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Milka Babović

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Milka Babović
Personal information
Full nameMilena Babović
Born(1928-10-27)27 October 1928[1]
Skopje, Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes
Died26 December 2020(2020-12-26) (aged 92)
Zagreb, Croatia
Sport
SportAthletics
Event(s)Sprint, hurdles
ClubMladost Zagreb
Achievements and titles
Personal best80 mH – 11.0 (1957)[1]

Milena "Milka" Babović (27 October 1928 – 26 December 2020) was a Croatian sprint and hurdles runner and journalist.

She won numerous sprinting events in the former Yugoslavia, and was selected the best athlete several times. She also had a noted career as a sports journalist and editor in television.

Life

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Babović was born in Skopje to a Montenegrin father and a Syrmian German (Danube Swabian) mother, and grew up in Sarajevo, but moved to Ruma and Belgrade in high school. She graduated in pedagogy at the University of Zagreb.[2][3] Having taken up sports in Ruma, she joined Mladost in Zagreb and started to compete in sprinting events. Starting in 1953, she won the Yugoslav national titles in the 100 m (once), 80 m hurdles (seven), 4 × 100 m relay (seven), and 4 × 200 m relay events (two). She set several Yugoslav sprinting records, and won two international student competitions in the 80 m hurdles in 1953 and 1957; at the 1954 European Championships she placed fifth.[2] In the Sportske novosti awards polling, she was voted the best female athlete in Croatia three times and was twice the best female athlete of Yugoslavia.[2]

She worked as a sports journalist for Narodni sport since 1949, and moved to TV Zagreb in 1957 where she became the first sports editor. She served in that position, barring one four-year interruption, until 1975. She was a multiple-time president of the sport journalist section of the Croatian Journalist Association, served as a member of the Yugoslav Olympic Committee in two mandates, and was a one-time member of the Executive Council of the Assembly of the City of Zagreb.[2]

Babović was decorated with awards from the Journalist Association in 1974, the City of Zagreb in 1977, and the Yugoslav Order of Brotherhood and Unity with a silver wreath in 1979.[2] She died on 26 December 2020, from the effects of COVID-19 during the COVID-19 pandemic in Croatia.[4]

References

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  1. ^ a b Milena Babovic. trackfield.brinkster.net
  2. ^ a b c d e Frntić, Franjo (1983), "Babović, Milka", Croatian Biographical Lexicon (in Croatian), vol. 1, Leksikografski zavod Miroslav Krleža, retrieved 6 January 2014
  3. ^ Körbler, Jurica (13 November 2019). "MILKA BABOVIĆ, LEGENDA HRVATSKOG NOVINARSTVA: "Prije par dana na mene je naletio auto. Pala sam, ali sam ujedno i strogo zavikala. Ipak sam ja stara sportašica, znam kako se pada"". Glas Istre (in Croatian). Retrieved 11 February 2021.
  4. ^ "Umrla Milka Babović: Otišla je velika sportašica i doajenka našeg sportskog novinarstva". Jutarnji list. 26 December 2020. Retrieved 26 December 2020.
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Awards
Preceded by Yugoslav Sportswoman of the Year
1953
1955
Succeeded by