos.” The crowd was stunned. As he walked on stage, Lukin was attempting 12.5 kilos more than he had ever lifted before. With the cleanest of clean and jerks he heaved the bar above his head, holding aloft the equivalent of two large refrigerators! The judges signalled a clean lift. He had won. The crowd went delirious. I jumped high into the air! That night the Russians took him out to dinner, treating him like a hero because he had defeated the Americans. He had done his best. … The point of personal best, is not an individual achievement. Dean Lukin had his coach by his side focusing his energies. His mother was in the dressing room urging him on in a way that made him determined. A personal best is a quality that is achieved by human effort plus the help and support of others. … Dr John F. MacArthur, Jr. “The Gospel According To Jesus” Zondervan, 1988. [source]

Ana Srsen, photo from Hrvatski paraolimpijski odbor

Ana Srsen is a top Croatian paraolympic swimmer, very successfuly competing at interanational competitions for disabled. In 1998 she became a world record holder on 100 m breast-stroke. In 2002 she set two world records at Interantional Competition in Zagreb: on 200 m and on 800 m freestyle. Interview with Ana Srsen (in Croatian).

Mihovil Spanja, Manchester 2008, source javno.com

Mihovil Spanja, a top paraolympic swimmer, set a world record on 50 m breast-stroke for disabled in Berlin in 2008. At the 2008 Paraolympic World Cup in Manchester he won silver medal on 100 m backstroke.

During the 2010 World Championship in the Netherlands 2010 Mihovil Spanja won paralympic gold medal on 400 m freestyle in large pools with a new world record 4:47.39, and another gold medal on on 100 m breastroke, again with a new world record 1:25.11. At the same competition he won silver medal on 100 m backstroke, and another silver medal on 200 m mixed style with a new European record 2:37.32.

Croatian Sports Federation For The Disabled

Darko Kralj won gold medal at the 2008 Beijing Paraolympic Games in China. Competing in Men’s Shot Put he broke a new world record at the National Stadium known as Bird’s Nest. He said: “My biggest wish was to listen to the Croatian anthem in Beijing.” Mr. Kralj lost his left leg during the Serbian aggression on Croatia. Photos by Xinhua.

Antonia Balek won two gold medals for Croatia at the 2008 Paraolympic Games in China. The first gold medal has been won in women’s javelin, and the second in women’s Shot Put, both with new world records. The competition was held in the National Stadium known as Bird’s Nest in front of 85,000 spectators. Antonia survived a deep coma which lasted for 3 years. Photos by Getty Images.

Mikela Ristoski is Paraolympic champion in triple long jump in Rio 2016, as well as the 2015 world champion in para-triple long jump..

Branimir Budetic celebrates with his mother after finishing second during the final of the men’s javelin F11-12 classification event at the 2008 Beijing Paralympic Games in Beijing on September 10, 2008. Photos by Getty Images.

Since 1998. Croatia had outstanding results in crossbow competitions, especially for ladies. One of the best competitors of the world for ladies is Branka Pereglin. She was:

• eight times European champion: in 1995 (Portugal), 1997 (Portugal), 1999 (Croatia), 2001 (Czechia), 2005 (Holland), 2007 (Russia) at outdoor competitions, and in 2003 (Belgium) and 2005 (Russia) at indoor competitions on 18 meters,
• from 1995 to 2007 she participated on all European championships, and won gold medals on all of them!
• four times world champion: in 1996 (Taiwan), 1998 (Hungary), 2002 (Croatia), in 2004 (Czechia), and world vicechampion of the world in 2000 (New Zealand) and 2006 (Austria). She set seventeen (17) world records, and equalled one.

Branka Pereglin, a famous Croatian crossbow shooter, in total concentration…
Note her nice dress decorated with well known motive from Croatian Coat of Arms.

It is amazing that in 2004, during the European Crossbow Championship in Czechia, the Croatian female team (Branka Pereglin, Nikolina Krivanek and Sanja Komar) surpassed the best male team (France) by 85 points!

Croatia had excellent results in shooting sport, mainly due to shooting club Dalmacijacement in the town of Solin near Split. Among numerous excellent resuts we mention Branka Jankov who won gold medal at the 1983 European shooting championship in Dortmund, for which she was awarded as Olympic flame carrier for the Winter Olympics in Sarajevo in 1984. In 1986 Vesna Domazet became world champion st the World shooting championship in Suhl, the then Eastern Germany, and in 1987 she won gold medal at the World Cup in Munich. Ana Nazor and Marina Borzic won gold medals at the European junior shooting championship in 1994 in Wroclaw, Poland. The same year Mladenka Malenica won gold medal at the World Cup in Milano.

Many thanks to dr. Josipa-Pina Milisic for help to collect data about the Solin shooting club.

Snjezana Pejcic won bronze medal at the 2008 Bejing Olympic Games in women’s shooting (10m air rifle, 40 shots).

Josip Glasnovic wins Croatia’s first gold of the 2016 Olympics (in trap shooting)

The Croatian alpinist Stipe Bozic (Split) climbed Mount Everest twice, the first time in 1979. He was the second European to do so after Messner. See Bozic’s beautiful photos at Fotoklub Split. The Croatian Alpine Association (Hrvatski planinarski savez) is among the oldest in the world: it was founded in 1874, the same year as in France. Let us mention by the way that the oldest novel in the world about mountains is Planine (Mountains), written in Croatian by Petar Zoranic in 1536 and printed in Venice in 1569. It is also the oldest Croatian novel. Petar Zoranic, outstanding Croatian Renaissance writer, was born in Zadar in 1508.

Four Croatian female alpinists climbed on Mt Everest (8850 m) in 2009, among them two sisters Darija and Iris Bostjancic, besides Milena Šijan and Ena Vrbek. It was for the first time that two sisters climbed on the top of Himalayas.

It was the 2nd Female Croatian Expedition, led by Darko Berljak, which consisted of 11 girls. The first expedition was successfuly organized in 2007 on Cho Oyu (8201 m), 35 km west of Mt Everest.

Sofia Mulanovich Peruvian surfer of Croatian descent inducted in Olympic Museum.

Ivan Bjelovucic the first in history to fly over the Alps in 1913

Blanka Vlasic, high-jumper, with her record jump of 2.07 (the second best in history, 2007), was Junior World Champion twice (Santiago, Chile, in 2000; Kingston, Jamaica, in 2002), and champion of XIVth Mediterranean Games in Tunisia, 2001. In 2007 she won the gold medal in Japan at the World Championship in Athletics, Osaka 2007. This is the first gold medal for Croatia in World Championships in Athletics, and one of the greatest successes in the history of Croatian sport. In 2008, at the Bejing Olympic Games, Blanka had another great international success: she won silver medal. Before that she had as many as 34 consecutive wins at international competitions in the course of 14 months.

At the Golden Spike IAAF World Athletics Tour Meeting in Ostrava, Czech Republic, Branka Vlasic won with a jump of 2.00 meters (photo by REUTERS/David W. Cerny).

Winner of the 2007 Atheltic tournament in Shanghai

Blanka Vlasic in Gothenburg, Sweden (Getty Images)

World Championship in Athletics, Osaka 2007. Endelig lyktes det for kroatiske Blanca Vlasic i et mesterskap. I Osaka ble hun dronningen av hoyde.

Blanka Vlasic celebrating her victory with Croatian flag in her hands,
at the World Championship in Athletics, Osaka 2007, source CROWN

Click on the photo to see the movie (source docteur-es-sport.fr, France):

… avec commentaire en français (cliquer sur l’image)
Blanka Vlasic, la nouvelle reine du saut en hauteur, Osaka 2007

World High Jump champion Blanka Vlasic of Croatia with her trophy after receiving the Waterford Crystal European Female Athlete of the Year Award for 2007 (on the left the President of European Athletics, Hansjorg Wirz) during a gala dinner at the Mediterranean Conference Centre in Valletta, Malta, October 12, 2007. Photo by Reuters.

Blanka Vlasic won the title of the champion of the world in Berlin 2009 for the second time after Osaka 2007. In 2009 she reached the height of 208 cm at the Hanzekovic Memorial Athelic Competition in Croatia’s capital Zagreb, which was the second best result in the history of high jumping for women.

In 2010 in Doha, capital of Dakar, Blanka Vlasic won her fourth consecutive gold medal at World Cahmpionships, as the first female competitor in history.

Blanka Vlasic was proclaimed the best female athlete in the world for 2010.

Sandra Perkovic, discus thrower, was only at the age of 19 when she won gold medal at the European Athletics Championships Barcelona 2010. She became the youngest ever winner of discus throw competition among woman. In 2012, during the Summer Olympic Games in London, she won Olympic women’s discus title with a Croatian national record throw of 69.11m, in front of girls from Russia and China. In the 2012 European Championships in Helsinki she won gold medal. In 2013 she becam the world champion in discus throw, during the World Attheltics Championship in Moscow.

In 2014 she won the title of European champion in discus throwing in Zurich, Switzerland, in 2014. It was her THIRD consecutive title of European champion, and this fact is unique for this sport. Her winning throw was more than 71 meters. Three of her other attempts at the competition would also have sufficed for the gold medal. The winner of the silver medal representing France had more than 5m weaker result, which shows the dominance of Sandra Perković in this sport. This is one of the greatest achievements in the history of Croatian sports. 

Croatia won record 6 medals at the 2012 Olympic games in London, among them 3 golds: 

• Sandra Perković won  gold medal in discus throwing, 
• Giovanni Cernogoraz won  gold medal in trap, and 
• Croatian waterpolo team won  gold medal, winning all the matches.

Sandra Perković won olympic gold medal in discus throw at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio

Martin Markovic became the second Croatian male athlete to win a world junior title (2014) and the first one in 12 years with a world-junior-leading 66.94m in the discus final at Hayward Field. It was his first  global medal after four appearances in World Youth and World Junior Championships finals. Markovic’s gold was Croatia’s second medal in Eugene after Sara Kolak took the silver in the javelin.

Croatian quad scull won silver medal, Lucija Zaninović won bronze medal in tae-kwon-do, handball team also won bronze medal. An unofficial gold medal went to Antonija Mišura, see why.

Filip Ude won silver medal in pommel horse at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. It was the first gymnastics medal for Croatia on Olympic Games.

Sofía Mulánovich Aljovín is a Peruvian surfer of Croatian descent. She is the first Peruvian surfer ever to win an Association of Surfing Professionals World Championship Tour event. In 2007 she was inducted into the Surfers Hall of Fame, and in 2009 into the Olympic Museum in Laussane in Switzerland.

Sara Kolak of Croatia wins gold in javelin throw at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio

Ana Zaninović was the World taekwondo champion in 2011. Two twin sinsters Ana and Lucija Zaninović were European taekwondo champions for 2014 in Baku, Azerbaijan. Young Matea Jelić and Ivana Babić were the  World junior taekwondo champions in Taiwan in 2014. Ana Lenard was European karate champion for 2014 in Tampere in Finland.

Sveto Dekovic is distinguished Croatian sportsman (karate, judo, jiu jitsu) of international reputation (European Kyokushin karate champion 2001), living in Tivat in Boka kotorska, Montenegro.