Sandra Elkasevic (formerly Perković) is a household name in Croatian sport and one of the towering figures in the throwing disciplines.
She has dominated women’s discus in Europe since 2010, winning an incredible seven successive titles at the European Athletics Championships. She is also a double Olympic champion from London 2012 and Rio 2016, as well as a double world champion.
Still going strong, she is one of the most enduring elite athletes of the modern age. But here are 10 facts you may not know about her:
Europe’s most successful gold medallist
Elkasevic has the most outdoor European Athletics Championships gold medals of any athlete (male or female), having claimed seven back-to-back titles since 2010. Her first title took a throw of 64.67m in Barcelona 2010, while her most recent title came in Roma 2024 with a throw of 67.04m.
Life-threatening sepsis
In 2009, at the height of her junior career, Elkasevic’s appendicitis was misdiagnosed, with her appendix bursting three days later and causing a life-threatening case of sepsis.
She needed two surgeries and lost around 15 kilograms of bodyweight during recovery. However, despite expectations that she would not return until the end of the year, she was back training after just three months and almost immediately bounced back.
That same year, she won the discus gold medal at the European Athletics U20 Championships in Novi Sad, Serbia, and also qualified for her first senior World Athletics Championships, where she placed ninth.
Most decorated female discus thrower
With an incredible total of two Olympic gold medals and one bronze; two World Athletics Championships golds, two silvers, and one bronze; seven European Athletics Championships golds; and six Diamond League titles, Elkasevic is the most decorated female discus thrower in history.
Member of Parliament
In 2015, alongside winning global medals, Elkasevic was a candidate in the Croatian general election, standing for the Bandić Milan 365 – Labour and Solidarity Party as second on the party list.
The party gained one seat which, as Mayor of Zagreb Milan Bandić did not take it, passed to the Olympic champion. Her term ended in July 2016.
Magical birthday at Disneyland
Following her performance at the Paris Diamond League in 2025, where she placed fourth against a stacked field on the eve of her birthday, Elkasevic celebrated her 35th birthday at Disneyland.
Married to the job
On 31 December 2023, Elkasevic married her long-time coach, Edis Elkasevic, in her home city of Zagreb.
Edis, 42, won the 2002 World Athletics U20 Championships, the 2006 NCAA Outdoor shot put title, and also held the junior (6kg) shot put world record of 21.96m from 2002 until 2009. He began coaching his now-wife in 2013.
Multi-sport childhood
In the second grade of elementary school, Elkasevic started athletics alongside playing basketball and volleyball. By sixth grade, she chose to focus on athletics, specifically shot put and discus.
First European woman this millennium to throw over 70m
In 2014, Elkasevic became the first woman this side of the millennium to throw over 70m when she recorded 70.51m at the Split Croatian Winter Throwing Championships. She would go on to throw over 70m twice more that season.
Only one more woman has since joined Elkasevic in throwing beyond 70m: the Netherlands’ Jorinde van Klinken, who threw 70.22m in 2021 at the USATF Throws Fest.
Smurfs movie
For the Croatian dubbing of The Smurfs movie released in 2025, Elkasevic voiced Moxie, a character voiced in the English version by Grey’s Anatomy and Killing Eve star Sandra Oh.
Early foreshadowing
In 2001, Elkasevic joined her first athletics club, Dinamo-Zrinjevac. Just 650 metres away from the club stands a statue of a discus thrower.
The statue was created by Vanja Radaus and placed in 1957, exactly 50 years before the “discus queen” would win her first international medal, silver at the 2007 World Youth Championships in Ostrava.
