Golden day for Croatian water polo!
Croatia secured two medals on the final day of competition in the 2012 Olympics, giving them six total, one over their record. They finished 34th out of the 204 nations in total medals and 16th in medals per person. Croatia earned 1.33 medals per million people, versus the U.S who received .33 per million.
After the Croatian Federation chose the quad sculls rowing team to carry the flag at the closing ceremonies, they rolled dice to determine which “Young Gun” would be given the honor. Damir Martin won and was the flag bearer.
The greatest spectacle of sport and international unity came to an end inside the Olympic Stadium
The majority of the athletes will now return to their day jobs as they start to think about Rio. Croatia has much to be proud of after London as they continued to be perennial overachievers in sport.
Sandro Sukno made himself a household name in London
Men’s Water Polo: Croatia won the gold medal over Italy in yet another dominant performance as they capped off the Olympics 8-0 and on top. Croatia came in with perhaps too much confidence from their win over Montenegro and went down 2-0 early. After the early wake up call they were all over the Italians as they scored 7 of the next 8 goals to put the game out of reach. As Croatia coasted to the gold, Italy pinned a few back and the game finished 8-6. Italy outshot Croatia 27-20, but, just like the previous games, Josip Pavic came up huge as did the defense. Maro Joković led with three goals, Miko Bosković added two.
“What an amazing feeling! I can’t explain this. This is the top of the top!” -Captain Samir Barać
“We played amazing the whole tournament, I think there is no doubt we deserve this medal. We played the best water polo and had our finest performance in the last match. There will not be much sleep in the next two or three days.” –Miho Bosković
“Today, they played better than us. The gold medal is for them, absolutely, The defense of Croatia is very strong. They are strong in every facet of the game. They are the best team for sure. They win every match, very easily.” –Valentino Gallo (Italy)
Croatian handball wins Croatia’s fifth medal
Men’s Handball: The Croatian handball team beat Hungary for the second time in these Olympics to claim the bronze medal after their disappointment against France, who went on to win gold. The “Cowboys” began to pull away about halfway through the first and never looked back as they won 33-26. Mirko Alilović played far better than he did against France, saving 32% and keeping his team in the game. Ivan Cupić rediscovered his form after a disappointing semifinal to score eight goals from the right wing. Sharpshooter Blazenko Lacković scored seven and Domagoj Duvnjak added six.
“We could have done better but we showed our character in this game. We played as a team and we deserved the medal.” –Ivan Cupić
“We worked hard together for the past two months, so I want to congratulate the guys, I’m not easy to endure, but I’m really happy for them as well as for myself and all the fans that we won the bronze medal. This is our record for most medals at the Olympics” –Slavko Goluza, Croatian coach
Croatia’s medalists will come home to a hero’s welcome:
Silver medalists in the quadruple sculls: David Šain, Martin and Valent Sinković, and Damir Martin
Bronze Medalist in Taekwondoe: Lucia Zaninović
Gold medalist in the Trap: Giovani Cernogoraz
Gold medalist in the discus: Sandra Perković
After an exciting summer with the Euros and the Olympics, the soccer season is getting underway and qualification for the 2014 World Cup will begin in September for Croatia. They take on Switzerland in a friendly on Wednesday in what will be Igor Štimac’s first match in charge.
It’s all good. Thanks for the support guys. I’m actually starting college next week and I’m hoping to take some journalism classes but no one for you to contact right now 🙂
Zach…sorry for the typo…
Sv. Vlaho or St. Blaise is the patron saint of Dubrovnik where half the players are from.
Zack, you did an awesome job. I know you are still in High School, so we want to make sure you get school credit for what you did here during the Olympics. Please let us know your principal’s name and your English teacher. We will write letters recommending extra credit and extra recognition for your contribution.
@Jack……….Sv. Blaz = Sv. Vlaho
Zach,
I’m back home from Croatia now but I gotta tell you man…great reporting!!! I followed everything from Europe and not even Croatian television could deliver as much information as you did! You covered everything from rowing to water polo to discuss. Awesome job again!!!
My vote for 2012 CroatianSports MVP!!
@ Jack
It is, but the acronym on the flag is probably in Latin (S. Blasius).
I thought Saint Blaise was Vlaho in Croatian.
this would be awesome for dinamo, but for klasnic? i don’t know. it would be good because he would get to play in the champions league and help dinamo, but he could still make more money somewhere else.
I’d welcome him though.
I totally agree about making the gear available. I’d buy tons of it. I fear, however, this will be like the winter olympics. I searched online like crazy for ski gear the Croatian team wore, to no avail. I actually thought about designing my own knockoff stuff, lol.
It would be a typical move for Dinamo…..they have a history of signing over-the-hill washed up players hoping they can regain their past form during European play.
Joe Simunic
Robert Kovac
Jens Nowotny
Kazuyoshi Miura
Georg Koch (he was actually good)
I am sure I am missing someone.
He’s almost 33 I dont see him playing a starting roll for any big club anymore. I would like to see him play for Dinamo as a starter and keep him in shape just in case he needs to be called up to repka to come off the bench for any reason.
That would be great as a Dinamo fan but I just don’t see it because it would be a step back for him. But, it’s not too far out of the equation.
Do you guys think Dinamo will land Klasnic? I think that would be a great move for Dinamo especially in the champions league.
http://www.24sata.hr/nogomet/klasnic-dinamo-trazi-pravog-killera-da-cuo-sam-za-to-277585
No chance they would have ever gotten a Gotovina banner on the podium. The Olympic officials pay more attention to that type of nonsense than what actually takes place during competition.
That makes much more sense- The voice of reason…Ante B.
West coast California…
I would have been more impressed if it was banner of Ante Gotovina.
Ludbreg,
Don’t listen to Ziva, he’s full of shit on this one. The SB stands for Santa Barbara where those guys went to school. The players are from California.
No worries………now go to church.
Perfect- I was asked and didnt know- figured I would get a quick answer here with a little something extra added in….
Thank you-
@NK Drava………tsk, tsk……..I take it you don’t go to church that often. Too bad. You should go to church more often (for your benefit) and to church in a Croatian church. If you did, you would know that is Sveti Blaz. Sv. Blaz is the patron saint of Dubrovnik. Over half our water polo team is from Dubrovnik.
Does anyone know what the S B flag represents -The one that the water polo team was holding during the medal ceremony?
Don’t we have a friendly againist the Swiss coming up. What’s wrong with you west coast people.
You can buy Hajduk gear directly from their website.
@Colin
Thanks for the link as I’m usually familiar with sites like subside.co.uk and soccer.com.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like they have the 2012-2013 jersey.
@ Anon – You wanna buy a Hajduk jersey?? Bought my Dinamo jersey from here. Real good stuff.
http://footballfanuk.com/Search.aspx?k=hajduk
Wow! Helping hajdukovac? I did my good deed for the day.
1) Croatian Olympic gear? I can’t even buy a freakin’ Hajduk jersey. 🙁
Outside of soccer, where you can by the warm-up, jersey, etc, you can’t buy squat in any of the other sports. The Davis Cup tennis jerseys are cool but not available and basketball jerseys are unavailable to the best of my knowledge.
2) Guys, great job with the daily reports. Anything in the works to snag an interview with one of the medalists once the dust settles?
Modric to madrid for 25 million pounds.
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1295909-tottenham-transfer-news-spurs-and-real-madrid-reach-25m-agreement-for-modric
Thanks Zach for you great coverage. I really visitid this website every day to follow our Croats at London. 6 medals for a small country as ours. Amazing!
If anyone finds those jacket somewhere, post them on here please!
@Ziva
As a matter of fact, I was looking the other day for those Cro Olympic jackets in the net and couldn’t find them anywhere. I’m going to Croatia in a little bit more than a month, perhaps they’ll sell them there.
I’m almost a 100% certain the cheap knockoffs are already being sold at the local standovi. haha
@ Zach
Excellent, detailed reporting of the Olympics. Thanks for putting in the time and dedication. Svaka Cast
HZV
My father bumped into Modric this morning at the Punta Skala and he said he was Audi 5000 as far as tot is concerned.
yes exactly. also my uncle is close friends with corluka, and according to him, modric has informed corluka that its an almost guarantee that he’s out of tottenham. There was also an article on “the bleacher report” stating modric was on his way out now that levy and real have come to an agreement.
If it was said by “sources”, it must be true! The same rumors have been flying around all summer. Levy knows Modric is leaving and I would guess he already had a replacement lined up. I remember in June when it was reported that once Tottenham came to terms with Moutinho, the Modric deal would be complete
it was said by sources today that real and tottenham have both approved the transfer, and it is official as long as tottenham finds an ideal replacement. So it’s more or less official
Actually maybe that does make sense when you convert the currencies, but don’t believe anything until it’s confirmed by reputable sources
It’s not official!!!
Here’s a headline from two weeks ago: “Luka Modric Can Leave For £40 Million”
Here’s a headline from last week: “Real issue €30m ultimatum for Modric”
Todays headline: “Spurs and Real Madrid Reach £25M Agreement for Modric”
Doesn’t make any sense if it were true. I think he’ll probably go for around 35 million but I wouldn’t be too shocked if Levy kept him.
its officilal, modric to real madrid fc!
The robes, the gear they wore during opening and closing ceremonies, gear on the podium, polos, generic Cro Olympic Committee tshirts, etc….. I have no idea why those items are not made available to the public.
@ Zach
You provided great coverage. Thank you very much!
@ Ziva
I’d be first in line to buy a water polo robe. Those are f’n sick.
What an impressive showing from our Olympians: 6 medals for such a small country. Malo nas je al nas ima!
Zach,
Impressive work on the Olympics day in day out. Even though I missed most of the Olympic events, your daily reports kept me informed.
@Ziva
Couldn’t agree more. Love those jackets!
Thanks Zach!
Thanks, Zach! This has been really impressive coverage. I’m going to miss the Olympics now that they’re over.
I just wish the Cro Olympic Committee would have the common sense to sell some of the Olympic gear in Cro or on their website. I can gauren-damn-tee you the diaspora would buy everything up in site. They could overprice the gear, pocket the money, and we would still but it.
If anyone ever wanted to make some extra cash all they would have to do is produce some knock-offs that resemble the gear they wore in London and it would sell with all of us.
BRAVO HRVATSKA!!!
I stayed up to 3am here in Australia to listen to the national anthem being played for the water polo team. I felt like I had won the medal myself. The bonus was having the Serbians on the dias listening to it as well. Not because I am a hater but rather because it was like rubbing salt into the wounds of the team that were the favourites to win the gold and an obvious rival.
I AM PROUD!!!!!
Thank you very much, Zach. you did an excelent job.
Congratulation to Croatian athletes.
Simply fantastic!
What a great olympics for our nation. BRAVO HRVATSKA!
Napokon! Španjolci i Englezi objavili: Modrić ide u Real!
http://sportski.net.hr/nogomet/nasi-u-svijetu/real-i-tottenham-se-konacno-dogovorili-oko-modrica
Well done, Zack! Despite Vladimir Canjuga being a handball coach, i wanted to clarify that he coaches the girls team and Goluza coaches the men s team… Just in case someone was mislead…
Well done again and thanks for the coverage!