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Reuters
The two-time world champion and two Olympic medalist in the high jump competition, Blanca Vlasic of Croatia, announced today, Friday, her retirement due to successive injuries suffered in past years.
The 37-year-old wrote a message saying: “I tried to treat my injury over the past years, hoping that I would be able to return in front of the bar (the high jump),” asserting that recent years have witnessed “countless rehabilitation treatments and disappointments.”
And she continued in her influential message: “I knew that the time had come (to retire), and I was completely calm with myself with this decision that I had naturally made.”
Vlasic has long suffered injuries to her Achilles tendon and has undergone multiple surgeries.
Vlasic started her international career in the Sydney Olympics in 2000 at an early age, specifically at the age of 16, when her father, Josco Vlasic, supervised her training.
Five years later, she underwent surgery on her thyroid gland, from which she successfully recovered.
The Croatian was crowned world champion in 2007 and 2009, and she was chosen the best athlete in athletics in 2010, but she failed in all her efforts to surround her neck with the yellow metal in the Olympic Games, contenting with silver in the 2008 Beijing Olympics and bronze in the 2016 Rio Games.
Vlasic managed to achieve a jump of 2.08 meters, which is her personal record, and the second best in the history of the high jump after the record holder, Bulgarian Stefka Kostadinova (2.09 meters).
Source: “AFP”
