Alpine skier Natko Zrnčić Dim to carry Croatian flag at the Olympics

Croatia’s Olympic Committee has selected alpine skier Natko Zrnčić Dim to carry the Croatian flag at the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympic Games in South Korea.

The winter games in Pyeongchang will be the fourth Olympics for the 32-year-old Zrnčić Dim. Of all the Croatian athletes who will be competing in South Korea, he has best performance record, having competed at the games in Torino in 2006, Vancouver in 2010 and in Sochi in 2014.

Zrnčić Dim is a Zagreb native and is one of four Croatian alpine skiers who have a World Cup podium finish. His career achievement was a bronze medal in the super combined at the 2009 World Championships in Val d’Isere, France. He has five podium finishes in the World Cup, the most recent being third place in the super combined in Wengen, Switzerland in 2014.

Croatia has competed in six Winter Olympic Games since it gained independence and Zrnčić Dim, will join Vedran Pavlek, and Janica and Ivica Kostelić, as the fourth alpine skier to carry the flag at the opening ceremony of the games.

Croatia’s greatest skier of all time, Janica Kostelić has had the honor of being the flag-bearer three times, debuting at the Nagano games in 1998, when she was only 16 years old. She competed in all of the alpine skiing events and finished eight in the combined event, the best finish of any Croatian athlete at the Nagano games.

Kostelić carried the Croatian flag again at the games in Salt Lake City in 2002, when she won gold medals in the combined, the slalom, the giant slalom and a silver in the super G, becoming the most successful alpine skier of all time – the only skier to win four medals at a single games.

In Torino in 2006, Kostelić was the Croatian flag-bearer for a third time, after which she won four golds, two silvers, and again became the alpine skier with the most medals won at the games.

Croatian flag-bearers at the Winter Olympic Games:
2018 Pyeongchang - Natko Zrnčić Dim
2014 Sochi - Ivica Kostelić
2010 Vancouver - Jakov Fak
2006 Torino - Janica Kostelić
2002 Salt Lake City - Janica Kostelić
1998 Nagano - Janica Kostelić
1994 Lillehammer - Vedran Pavlek
1992 Albertville - Tomislav Čižmešija

Source: HRT