Sara Kolak: Back on Top After 10 Years
From Olympic gold in Rio to European gold in Birmingham, through injuries, coaching changes, and the scorn of the athletics establishment.
From Olympic gold in Rio to European gold in Birmingham, through injuries, coaching changes, and the scorn of the athletics establishment.
At the European Athletics Championships in Birmingham, it seemed that the main Croatian story would be Marino Bloudek, who sensationally won the silver medal in the 800 meters. However, on the final day of competition, Sara Kolak outshone everyone with her throw of 62.43 meters, marking her first podium finish at a major event since the 2016 Rio Olympics-and this time, on the top step.
Thus, the shy girl from Ludbreg found herself back in the spotlight of the domestic public after a long period of silence. "A lot has happened in the past 10 years, there were good days and bad days," she told reporters upon her return to Croatia, recalling the detours she took and the feeling that many had already written her off. "But I never gave up, and I found my way back to the top."
That path was indeed thorny. A combination of injuries and poor coaching choices was primarily the cause of numerous disappointments and failures. Her withdrawal from the big stage actually began in 2018, when she missed the entire season due to elbow surgery, and she returned quite well in 2019: her best result came at the Hanžek meeting, breaking the meeting record with a throw of 66.42 meters, which was longer than her Olympic gold-winning throw.
However, mid-season, Kolak ended her long-standing collaboration with Slovenian coach Andrej Hajnšek, who had led her to top results, and hired the renowned Norwegian javelin thrower Andreas Thorkildsen. The two-time Olympic champion had retired just three years earlier, and Sara was his first coaching gig, which carried risk, but that relationship nearly destroyed the Croatian athlete.
It started with a disappointing seventh place at the World Championships in Doha, followed by a slump in the pandemic season with improvised training, and a complete breakdown the following year. Thorkildsen told Sara before the Olympics that he would not travel with her to Tokyo due to fear of the coronavirus. So Kolak was left alone for the final preparations; it was too late to return to her old technique, and she had not fully adopted the coach's ideas nor could she implement them on her own. Thorkildsen let her down shamelessly, leading to three fouls in the qualification round.
Clearly, she couldn't continue with the Norwegian, so a new coach was again found in the neighborhood; in 2022, Gorazd Rajher took over her career, who had made a name for himself as the coach of Slovenian discus thrower Kristijan Čeh. However, he simply didn't 'click' with Sara, and the season turned into a disaster: in the qualification for the World Championships in Eugene, Kolak again had three unsuccessful attempts, and she didn't make the final at the European Championships in Munich either.
Another split followed, and then Sara appointed her boyfriend Mišel Žerak as her coach, which drew criticism and ridicule from parts of the domestic athletics community, as Žerak came from the skiing world. But if Ante Kostelić, a former handball player, created great ski champions, why couldn't a skier bring an athlete back to her former glory? As for close relationships, suffice it to mention that the tandem Sandra & Edis Elkasević has brought the most medals to Croatian athletics.
True, Sara's start with Žerak was also not promising. In 2023, she never surpassed 60 meters, which hadn't happened since her junior days. She continued in the same vein in 2024, finishing 11th at the European Championships, and a little later, without any apparent reason, she exploded at the Paris Games, finishing fourth, with her qualification throw (64.57 m) being enough for silver. Unfortunately, the Olympics turned out to be just a flash, as she spent the next season mostly below 60 meters and, for the umpteenth time, got stuck in the qualification of a major competition (World Championships in Tokyo).
Sara started the current campaign promisingly, only to seriously drop in form after the first three competitions, which also resulted in a defeat at the Croatian Championships to the super-talented junior Vita Barbić. Before the European Championships, it was written that it would be crazy to expect Kolak to win the continental title three weeks later, but also warned that history has often shown that Sara throws best when least expected, which is exactly what happened.
Kolak finally had her big day and proved she still has something to say at major events. Now the question arises of how much she could have achieved had she not spent the last ten years in the described wanderings and falls. Considering her exceptional potential demonstrated early in her career, for comparison, her best result of 68.43 meters from 2017 is now 11th on the world all-time list in the women's javelin, while Sandra Elkasević, with a personal best of 71.41, is 19th all-time in the discus. The fact that she won her first European title at just 31 evokes a certain sadness. It's hard to accept that her career, instead of long-term total dominance on the world throwing scene, has been marked only by flashes of excellence.
Sara Kolak has definitely not fulfilled her full potential. After winning Olympic gold, she embarked on her own journey and, during constant wanderings, encountered many obstacles. Those years are gone forever, but in the end, she managed to reach the winner's podium thanks to her perseverance and passion for the sport. Can she now stay at these heights?
