Franjo Mihalić facts for kids
 |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Personal information | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nickname(s) | Jura | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Nationality | Croatian | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born | 9 March 1920 Ludina, Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Died | 14 February 2015 (aged 94) Belgrade, Serbia |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Residence | Belgrade, Serbia | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Height | 1.75 m (5 ft 9 in) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Weight | 58 kg (128 lb) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Country |  Independent State of Croatia (1941–1945) Yugoslavia (after 1945) |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | Track, Long-distance running | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Event(s) | 10,000 m, cross country, marathon, road running | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Club | AK Partizan (since 1947) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Retired | 1966 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Achievements and titles | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Personal best(s) | 5000 metres: 14:18.0 10,000 metres: 29:37.6 Marathon: 2:21:24 |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Medal record
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Franjo Mihalić (born March 9, 1920 – died February 14, 2015) was a famous long-distance runner from Yugoslavia and Croatia. He is best known for winning the Boston Marathon in 1958. He also won a silver medal in the marathon at the 1956 Summer Olympics.
Mihalić was a top athlete in marathons, road races, and cross country races. He won many important international competitions in the 1950s. He set 25 national records in long-distance running events. These included races from 5000 meters to 25 kilometers. In 1957, he received the first-ever Golden Badge. This award was for the best sportsperson in Yugoslavia. Many people consider him the greatest male track and field athlete in the history of Croatia, Serbia, and Yugoslavia.
Contents
Who Was Franjo Mihalić?
Early Life and Family
Franjo Mihalić was born in 1920 in a village called Ludina. This village is part of Kutina, in what is now Sisak-Moslavina County, Croatia. His father, Josip, worked as a tailor. His mother, Veronika, was a housewife. Franjo was the tenth of their twelve children. When he was three years old, his family moved to Zagreb.
Starting Sports: Football and Cycling
Mihalić began playing sports when he was 10 years old. In 1936, he played football for a local club called NK Grafičar. There, he met Stjepan Bobek, who was three years younger. Bobek played for a rival team, NK Ličanin. This meeting started a lifelong friendship between them. Both Mihalić and Bobek became famous athletes in Yugoslavia. After World War II, they both moved to Belgrade.
At age 16, Mihalić started working as a printing house apprentice. With his first earnings, he bought a bicycle. He joined the Olimp cycling club and raced for them for four years. He was quite good, often finishing in the top ten against the best Croatian cyclists. However, he had several bad crashes. These accidents caused injuries and scars, which made him less excited about cycling.
How He Started Running
Franjo Mihalić started running almost by chance. In 1940, there was a cross country race in Zagreb. This race was part of the Workers' Sports Games. His football club, Grafičar, chose him to run because he was their fastest player. It was his first foot race ever, and he had no training. Still, he finished second out of about 200 runners. He almost won against a very experienced athlete.
This race made him decide to stop cycling and become a runner. He joined the Concordia Zagreb athletics club. After only a few months of training, he set his first national record in the 5000 meters. Soon after, he set another national record in the 10,000 meters.
During World War II
During World War II, Mihalić represented the Independent State of Croatia. He won several international races and set five national records. He was named Croatian Sportsman of the Year three times. His status as a top athlete helped him avoid being drafted into the army. He also refused to join a political party, saying he was "apolitical" (not interested in politics). His first coach, Milčo Dobrin, was Jewish and had to wear a Star of David. Dobrin was not allowed to attend competitions. Later, Dobrin managed to escape to Venezuela.
After World War II, Mihalić ran for the new Mladost athletics club from 1945 to 1947. He was one of the club's founders. In 1947, the new Yugoslav government moved him to Belgrade. He joined the Partizan sports association. At Partizan, Mihalić got a good job and excellent training conditions. He decided to live permanently in Belgrade, where he soon got married and started a family.
Franjo Mihalić's International Successes
Early Wins and Olympic Debut
One of Mihalić's first big international achievements was at the 1951 Mediterranean Games in Alexandria. He won the silver medal in the 10,000 meters race. He finished behind Alain Mimoun, another great runner. Mihalić also competed in the 10,000 meters at the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki, where he finished 18th.
His first major success came the next year in Paris. Mihalić became the world cross country champion. He won the International Cross Country Championships. This event was a very important race, similar to today's IAAF World Cross Country Championships.
Mihalić also had great success at the Saint Silvester Road Race in São Paulo, Brazil. He won this race twice, in 1952 and 1954. He also placed third in 1951 and second in 1953, losing to the famous runner Emil Zátopek. He won the well-known Cinque Mulini cross country race in Italy three times (1957, 1958, and 1961). Besides his later win in Boston, Mihalić also won international marathons in Athens and Moscow in 1957.
1956 Summer Olympics: A Silver Medal
Mihalić won the marathon silver medal at the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne. He considered this his greatest achievement in sports. No other Yugoslav track and field athlete has won an Olympic medal since then.
Mihalić was in excellent shape for the Melbourne Olympics. He had trained harder than ever before. Many people thought Alain Mimoun from France and Veikko Karvonen from Finland were the favorites. Some also saw Mihalić as a strong contender. Earlier that year, he had won the Balkan Games marathon in Belgrade. His time of 2:16:25 was very fast. Mihalić believed that out of 46 Olympic marathon runners, 15 were better than him. But he still felt he had a good chance to win a medal.
The Olympic marathon was held on a very hot afternoon. The course had little shade. Mihalić stayed with the leading group, slowly moving up. However, he had a problem near the first water station at 15 kilometers. In a rush for water, he tripped and fell, hurting himself. Even with bruises on his arms and legs, he got up and continued. He caught up with the leaders again at 20 kilometers. Soon after, Mimoun suddenly pulled ahead. Mihalić decided not to chase him until the 35th kilometer. By then, Mimoun had a lead of over a minute. Mihalić could not catch him. He finished second in 2:26:32, about a minute and a half after Mimoun. He was also a minute ahead of the bronze medalist, Veikko Karvonen.
1958 Boston Marathon: A Big Win
Another major moment in Mihalić's career was his win at the 1958 Boston Marathon. The race was held on an unusually warm day. He won easily, beating the defending champion John J. Kelley by almost five minutes. The third-place runner, Einno Pulkkinen, was more than 11 minutes behind. Mihalić's winning time was 2:25:54. This was five minutes slower than Kelley's record from the previous year. But it was still very impressive because of the hot weather. People said Mihalić was a "heat-loving Yugoslav." His success in hot conditions was due to his unusual habit. He often trained in the middle of the day, between noon and 2 pm.
Mihalić's 1958 Boston Marathon win was the first and only one by a male athlete from a former communist country.
Later Career and Retirement
Mihalić also ran in the marathon at the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome. He finished 12th with a time of 2:21:52.6. His third and final win at the Cinque Mulini race in 1961 was his last big international result. He was almost 41 years old then. Mihalić retired from sports in 1966. He won his very last race, the Kadinjača mini-marathon in Užice.
During his career, Mihalić won 14 national championships. He won 12 times in the 10,000 meters and twice in the 5000 meters. However, he never won a national marathon championship. As of 2009, three of Mihalić's track records are still Serbian national records. These are the 20,000 meters (set in 1952), the one hour run (1952), and the 25,000 meters (1957).
Life After Professional Running
Mihalić continued to run 10-kilometer races until he was almost 80 years old. He had to stop running in the early 2000s. He badly injured his knee during the Cer-Šabac race. After that, he switched to racewalking. He won three gold medals in the 5-kilometer event for Serbia and Montenegro at the veteran Balkan Games. His last gold medal was in 2005.
In late 2006, Mimoun, Mihalić, and Karvonen met in Paris. They were the three marathon medalists from the 1956 Olympics. The French sports newspaper L'Équipe organized the reunion. It celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Olympic marathon in Melbourne.
Even in his late 80s, Mihalić walked 3 kilometers every day. He walked from his home in Belgrade to the Partizan Stadium. There, he volunteered as an athletics coach. He also worked as an athletic referee at the 2009 Summer Universiade in Belgrade. Franjo Mihalić passed away on February 14, 2015, at the age of 94.
See also
