Early life Blanka Vlašić was born on 8 November 1983 in
Split,
Croatia. From a young age, she was involved in sports: her mother Venera was a seasoned amateur in
basketball and
cross-country skiing while her father,
Joško Vlašić, was an international athlete who broke the
Croatian record in the
decathlon. Her father brought her to the track while he practised and she dreamed of becoming a professional
sprinter. As she grew up she tried a number of sports but found that the
high jump was particularly well-suited to her tall and slender frame.
Junior career Vlašić had an early start in international competition: she competed at the inaugural
World Youth Championships, finishing eighth, and represented her country for the first time at the
2000 Sydney Olympics. Although the Olympics showed that she was not ready to compete at the senior level, she proved herself to be more than proficient at the junior level by winning the
2000 World Junior Championships with a jump of 1.91 m. She was a regular competitor at senior athletics meetings and was steadily improving, qualifying for further top-level senior events. Vlašić finished sixth at the
2001 World Championships in
Edmonton with a mark of 1.94 m, a result which led the
IAAF's Ed Gordon to mark her out as a future star in the event. She rounded off the year by winning her first senior gold medal at an international tournament, taking first place at the
2001 Mediterranean Games. 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
2002 European Indoor Championships and was the favourite to win the
2002 World Juniors. At the final major event of the season, the
European Championships, she could not repeat her previous form and finished in fifth place.
Rising contender The start to the
2003 athletics season was promising – Vlašić set a new personal best in
Linz with a jump of 1.98 m and finished fourth at the
World Indoor Championships ten days later, her highest finish in a major world tournament. June and July yielded further progress, jumping 1.98 m again and improving to 1.99 m to win her first
IAAF Golden League event at the
Gaz de France. Days later, she jumped the two metres height for the first time on home soil at the
IAAF Grand Prix Zagreb. Vlašić took gold at the 2003
European Athletics Under-23 Championships, and then she improved her best by another centimetre at the
Zürich Grand Prix which qualified her for the World Championships and the first
IAAF World Athletics Final. Despite such previous highs, her season ended on a low note as she failed to win a medal at either the
World Championships (finishing seventh with 1.95 m) or the Athletics Final in
Paris (ending up fourth with 1.96 m). Although she had failed to reach the podium at the major championships, only three athletes managed to jump higher than her personal and season's best of 2.01 m in 2003.
National record and health problems Vlasic started the season well with a bronze medal performance at the
2004 IAAF World Indoor Championships in March. She regularly reached the podium at meetings in the outdoor season and won the 2004 national championships. but her jump of 1.88 m was not enough to progress into the
finals of the
2005 World Championships. and took silver at the
2006 IAAF World Indoor Championships. Although she was beaten to the gold medal by
Yelena Slesarenko, she remained positive: "Of course I wanted to win. But when I remember that I was in hospital one year ago it is great." The
2006 European Athletics Championships in
Gothenburg proved to be a bittersweet experience: she cleared 2.01 m to finish in fourth place, behind
Tia Hellebaut,
Venelina Veneva and
Kajsa Bergqvist. This was the best-ever non-medal winning jump, and bronze medallist Bergqvist had also finished with 2.01 m but had managed it in fewer attempts.
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, 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). 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.
Antonietta Di Martino of Italy and
Anna Chicherova of Russia both cleared 2.03 m to share the silver medal. 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. with 2.06 m. Still based on the world rankings, she leads by 3 centimeters.
Beijing Olympics At the
Olympics, Vlašić cleared all of her heights on her first attempt, from 1.89 m to 2.03 m. At 2.03 m, Vlašić,
Anna Chicherova, and
Tia Hellebaut, who had failures at the previous attempts, including at 2.03 for Hellebaut, remained in competition. The bar went to 2.05 m and Vlašić failed her first attempt while Hellebaut broke the
Belgian record. Vlašić cleared the bar on her second jump, but lost the gold to Hellebaut on countback after neither cleared 2.07m. Vlašić's season ended when she was again beaten on countback in the final leg of the
ÅF Golden League series, which ended her chances of winning the $1,000,000 jackpot. Having won the previous five Golden League events, she finished the
Memorial Van Damme meeting in second place behind
Ariane Friedrich.
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
Karlsruhe, equalling her own
national indoor record in the process. However she failed to earn a medal at the
European Indoor Championships in
Turin, finishing fifth. Germany's
Ariane Friedrich won the gold medal. 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. Vlašić then raised the bar to 2.10 m, a would-be world record, but failed all three attempts.
2010: World indoor title and first European title On 6 February 2010, Vlašić cleared 2.06 m in
Arnstadt,
Germany. The victory at the
Hochsprung mit Musik added one centimetre to her own personal best and
Croatian record and brought her to third on the all-time indoor lists behind Sweden's
Kajsa Bergqvist (2.08 m in 2006) and Germany's
Heike Henkel (2,07 m in 1992). 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. She raised the bar at 2.10 m, what would be a world record, but failed to break it.
2011 season: third world championships medal Coming up to the
2011 World Championships in
Daegu, Vlašić wasn't the favourite at all. With 2.00 m, she wasn't leading the world rankings and Russian long time rival
Anna Chicherova had all the expectations for the win, thanks to a
Russian record of 2.07 m. Italy's
Antonietta Di Martino is also in a good shape coming to the Worlds, having (as Vlašić) jumped 2.00 m outdoors but did better indoors with an
Italian record of 2.04 m. Moreover, Vlašić was not guaranteed to show up at the championships due to a left leg injury. However, during the championships, she showed great form and managed to clear 2.03 m and earn silver medal, coming close to clearing 2.05 and creating history to become the first high jumper to win 3 consecutive world titles. But
Anna Chicherova beat the Croatian on countbacks, while
Antonietta Di Martino has to settle for the bronze with 2.00 m. 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 25 May 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. in 2015|left
2015 World Championships In March 2014, Vlašić made her comeback at an international championship since the
2011 World Championships at the
World Indoor Championships. She placed 6th with 1.94 m. Due to a
jumper's knee injury in her left knee, she had to withdraw from the
European championships in
Zürich where she was one of the favorites alongside Russia's
Mariya Kuchina, due to her two recent wins in
Paris and
London with 2.00 m. However, she came back on the scene a week after the
Europeans at the
Weltklasse Zürich and placed fourth with 1.93 m. 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 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). 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.
2016: Olympic bronze , 2010 (2.06, NIR) Still due to her Achilles problem, Vlašić only made one appearance in the 2016 season in
Split on 29 January where she took the win with 1.95 m, jumping over the qualifying standard (1.93 m) for the
2016 Summer Olympics. On 3 February, she had surgery in
Turku,
Finland. Despite having not competed during the outdoor season (she cancelled her participation at the
European Championships and in the
London Diamond League), she was selected by the Croatian Federation alongside
Ana Šimić to represent
Croatia in the
high jump at the Olympics.
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. 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. This was the first time since the
1980 Summer Olympics that the winning height was below 2.00 meters. Vlašić became the seventh female athlete in the history of the discipline (since 1928) to win two Olympic medals. Vlasić donated her medal to the Croatian shrine of St. Mary of
Marija Bistrica.
Career post-Olympic season On 19 July 2017, Vlašić announced her withdrawal from the
World Championships in
London due to foot pain. She said that she had no plans to retire yet ==Statistics==