Matija Ljubek (Croatian pronunciation: [ʎǔbek]; 22 November 1953 – 11 October 2000) was a Croatian sprint canoeist who competed in the 1970s and 1980s and later became a sports official.[1]
Born in Belišće, Osijek-Baranja, Ljubek competed in four Summer Olympics where he won four medals. This included two golds (C-1 1000 m: 1976, C-2 500 m: 1984 with Mirko Nišović), one silver (C-2 1000 m: 1984 with Mirko Nišović), and one bronze (C-1 500 m: 1976). His trainer was Laszlo Hingl. He also won ten medals at the ICF Canoe Sprint World Championships with four golds (C-1 1000 m: 1978, C-2 500 m: 1982, 1983; C-2 10000 m: 1985), three silvers (C-1 10000 m: 1981, C-2 1000 m: 1982, 1985), and three bronzes (C-1 10000 m: 1975, 1978; C-2 1000 m: 1983).
In 1976 he was awarded a Golden Badge award for best athlete of Yugoslavia.
Ljubek later became vice-president of the Croatian Olympic Committee and served as chef de mission for the Croatian Olympic team.
Ljubek died in 2000 when he was shot by an estranged brother-in-law while trying to defend his mother in Valpovo, Osijek-Baranja, six days after returning from the 2000 Summer Olympics.
Olympic results
| Olympic results | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Event | 1976 Montreal | 1980 Moscow | 1984 Los Angeles | 1988 Seoul |
| C-1 500 metres |  3rd (1:59.60)
|
9th (2:03.43) | — | — |
| C-1 1,000 metres |  1st (4:09.51)
|
8th (4:22.40) | — | — |
| C-2 500 metres | — | — | 1st (1:43.67)
|
— |
| C-2 1,000 metres | — | 4th (3:51.30) |  2nd (3:41.56)
|
12th (3:59.04) |
References
- Kamber, Raymond, ed. (2008). Medal Winners – Olympic Games and World Championships (1936–2007) – Part 1: flatwater (now sprint). CanoeICF.com. International Canoe Federation. pp. 1–41 at the Wayback Machine (archived 5 January 2010). Additional archives: BCU.org.uk.
- Kamber, Raymond, ed. (2008). Medal Winners – Olympic Games and World Championships (1936–2007) – Part 2: rest of flatwater (now sprint) and remaining canoeing disciplines. CanoeICF.com. International Canoe Federation. pp. 42–83 at WebCite (archived 9 November 2009). Additional archives: BCU.org.uk.
- Kamber, Raymond, ed. (2008). "Medal Winners – Olympic Games and World Championships (1936–2007)" (PDF). CanoeICF.com. International Canoe Federation. pp. 1–83. Archived (PDF) from the original on 18 May 2018.
- Evans, Hilary; Gjerde, Arild; Heijmans, Jeroen; Mallon, Bill; et al. "Matija Ljubek". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Archived from the original on 3 December 2016.
- Wallechinsky, David and Jaime Loucky (2008). "Canoeing: Men's Canadian Singles 1000 Meters". In The Complete Book of the Olympics: 2008 Edition. London: Aurum Press Limited. p. 480.
Footnotes
- ^ "Ljubek, Matija". Hrvatska enciklopedija.
External links
- Matija Ljubek at Olympics.com
- Matija Ljubek at Olympic.org (archived)
- Matija Ljubek at Olympedia
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