Croatia wins first medal at Winter Deaflympics in Turkey 

(Photo: Private album)

The Winter Deaf Olympic Games started in spectacular style, and Croatia has already won its first medal. 

Bogdan Božinović, FIDE master and member of the Croatian male deaf chess team, won the silver medal in the blitz discipline. His impressive performance was marked by an almost perfect tournament, where after 11 rounds he had a record of 7 wins, 4 draws and no losses, with which Bogdan brought Croatia its first medal at the Games.

(Photo: Private album)

“I am extremely happy that I won an Olympic medal and that I had the opportunity to see the Croatian flag flying proudly on the podium! Although I narrowly missed the gold, ‘blitz’ chess is not my main discipline, so I am more than satisfied with this outstanding result! I proudly present Croatia and I look forward to further challenges on the way to the top!” – said Bozinović.

In the competition of a total of 61 players, except for Bogdan, our representatives achieved the following results: Branko Vujaković took 5th place with 7.5 points, Toni Vujčić 7th place with 7.5 points, Goran Čechić placed 16th with 6.5 points, while Zlatko Klarić took 23rd place with 6 points.

(Photo: Private album)

Croatia’s Ana Vuljanić also achieved a respectable result and took 16th place out of 33 competitors with 5.5 points in 11 games.

Croatian deaf athletes are performing at the 20th Winter Deaflympics, which will be held from March 2 to 12, 2024 in Erzurum, Turkey. 

Bogdan Božinović (Photo: PIXSELL)

Over 500 athletes from 40 countries of the world are participating in the following sports: alpine skiing, curling, cross-country skiing, snowboarding, chess and, for the first time, futsal is on the games program.

Croatian colours will be defended by the deaf women’s curling team, the deaf women’s chess team and the deaf men’s chess team.

Croatian team (Photo: Private album)