Blanka Vlašić
Blanka Vlašić (Croatian pronunciation:
The daughter of Croatian decathlon record holder
She returned in 2006, taking the silver at the
Biography
Early life
Blanka Vlašić was born on 8 November 1983 in
Junior career
Vlašić had an early start in international competition: she competed at the inaugural
The results of Vlašić's final year as a junior showed further development as a high jumper. She set a new indoor best of 1.92 m at the
Rising contender
The start to the
National record and health problems
Vlasic started the season well with a bronze medal performance at the
Surgery and recovery ruled out the vast majority of the 2005 athletics season and she only managed to make two competitive appearances.
Although her poor health had spoiled her medals chances at the two major championships of 2004 and 2005, Vlašić came back fully recovered and stronger in the 2006 season.
2007: Dominance and Croatia's first gold medal at World Championships
Although she recorded an indoor season's best of 2.01 m in February,[23] she failed to repeat her previous season's indoor form and finished fifth at the 2007 European Athletics Indoor Championships (later upgraded to fourth after Venelina Veneva tested positive for banned substances).[7][24]
During the 2007 season, Vlašić won eighteen out of nineteen outdoor competitions, with her only loss coming early in the season at the first Golden League meeting in Oslo, defeated by Olympic champion Yelena Slesarenko. Vlašić won the World Championships in Osaka thanks to a 2.05 m jump, winning Croatia's first gold medal at the World Athletics Championships.[25] Antonietta Di Martino of Italy and Anna Chicherova of Russia both cleared 2.03 m to share the silver medal.[26]
In early October, Vlašić was named female European Athlete of the Year by the European Athletic Association after the combined votes of a panel of experts, a group of journalists and the public.[16] She is the first Croatian athlete and the first high jumper to win this award.
2008: Silver medal at the Beijing Olympics
World indoor title in Valencia
In March 2008, Vlašić won her first world indoor title in Valencia, Spain (2.03 m) and posted 10 days earlier an indoor national record of 2.05 m.
Coming to the 2008 Summer Olympics, held in Beijing, China, Vlašić jumped 12 times over 2.00 m outdoors, leading the world rankings[27] with 2.06 m. Still based on the world rankings, she leads by 3 centimeters.
Beijing Olympics
At the
Vlašić's season ended when she was again beaten on countback in the final leg of the
2009: Second consecutive world title, second best high-jumper of all time (2.08 m)
The 2009 Indoor season saw Vlašić posting a world indoor lead of 2.05 m in
At the World Championships, Vlašić competed against Ariane Friedrich. During the final, the duo was joined by reigning world silver and Olympic bronze medalist Anna Chicherova, who took the lead with a 2.02 m first-time clearance. Vlašić cleared on her second attempt, while Friedrich cleared on her third attempt. At 2.04 m, the Croatian is the first one to go over. Chicherova fails and Friedrich attempts 2.06 m, which she almost clears.[33][34] Vlašić then raised the bar to 2.10 m, a would-be world record, but failed all three attempts.[34]
On 31 August, at
2010: World indoor title and first European title
On 6 February 2010, Vlašić cleared 2.06 m in
On 1 August 2010 Vlašić won her first European title with 2.03 m, equalling the championship record set by Belgian's Tia Hellebaut and Bulgaria's Venelina Veneva-Mateeva four years earlier at the 2006 edition in Gothenburg. She beat Sweden's Emma Green (silver) and Germany's Ariane Friedrich (bronze), both jumping 2.01 m.[37]
Vlašić was selected along with Emma Green to represent Europe at the Continental Cup on her home soil of Split. She won the event with 2.05 m and equalled Chaunté Lowe's world leading jump.[38] She raised the bar at 2.10 m, what would be a world record, but failed to break it.[38]
At the end of the year, Vlašić was crowned
2011 season: third world championships medal
Coming up to the
2012-2013: injuries
Vlašić decided to have an operation on her left Achilles tendon in January 2012. Although the operation in itself seemed to have gone well, an infection developed and she had to have another operation in April. A slow healing process delayed her preparations for the London Olympics and she had to withdraw.[41][42] Vlašić did not compete in any other event of the season, therefore missing the whole indoor and outdoor season of 2012.
20 months after her last competition, Vlašić made her comeback on May 25 in New York, taking the win with the World Championships standard of 1.94 m. Then, she jumped 1.95 m in Rome before clearing 2 meters at the end of June in Buhl while working on gaining stability in her ankle as she approached the 2013 Moscow World Championships. Unfortunately she had to withdraw due to fear that she had not yet fully recovered.[43][unreliable source?]
2015 World Championships
In March 2014, Vlašić made her comeback at an international championship since the
However, she came back on the scene a week after the Europeans at the Weltklasse Zürich and placed fourth with 1.93 m.[49] She ended her season on a good note, jumping that height again in Zagreb.
In 2015, Vlašić opened her outdoor season at the Golden Gala in Rome and placed 2nd to Spain's Ruth Beitia (2.00 m, world lead) with 1.97 m. Then she equaled that height in New York City, again beaten by the Spaniard on countbacks. However, due to her chronic foot pain, she cancelled her appearances in both Lausanne[50] and Monaco in order to get ready for the Beijing World Championships.
The World Champs were the Croatian's first major championship outdoors since Daegu 2011. On 27 August, she made it to the finals and there, two days later, earned the silver medal behind Russia's Mariya Lasitskene (former Kuchina) who beat her on countbacks (Vlašić had one miss at 1.92 m).[51] To her, the silver medal felt like gold after all she had to go through in the previous years, and more specifically recalling she could not walk for days in early July.[52]
2016: Olympic bronze
Still due to her Achilles problem, Vlašić only made one appearance in the 2016 season in
Olympic competition
On 18 August, Vlašić competed in the Women's high jump qualification and reached the finals, placing 1st with the qualifying height for the final, 1.94 m.[57] Two days later, she competed in a final of 17 competitors. She cleared 1.88 m and 1.93 m on her second attempt, before clearing 1.97 m. She, Ruth Beitia, Mirela Demireva and Chaunté Lowe were the only athletes to clear the bar. Placing third behind Beitia and Demireva but ahead of Lowe, Vlašić attempted 2.00 m but failed to clear within three attempts. As no one else cleared, she earned the bronze medal behind Beitia and Demireva.[58] This was the first time since the 1980 Summer Olympics that the winning height was below 2.00 meters.[59] Vlašić became the seventh female athlete in the history of the discipline (since 1928) to win two Olympic medals.[60] Vlasić donated her medal to the Croatian shrine of St. Mary of Marija Bistrica.[61]
Career post-Olympic season
On 19 July 2017, Vlašić announced her withdrawal from the
On 19 February 2021, she announced her retirement.[65]
Statistics
Personal bests
Event | Mark | Venue | Date | |
---|---|---|---|---|
High jump | Outdoor | 2.08 m NR | Zagreb, Croatia | 31 August 2009 |
Indoor | 2.06 m NR | Arnstadt, Germany | 6 February 2010 |
International competitions
Year | Competition | Venue | Position | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
2000 | World Junior Championships | Santiago, Chile | 1st | 1.91 m |
2001 | World Championships | Edmonton, Canada | 6th | 1.94 m |
Mediterranean Games | Tunis, Tunisia | 1st | 1.90 m | |
2002 | World Junior Championships | Kingston, Jamaica | 1st | 1.96 m |
European Championships | Munich, Germany | 5th | 1.89 m | |
2003 | World Indoor Championships | Birmingham, United Kingdom | 4th | 1.96 m |
European U23 Championships | Bydgoszcz, Poland | 1st | 1.98 m | |
World Championships | Paris, France | 7th | 1.95 m | |
World Athletics Final | Monte Carlo, Monaco | 4th | 1.96 m | |
2004 | World Indoor Championships | Budapest, Hungary | 3rd | 1.97 m |
Olympic Games | Athens, Greece | 11th | 1.89 m | |
2006 | World Indoor Championships | Moscow, Russia | 2nd | 2.00 m |
European Championships | Gothenburg, Sweden | 4th | 2.01 m | |
World Athletics Final | Stuttgart, Germany | 6th | 1.90 m | |
2007 | European Indoor Championships | Birmingham, United Kingdom | 4th | 1.92 m |
World Championships | Osaka, Japan | 1st | 2.05 m | |
World Athletics Final | Stuttgart, Germany | 1st | 2.00 m | |
2008 | World Indoor Championships | Valencia, Spain | 1st | 2.03 m |
Olympic Games | Beijing, China | 2nd | 2.05 m | |
World Athletics Final | Stuttgart, Germany | 1st | 2.01 m | |
2009 | World Championships | Berlin, Germany | 1st | 2.04 m |
World Athletics Final | Thessaloniki, Greece | 1st | 2.04 m
| |
2010 | World Indoor Championships | Doha, Qatar | 1st | 2.00 m |
European Championships | Barcelona, Spain | 1st | 2.03 m | |
Diamond League
|
1st | details
| ||
2011 | World Championships | Daegu, South Korea | 2nd | 2.03 m |
Diamond League
|
1st | details
| ||
2014 | World Indoor Championships | Sopot, Poland | 6th | 1.94 m |
Diamond League
|
3rd | details
| ||
2015 | World Championships | Beijing, China | 2nd | 2.01 m |
2016 | Olympic Games | Rio de Janeiro, Brazil | 3rd | 1.97 m |
Personal life
Vlašić was named after Casablanca, a city where her father competed and won a gold medal at the 1983 Mediterranean Games around the time of her birth.[66]
From the beginning of her career she has been coached by her father, Joško Vlašić and a former high jumper Bojan Marinović.
Her brother is Croatian football player Nikola Vlašić.[67]
Blanka is today a member of the 'Champions for Peace' club, a group of 54 famous elite athletes committed to serving peace in the world through sport, created by Peace and Sport, a Monaco-based international organisation.[68] Vlašić supported the Croatian constitutional referendum in 2013 stating that marriage is matrimony between a woman and a man.[69][70] She is a devout Roman Catholic.[71][72][73][74][75]
On 26 May 2022 Vlašić announced on instagram that she had married Belgian sports journalist Ruben Van Gucht and that she was pregnant with the couple's child.[76]
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- ^ Ruben Van Gucht getrouwd met hoogspringster Blanka Vlasic, koppel verwacht zoontje
External links
- Blanka Vlašić's official web page at the Wayback Machine (archived 2009-06-11)
- Blanka Vlašić at World Athletics
- Blanka Vlašić at European Athletics (archive)
- Blanka Vlašić at Olympedia
- Blanka Vlašić at Olympics.com
- Blanka Vlašić at Olympic.org (archived)
- Blanka Vlašić at the Croatian Olympic Committee (in Croatian) (archived, also available in English)
- SPIKES Hero profile at spikesmag.com at the Wayback Machine (archived 14 July 2008)
- Jelena Badovinac (13 August 2007). "Blanka Vlašić – snaga i disciplina najbolje skakačice svijeta" [Blanka Vlašić - strength and discipline of the best jumper in the world]. Nacional (in Croatian). No. 613. Archived from the original on 13 June 2011. Retrieved 7 December 2020.