The European Gymnastics Championships, held from August 13 to 23, will take place in Croatia for the first time, and one of the world's most respected judges, Mario Vukoja, reveals ambitions, the uniqueness of Illya Kovtun's debut, and the paradox of women's gymnastics.
Mario Vukoja, advisor to the president of the Croatian Gymnastics Federation for elite sport and international relations, and an employee of the Croatian Olympic Committee, is one of the world's most respected judges. He has officiated at every Olympic Games since Beijing 2008, and in Paris 2024 he served as head judge. Now he is focused on a historic event for Croatian sport, the European Gymnastics Championships, which will be held in Zagreb from August 13 to 23.
Bringing the European Championships to Croatia, Vukoja sees as the culmination of years of work. "The best part is that we have finally brought the European Gymnastics Championships to Croatia, given the results of Croatian gymnastics over the past nearly 20 years. We haven't returned from any competition without a medal or at least a final," he said for Večernji list.
He places special emphasis on the innovations Croatia has introduced through the World Cup in Osijek, which has been held for 17 years. "In Osijek, we doubled the prize fund and introduced awards for coaches. This has been very well received worldwide," he added. The Zagreb championship will be the first European gymnastics championship with a prize fund for athletes and coaches.
Aware of the high expectations of the home public, Vukoja does not shy away from pressure, on the contrary, he welcomes it. "What I would most like is to fill the arena and have our competitors feel the pressure of a full arena, that's exactly why sports competitions are held. Athletes must know how to live with pressure; it's part of their job," he said.
He believes the focus should be on quality preparation, not fear of expectations. "I think we shouldn't be afraid of result expectations. We need to do everything to ensure our boys and girls are as well prepared as possible and show themselves in the best light at the competition. We should involve experts from all fields in the preparations to get them ready both mentally and physically for performing in front of the home crowd," he said.
One of the biggest attractions of the championship will be the first appearance of Illya Kovtun under the Croatian flag. The current Olympic medalist on parallel bars has lived and trained in Osijek for years, having previously won medals for Ukraine.
"Illya is special, primarily because of his build, which is somewhat atypical for gymnastics, he is tall and strong. Despite such a build, he performs an all-around at a level that allows him to win medals at European championships and approach world medals," Vukoja described him. He emphasized that Croatia is largely responsible for his results over the past three years, since the start of Russia's aggression against Ukraine. "Illya has been living in Osijek for years, and we consider him one of our own. Now he has finally officially received the green light to compete for Croatia."
Vukoja also commented on an interesting statistic from the Croatian Gymnastics Federation, nearly 79 percent of children entering gymnastics are girls, but the results of female gymnasts do not match that number. "I'll explain it with a paradox that even we don't understand. Logic would suggest that girls would have better or at least equal results as boys. But they don't," he said.
He sees the key in specialization. "Girls are more focused on the all-around, meaning 90 percent of female gymnasts do all four apparatuses, and the competition there is brutal. Female gymnasts haven't specialized as much; they've been focused on doing all four apparatuses to qualify for the Olympics. Now that trend is slowly changing, so I think the solution could be for girls to specialize in one apparatus if we want them to get closer to the boys' results," he concluded.
As a strong advocate of digitalization, Vukoja also highlights the potential of the Elevien platform, which he discussed with Vladimir Mađarević. He noted that around 100 million children worldwide are involved in gymnastics programs, yet they lack a unified digital platform for results, videos, and educational materials, such as Judo TV has. "A digital platform is now the main platform even in Formula 1, even though their competitions are also widely followed on television. So, we must learn from the best," he said.
