The Croatian who is one of the most successful British Olympians ever
- by croatiaweek
- in Sport
Paulo Radmilovic (Photo credit: Agence Rol/Public domain)
Do you know which Croat won four Olympic gold medals, three in water polo and one in swimming in the 4×200-metre relay?
Few people might know, but his name is Paulo Radmilović.
He won Olympic golds between 1908 and 1920, competing under the flag of Great Britain.
His father was from Dubrovnik and had moved to Cardiff, where Paulo was born, and his mother was Irish, Večernji list reports.
Born in 1886, Paulo Radmilović began his Olympic career at the 1906 Intercalated Games. He finished fourth in the 100-metre freestyle and fifth in the 400 metres.
He won his first gold at the 1908 Summer Games as a member of the United Kingdom’s water polo team. In the final, Britain defeated Belgium 9-2, with Radmilović scoring two goals.
Two days after the final water polo match, he competed as one of the swimmers in the 4×200-metre relay, stepping in because a British Olympian fell ill.
The race was tense, as the Hungarian relay team led almost until the end and had a substantial advantage until the final leg, but the Hungarian swimmer Zoltán Halmay fainted during his leg.
The last British swimmer, Henry Taylor, capitalised on this and secured the gold medal for Britain with a four-second lead, which also went to our Radmilović.
To this day, Paulo remains the only athlete to win Olympic gold in both swimming and water polo. Radmilović won his third Olympic gold medal with the United Kingdom’s water polo team in Stockholm in 1912, with Britain defeating Austria 8-0 in the final.
Paulo Radmilovic (Photo credit: Agence Rol/Public domain)
His fourth gold medal came only eight years later due to World War I, which led to the cancellation of the 1916 Olympic Games in Berlin.
In Antwerp in 1920, the British water polo team reached the final with dominance, facing the host nation Belgium. The score was 2-2 until the last minute when Radmilović scored the winning goal for a final score of 3-2.
He competed in two more Olympic Games (1924 and 1928) but did not make it to the podium. He ended his Olympic career at the age of 42.
Radmilović’s excellence is confirmed by the fact that he still ranks among the top 10 most decorated British Olympians.
The blue plaque unveiled by his grandson, Simon Siddall on the wall of the Imperial, South Parade, Weston-super-Mare (Photo credit: Colesey13/CC BY-SA 4.0)
His prestige in the swimming and water polo world is further demonstrated by his induction into the International Swimming Hall of Fame in 1967 as only the second water polo player in history to receive this honour.
He was such an outstanding water polo player that he debuted for the senior national team at just 15 years old, a record that still stands in Britain today.
