Ivan Kljaković Gašpić (born 24 May 1984) is a Croatian sailor.London2012.com profile
He competed at the

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and

2012 Summer Olympics The 2012 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012) was an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...

in the Men's Finn class. He is a member of the JK Zenta sailing club in Croatia. His coach is Marin Siriscevic.

Sailing career

Gašpić started sailing at age 12 in an

Optimist Optimism is an attitude reflecting a belief or hope that the outcome of some specific endeavor, or outcomes in general, will be positive, favorable, and desirable. A common idiom used to illustrate optimism versus pessimism is a glass filled wi ...

dinghy, encouraged by his father. He competed for the first time in 1997, and became the Optimist European Champion in 1998. The same year, he was named

Dalmatia Dalmatia (; hr, Dalmacija ; it, Dalmazia; see #Name, names in other languages) is one of the four historical region, historical regions of Croatia, alongside Croatia proper, Slavonia, and Istria. Dalmatia is a narrow belt of the east shore of ...

Athlete of the Year. He went on to win other junior competitions, becoming the European Junior Laser champion in 2003 and the European and World Junior Finn class champion in 2005. He won a silver medal at the 2007 Finn European Championship. He later competed in the

2008 Summer Olympics The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and also known as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes from 204 Na ...

in Beijing, placing eighth in the Finn class competition. The following year, he won a bronze medal at the Finn Gold Cup in Denmark, and in 2011 he placed tenth in the Finn class event at the ISAF Sailing World Championships in Perth. He first entered the top 10 in the

International Sailing Federation International is an adjective (also used as a noun) meaning "between nations". International may also refer to: Music Albums * ''International'' (Kevin Michael album), 2011 * ''International'' (New Order album), 2002 * ''International'' (The T ...

's Finn class world rankings in May 2006, and was placed number 1 in July 2009. He has remained in the top 5 since then, and is currently ranked third. At the 2012 Summer Olympics, he finished in 5th place.

Personal life

Gašpić currently lives in

Solin, Croatia Solin (Latin and it, Salona; grc, Σαλώνα ) is a town in Dalmatia, Croatia. It is situated right northeast of Split, on the Adriatic Sea and the river Jadro. Solin developed on the location of ancient city of ''Salona'', which was the ca ...

. He is married and has two children. His nickname is Bambi. His 2012 Olympic profile lists his height as 189 cm and his weight as 95 kg.

References

1984 births Living people Olympic sailors for Croatia Croatian male sailors (sport) Sailors at the 2008 Summer Olympics – Finn Sailors at the 2012 Summer Olympics – Finn Sportspeople from Split, Croatia Sailors at the 2016 Summer Olympics – Finn Green Comm Racing sailors 21st-century Croatian people {{Croatia-yachtracing-bio-stub