Dear readers of sport&beauty. As you will have noticed, sport and beauty are often closely related. That’s the reason why today we’re going to talk about one of the most beautiful female athletes in the world. Besides having dangerous curves, she’s a great athlete, has won many important competitions and is an icon in her country. Today’s post is dedicated to Croatian high jumper Blanka Vlasic. Here you are Blanka Vlasic, a real champion of beauty in and out the athletic track.
Croatian high jumper Blanka Vlašić was born on November 8, 1983 in Split (a Croatian city located on the Adriatic coast) when Croatia was still a Republic of the former Yugoslavia and there were eight years to go before the outbreak of the war in the Balkans. Blanka’s father, Josko Vlasic, was a decathlete that participated in the 1983 Mediterranean Games held in Casablanca representing Yugoslavia. It seems that Josko got lured by the Moroccan city to the extent that he decided to name her newly-born daughter after the African city. Out of curiosity we’ll say that the Vlasic family is an unusual case in the world of sports since father and daughter are national record holders. Josko holds Croatia’s decathlon record since 1984. Blanka Vlasic is naturally gifted for high jump as she’s 193 centimetres tall and weighs 75 kilos. As you can see this Croatian beauty looks nice from the front and the rear. What do you think the Chinese judge in the last picture is looking at??
Let’s review Blanka’s athletic career. Aged only sixteen, Blanka unsuccessfully participated in the 2000 Sydney Olimpics. Four years later and aged twenty, Blanka participated in the Athens Olympics obtaining the same bad results than in Sydney's. However, Blanka’s breakthrough was in 2004 when she won the gold medal in the Junior Athletics World Championships and the broze medal in the IAAF World indoor Championships. In 2006 Blanka finished 4th in the high jump final of the European Athletics Championships held in Goteborg being the first woman not to win a medal after having jumped more than 2 meters high. Blanka managed to jump 2.01 meters but she needed more attempts to make it past the bar than the bronze medalist winner, gorgeous Swedish athlete Kajsa Bergqvist. Here you are some more pictures of Blanka.
In 2007 Blanka managed to jump over 2 meters high in seventeen out of the nineteen outdoor meetings she participated and made some unsuccessful attempts to break the world record set in 2.10 meters. Blanka won almost every outdoor meeting she participated in and she was only defeated at the Opening meeting of the Golden League held in Oslo. Although she won the remaining Golden League events, this defeat caused her not to get the $1 million jackpot won by other athletes such as Russian pole vaulter Yelena Isinbayeva and American runner Sanya Richards. Her big break came during the IAAF Outdoor World Championships held in Osaka ( Japan) in 2007 where Blanka won the gold medal with a jump of 2.05 meters. In October 2007 Blanka was recognized by the European Athletes Association as the best female Athlete of the Year being the first Croatian athlete to receive this award. Even when competing, Blanka never forgets about fashion. Have a look at her navel piercing and her nails painted in red matching the red bottom.
In 2008 Beijing Olympics, Blanka suffered her first defeat in thirty four events and probably the most bitter defeat in her long and successful career. She lost to Belgian Tia Hellebaut (the one wearing glasses and looking like a nerd). In spite of the fact that both of them made it past the bar set at 2.05 meters, Blanka needed two attempts while the Belgian had enough with only one. As both of them failed to overcome the next height Blanka finished second winning the silver medal. Anyway, I bet she’ll take revenge in the 2012 London Olympics winning the gold medal and breaking the world record. To finish today’s post I’ll leave a slideshow with some pictures of Blanka Vlasic and a video of this beautiful Croatian woman where you can check that, besides being a great athlete, she could also be a good dancer. Best regards.
