Milena "Milka" Babović (27 October 1928 – 26 December 2020) was a Croatian sprint and hurdles runner and journalist. She won numerous sprinting events in the former

Yugoslavia Yugoslavia (; sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Jugoslavija, Југославија ; sl, Jugoslavija ; mk, Југославија ;; rup, Iugoslavia; hu, Jugoszlávia; rue, label=Pannonian Rusyn, Югославия, translit=Juhoslavija ...

, and was selected the best athlete several times. She also had a noted career as a sports journalist and editor in television.

Life

Babović was born in

Skopje Skopje ( , , ; mk, Скопје ; sq, Shkup) is the capital and largest city of North Macedonia. It is the country's political, cultural, economic, and academic centre. The territory of Skopje has been inhabited since at least 4000 BC; r ...

to a Montenegrin father and a

Syrmia Syrmia ( sh, Srem/Срем or sh, Srijem/Сријем, label=none) is a region of the southern Pannonian Plain, which lies between the Danube and Sava rivers. It is divided between Serbia and Croatia. Most of the region is flat, with the exce ...

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

(

Danube Swabian The Danube Swabians (german: Donauschwaben ) is a collective term for the ethnic German-speaking population who lived in various countries of central-eastern Europe, especially in the Danube River valley, first in the 12th century, and in grea ...

) mother, and grew up in

Sarajevo Sarajevo ( ; cyrl, Сарајево, ; ''see Names of European cities in different languages (Q–T)#S, names in other languages'') is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Bosnia and Herzegovina, with a population of 275,524 in its a ...

, but moved to

Ruma Ruma (; hu, Árpatarló) is a town and municipality in the Srem District of the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina, Serbia. As of 2011, the town has a population of 30,076, while the municipality has a population of 54,339. History Traces of orga ...

and

Belgrade Belgrade ( , ;, ; Names of European cities in different languages: B, names in other languages) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Serbia, largest city in Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers a ...

in high school. She graduated in pedagogy at the

University of Zagreb The University of Zagreb ( hr, Sveučilište u Zagrebu, ; la, Universitas Studiorum Zagrabiensis) is the largest Croatian university and the oldest continuously operating university in the area covering Central Europe south of Vienna and all of ...

. Having taken up sports in Ruma, she joined Mladost in Zagreb and started to compete in sprinting events. Starting in 1953, she won the Yugoslav national titles in the 100 m (once), 80 m hurdles (seven), 4 × 100 m relay (seven), and 4 × 200 m relay events (two). She set several Yugoslav sprinting records, and won two international student competitions in the 80 m hurdles in

1953 Events January * January 6 – The Asian Socialist Conference opens in Rangoon, Burma. * January 12 – Estonian émigrés found a Estonian government-in-exile, government-in-exile in Oslo. * January 14 ** Marshal Josip Broz Tito i ...

and

1957 1957 ( MCMLVII) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar, the 1957th year of the Common Era (CE) and ''Anno Domini'' (AD) designations, the 957th year of the 2nd millennium, the 57th year of the 20th century, and the 8th y ...

; at the 1954 European Championships she placed fifth. In the ''Sportske novosti'' awards polling, she was voted the best female athlete in Croatia three times and was twice the best female athlete of Yugoslavia. She worked as a sports journalist for '' Narodni sport'' since 1949, and moved to

TV Zagreb ''Hrvatska radiotelevizija'' (abbr. HRT), or Croatian Radiotelevision, is Croatia's public broadcasting company. It operates several radio and television channels, over a domestic transmitter network as well as satellite. HRT is divided into thr ...

in 1957 where she became the first sports editor. She served in that position, barring one four-year interruption, until 1975. She was a multiple-time president of the sport journalist section of the Croatian Journalist Association, served as a member of the

Yugoslav Olympic Committee The Yugoslav Olympic Committee ( hr, Jugoslavenski olimpijski komitet; sr-Cyrl-Latn, Југословенски олимпијски комитет, Jugoslovenski olimpijski komitet, separator=" / "; sl, Jugoslovanski оlimpijski кomite; mk, Ј� ...

in two mandates, and was a one-time member of the Executive Council of the

Assembly Assembly may refer to: Organisations and meetings * Deliberative assembly, a gathering of members who use parliamentary procedure for making decisions * General assembly, an official meeting of the members of an organization or of their representa ...

of the

City of Zagreb Zagreb ( , , , ) is the capital and largest city of Croatia. It is in the northwest of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slopes of the Medvednica mountain. Zagreb stands near the international border between Croatia and Slove ...

. Babović was decorated with awards from the Journalist Association in 1974, the City of Zagreb in 1977, and the Yugoslav Order of Brotherhood and Unity with a silver wreath in 1979. She died on 26 December 2020, from the effects of

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...

during the

COVID-19 pandemic in Croatia The COVID-19 pandemic in Croatia has resulted in confirmed cases of COVID-19 and deaths. The first case in the Republic of Croatia was reported in Zagreb on 25 February, when a patient who had come from Italy was tested positive. On the same ...

References

External links

Milka Babović – Stranica mog života
{{DEFAULTSORT:Babovic, Milka 1928 births 2020 deaths Sportspeople from Skopje Sportspeople from Sarajevo Croatian female sprinters Journalists from Zagreb Croatian female hurdlers Deaths from the COVID-19 pandemic in Croatia Croatian people of Montenegrin descent Croatian people of German descent Danube-Swabian people University of Zagreb alumni Yugoslavian Athletics Championships winners