Josip Varvodić, the new president of the Croatian Olympic Committee!

Josip Varvodić, the current president of the Croatian Swimming Federation, was elected by the members of the Assembly of the Croatian Olympic Committee on Wednesday as the new president of the country's umbrella sports organization, awarding him 81 out of a possible 151 votes, 13 more than his opponent Dragan Primorac, the current president of the Croatian Taekwondo Federation.

The verification commission initially established that 46 representatives of the 47 Olympic sports who are entitled to two votes were present at the session, all 33 representatives of non-Olympic sports federations, representatives of 21 county sports associations, and three representatives each of the Olympians' Club and the Athletes' Commission.

Croatian member of the International Olympic Committee Kolinda Grabar Kitarović, who also has the right to vote, was not present at the session, and a representative of one county sports association was denied the right to vote according to the regulations. Thus, the total number of possible votes was 151 out of 155 possible, so the new president needed 76 votes to win.

Josip Varvodić the youngest president of the Croatian Olympic Committee

Dr. Josip Varvodić, a 41-year-old cardiac surgeon from the "Dubrava" Hospital, thus became the fourth and youngest president of the Croatian Olympic Committee in its 35-year history, and the second to be elected to that position at an extraordinary session of the Croatian Olympic Committee Assembly, after his predecessor resigned.

Interestingly, Zlatko Mateša also took the top position of the umbrella sports organization in Croatia in October 2002 in the same way, succeeding Zdravko Hebel, who was president of the Croatian Olympic Committee for only two years and who stepped down from that position halfway through his term.

Mateša was subsequently elected to that position six more times, holding the position for 23 and a half years, until his resignation in May 2026.

The first president of the Croatian Olympic Committee, Antun Vrdoljak, who today enjoys the status of honorary president of this organization, was in charge from its founding in 1991 to 2000.

After the recent revelation of an operation to extract around 30 million euros from the funds of the Croatian Ski Association, led by the former director of the Alpine team, Vedran Pavlek, which consequently led to the resignation of the president of the Croatian Olympic Committee, Zlatko Mateša, and the arrest of the director of the Olympic program at the Croatian Olympic Committee, Damir Šegota, this election campaign has become the most exposed in the media.

Varvodić's mandate lasts two years

Both candidates were given the opportunity to present their plan of action for the position, which has been considerably tarnished by recent events in the Croatian Olympic Committee and in Croatian sports, before the secret ballot procedure. In a very short speech, Josip Varvodić thanked everyone and said that he had said everything he had in his pre-election speeches.

Dragan Primorac spent almost all 15 minutes at his disposal, but did not manage to win over enough undecided voters, if there were any, to his side.

Restoring the damaged dignity of the Croatian Olympic Committee and taking steps for complete transparency in the use of public money will be some of the main tasks of the new president, who will remain in office for only two years in his first term, until the end of the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles.

A new regular election session of the Croatian Olympic Committee Assembly should be held at the end of 2028, at which the new or old president will be entrusted with a full four-year term.

Source: HRT