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| Goran Ivanišević |
The best ever Croatian tennis player is certainly Goran Ivanišević. He is best remembered for being the only person to win the men's singles title at Wimbledon with a wildcard. He achieved this in 2001. Ivanišević is famous for his strong serve. His career-high singles ranking was World No. 2 in 1994.Željko Franulović is the second greatest player in the history of the Croatian tennis, after Goran Ivanišević. Now he is one of the most important personalities in the organizational structure of the ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals). He is currently the proprietor of the ATP tournament in Geneva, director of the prestigious Masters' tournament in Frankfurt. Ivan Ljubičić is a Bosnian-born Croatian tennis player. His career-high ATP Entry ranking was No. 3. Mario Ančić is a professional tennis player from Croatia, who made his Grand Slam debut at Wimbledon in 2002, and he was still a teenager. Ančić and Ivan Ljubičić became one of the best doubles teams in the world. Ivo Karlović is currently the best Croatian tennis player, ranking No 14. He is the tallest player ever on the ATP Tour at 208 cm. Karlović has won 4 ATP singles titles: three in 2007 and one in 2008. His primary strategy is serve and volley, and he is considered one of the best servers of the world. He has defeated several highly ranked opponents including Roger Federer, Lleyton Hewitt, and Andy Roddick… Marin Čilić won the 2005 Roland Garros gold medal in Paris in the junior category. He is young talented player ranking as 31st in the world. Iva Majoli is a former professional tennis player from Zagreb. Majoli played her best tennis as a teenager, reaching her career high ranking of World No. 4 in 1996. In the final years of her tennis career, Majoli suffered from a series of injuries and in 2004 she announced her retirement from the game. Mirjana Lučić is a professional tennis player from Croatia. She enjoyed a brief but promising career on the WTA Tour in the late-1990s. Following a series of personal problems from 2000 onwards, she faded from the scene.
Dragutin Šurbek, a famous table tennis player, is one of the most outstanding Croatian sportsmen generally speaking. He had won hundreds of tournaments, from Tokyo and Beijing to Zagreb. In total he won 37 medals. Zoran Primorac is an accomplished male table tennis player from Croatia. As a junior he won seven medals in European championships. At the 1987 World Championship in New Delhi he won the silver medal together with and repeated the success by winning the silver at the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul. Primorac competed for Croatia at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona and won the 9th place in singles and doubles. He repeated the same at the 1996 Summer Olympics, and at the 2004 Summer Olympics he was eliminated in the third round. In the 2007 European Championship in Belgrade he won the silver medal in the team event with Croatia, but lost in the first round in the singles. Primorac plans to retire after the 2008 Olympic Games, which is his sixth Olympiad. Tamara Boroš is an accomplished female table tennis player from Croatia. She has been one of the relatively rare European players who compete at the highest level of the sport together with the players from Far East. Boroš was the World No 2 player in 2002. At the World Championship in Paris in 2003 she won her only medal, the bronze medal, and became the first European to win a WC medal after ten years. She is the only one in Europe capable to cope with ping-pong players from Asia.
Miloš Milošević is an accomplished swimmer from Croatia. His best swimming discipline was butterfly stroke, but he also competed in freestyle and backstroke. Milošević won his first major award at the 1992 European Championship when he took the bronze in the 50 meter butterfly event. At the 1993 World Championship he took the gold in the 100 meters butterfly race. The same year he won the bronze at the 1993 European Championship. His best result happened at the 1998 European Championship where he won the gold medal in the 50 meters butterfly and at the same time he broke the world record. At the European SC Championships 1999 he won the gold medal in the same event, and silver at the European LC Championships 1999. At the European SC Championships 2002 he won the silver medal in 50 meter butterfly. He retired from professional swimming in 2004. Gordan Kožulj is a backstroke swimmer, who competed in three consecutive Summer Olympics for Croatia, starting in 1996. In 1999 he won two silver medals at the European Championships in Istanbul, Turkey. Those performances made him Croatia's Sportsman of the Year (1999). Duje Draganja is a swimmer from Croatia who won the silver medal in the men's 50 meter freestyle at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens. In 2008 he broke the men's 50 meters freestyle world record at the finals of the World Short Course Swimming Championships in Manchester, and this is considered to be one of the greatest successes in the history of Croatian sport. Đurđa Bjedov was the only Yugoslav swimmer to ever win a gold medal at the Olympics in swimming. She was born in Split, Croatia. Bjedov is a member of the International Swimming Hall of Fame. Sanja Jovanović is a female backstroke swimmer from Croatia. In 2008 she broke the world record in 50 meters backstroke on European SC Championships. Toni Pavičić-Donkić was the first Croat to swim across Gibraltar, and that happened in 2007. Veljko Rogošić set the world record of 225 km in long distance swimming. In 1992 this outstanding sportsman entered the International Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame, Florida. His motto and message to young people is “With sport against drugs”. Rogošić swam La Manche (45 km) in 2004 at the age of 63. His name was written in the 'Gold book of La Manche' as the first Croatian and the oldest man to do so. In the summer 2005 he swam almost 1,000 km along Croatian coast in less than two months, at the age of 64. In 2008 he swam 171 km marathon from Sicilia to Africa, and reached Africa's Cape Bon in Tunisia. He started the first marathon from Europe to Africa on his 67th birthday. After this he said that he has reached all his aims and that he will swim no more. Wait to see about that! Ana Sršen is a top Croatian paraolympic swimmer and in 1998 she became a world record holder on 100 m breast-stroke. In 2002 she set two world records at International Competition in Zagreb: on 200 m and on 800 m freestyle. Mihovil Španja, a top paraolympic swimmer, set a world record on 50 m breast-stroke for disabled in Berlin in 2008.
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| Janica Kostelić, the greatest Croatian skiier |
Janica Kostelić is a retired Alpine skier, and she’s considered one of the greatest female skiers of all time. She is the only woman to win four gold medals in alpine skiing at the Winter Olympic Games (in 2002 and 2006), and the only woman to win three alpine skiing Olympic gold medals in one year (2002). She was World Cup champion in 2001, 2003 and 2006. On January 15, 2006 Kostelić became only the third woman in World Cup history to win World Cup races in all of the sport's five disciplines. On February 5, 2006 Janica became the second female skier to win all five disciplines in one season. She also holds the record for the highest number of points in one season. And we must say that at the end of 1999 Janica had a tragic fall: four of her ligaments on the knee out of five were broken. It’s really astonishing what she has achieved after that injury. Janica’s brother - Ivica Kostelić is also a very successful skier. In 2003 both of them won the title of world champions in slalom and so they became the first siblings to win gold medals in the same event at the world. Ivica’s main accomplishments include a World Championship gold medal in slalom in 2003, an Olympic silver medal in combined in 2006, and eight World Cup victories. Kostelić is only the seventeenth man in World Cup history to win World Cup points in all of the sport's five disciplines. Nika Fleiss is a Croatian alpine skier, who represented Croatia in 2002 and 2006 Winter Olympics. Her time is yet to come, if she recovers from a bad injury, due to which she miss the season 2006/2007. There is still one more female skier from Croatia, which has a lot to offer and this is Ana Jelušić. At age 15, she was the youngest athlete competing at the 2002 Winter Olympics.
Blanka Vlašić is a Croatian high jumper and current world champion. Her personal best jump at 2.07 m is also the national record and was set on August 07, 2007. Only two women have jumped higher than this. She became a world champion in 2007 World Championships in Athletics with a jump of 2.05 m. She previously won the high jump bronze medal at the 2004 IAAF World Indoor Championships, and before that she was a double world junior champion. As of 2007, Vlašić is the world's top-ranked high jumper, as well as being first in the overall rankings. Vlašić currently has an unbeaten streak of 34 competitions and has had 48 competitions over 2 m.
Mate Parlov was a Croatian heavy-weight boxer boxer, and an Olympic gold medalist for former Yugoslavia. He is regarded as the best Croatian (and Yugoslavian) boxer of all time. During his career he already gained the status of a boxing legend. Željko Mavrović is a retired boxer from Croatia, who left unforgettable trace within the history of European and world’s boxing. He won the title of European heavy-weight boxing champion in 1995. Stipe Drviš is a Croatian professional boxer. In 2003 Drviš won the title of European semi-weight boxing champion, but he lost it in 2007. Stjepan Božić is our prosperous boxer who won a few titles, but he still has much to offer.
Branko "The Croatian Tiger" Cikatić (born October 3, 1954) is a retired Croatian kick boxer, a legend of Croatian combat sports. He was the first K-1 World Grand Prix tournament Champion held in 1993 in Japan. Mirko Filipović also has great success in martial arts. Filipović has been successful in both K-1 and PRIDE Fighting Championships. In 2007 he became the light heavyweight champion of the world.
Kristijan Curavić set a new world record in diving under ice in 2004. He reached a depth of more than 50 meters under ice.
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| A statue of Dražen Petrović in Zagreb |
Matija Ljubek is regarded as one of the best kayakers in the world. Within his career he has won a great number of medals. The brothers Skelin, Siniša and Nikša won the gold medal at the World cup in 2002.
Davor Šuker is considered to be the best Croatian footballer ever. He played as a striker for a torrent of European clubs as well as the Croatian national team, where he is the all-time top goal scorer with 45 goals. Slaven Bilić is a former Croatian football player and current head coach of the Croatian national team. He was an important member of the Croatian team during their successes from 1994-1998, when they won the bronze medal in the 1998 World Cup. Zvonimir Boban is a Croatian former football player who played most of his professional career for b AC Milan and was a member of the Croatia national team, which he captained to third place at the 1998 FIFA World Cup. Robert Prosinečki is a Croatian football legend and currently the assistant manager of the Croatian national team.
Ivano Balić is considered to be the best handball player in the world and was voted 6 times in a row most valuable player in major international competitions. Also he is considered to be one of the best handball players of all time. Mirza Džomba, who plays for the Croatian national handball team is widely considered one of the best and most talented handball players in the world.
Dražen Petrović was one of the best basketball players in the world. He played within the NBA league. Unfortunately, death in a car accident stopped him in his sports career. Toni Kukoč is one of the first established European stars to play in the United States's National Basketball Association. Dino Rađa is a retired Croatian basketball player who spent major part of his career playing within the NBA league. Krešimir Ćosić is, besides Petrović, considered to be the best basketball player in Croatia ever.
Stipe Božić is the most successful Croatian Himalayan climber. He's the second European to climb the highest peak in the world, Mount Everest, twice. He climbed the highest peaks on all 7 continents. With an international expedition he reached the North Pole on the skis.
