The sad news broke on Saturday morning. Famous Croatian water polo player and Olympic champion from 1988, Mislav Bezmalinović died suddenly at the age of 58. Bezmalinović was born on May 11, 1967 in Split, and he started his water polo career in the Adriatic.
He quickly showed that he is one of the most talented players in this area, he became an Olympian Ratka Rudi and returned with gold around his neck from the Games in Seoul in 1988. As time went on, Bezmalinović was an increasingly important game national team, and this status was retained by the new coach Nikola Stameni.
In January 1991, he became the world champion, and Bezmalinović stood out for his great game in the final against the Spaniards. That summer, Mislav played the last match for Yugoslavia before withdrawing from the national team of the then country due to the Great Serbian aggression against Croatia.
After that, he represented Croatia, and with Jadran he achieved great success and won two consecutive European championship titles in 1992 and 1993.
For a time he was the captain of Jadran, and he ended his career in 1995 in Pescara, Italy. It was a rather sudden death, considering that he was ‘only’ 28 years old. But he replaced his sports career with a business one, while maintaining very successful results. He became a co-owner of the Sardina factory.