Sandra Perković Elkasević

Elkasević struggled in the qualification and was even close to elimination as she failed to make the qualifying norm of 60.00 m, placing only 10th out of 12 athletes to advance to the final.

However, in the final she made a strong opening round throw which kept her in silver medal position until the last, 6th round, when she made a winning throw of 64.67 m, becoming the youngest ever European champion in women's discus throw.

In the IAAF Diamond League final at Memorial van Damme in Brussels, Elkasević won with the new national record of 66.93 m, and finished her first Diamond League season in second place overall, after Yarelis Barrios.

Sandra Perković Elkasević (born 21 June 1990) is a Croatian discus thrower.

In 2001, she joined the Dinamo-Zrinjevac athletics club.

Since 2004 she has been coached by former Olympic shot putter Ivan Ivančić, who recognized her talent in discus throw.

In her first year with the new coach, she improved her personal best from 32 to over 50 meters, as Ivančić had predicted.

First successes in discus throw came in 2006.

In her first major competition, the 2006 World Junior Championships, Elkasević failed to make the final, but became a regular international medalist thereafter, winning silver medals in both the World Youth Championships and the European Junior Championships in 2007, and a bronze in the 2008 World Junior Championships.

She was ranked 5th in the 2008 junior world list with 55.89 m.

Elkasević culminated her successful junior career by winning gold at the 2009 European Junior Championships with a new national record.

A month later, she made the final of the World Championships as the youngest discus thrower in the field.

Elkasević suffered a very serious setback in early 2009, after doctors misdiagnosed her appendicitis.

Her appendix burst after three days, which caused a near-fatal sepsis that required two emergency surgeries and a lengthy recovery.

She lost 15 kg of body weight in the process and was initially not expected to return to full training before the end of the year.

However, Elkasević resumed training after a three-month break, and returned to competition by winning the discus throw gold medal at the European Junior Championships in Novi Sad in July 2009, where she set a new national record with a 62.44 m throw, and also met the A standard for the World Championships.

Her performance was the best in the European Junior Championships for 20 years, with a winning margin of 7 meters and 33 centimeters, the largest in the history of the Championships.

Her other two legal marks in the final would also have been sufficient for the gold.

A month later, she placed 9th at her first major senior competition, the World Championships in Athletics held in Berlin, as the youngest discus thrower in the field, including the qualifiers.

Later in the year she improved the national record to 62.79 m. Her throws ultimately captured top eleven spots in the 2009 junior discus throw world list.

Following her successful 2009 season, she was named by the SPIKES magazine as one of "ten rising stars to watch in 2010", and received the Croatian Olympic Committee's Dražen Petrović Award as the most promising Croatian female athlete in 2009.

In her first year of senior competition she won gold at the 2010 European Championships, becoming the youngest ever European champion in the women's discus throw.

At the Croatian Winter Throws Championship held on 6 March 2010 in Split, Elkasević massively improved her personal best to 66.85 m, setting a 2010 world leading mark and surpassing the 2009 world best of 66.40 m, set by Li Yanfeng.

On the same day, Elkasević set her outdoor personal best in shot put, at 16.02 m. She continued her strong throwing by taking gold in the under-23 section of the women's discus at the European Cup Winter Throwing meeting in Arles; her winning mark of 61.93 m would have been enough for silver in the senior competition.

In June, Elkasević took gold in both discus throw and shot put in the Second League of the 2010 European Team Championships, helping her national team move up into the First League competition in 2011.

Her good form in 2010 culminated at the European Championships in Barcelona, where she won a gold medal in discus throw.

Shortly after her victory at the Hanžeković Memorial in Zagreb on 1 September, Elkasević concluded the 2010 season by winning silver at the IAAF Continental Cup in Split.

European Athletics recognised her senior breakthrough year by giving her the European Athletics Rising Star of the Year award.

A six-month doping suspension after testing positive for a banned psychostimulant kept her out of competition for most of the 2011 season, including the World Championships, but she successfully defended her title at the 2012 European Championships.

She is coached by Edis Elkasević, whom she married in 2023.

In February 2011, Elkasević won the discus throw at the Croatian Winter Throws Championship in Split and further improved her national record to 67.96 m. In the same competition she also set the national record in shot put, at 16.40 m. Just days later, Elkasević suffered a back injury that forced her to miss the European Cup Winter Throwing in March.

She returned to competition in May by winning the Diamond League discus throw event in Shanghai.

She is a two-time Olympic (2012 London, 2016 Rio) and world (2013, 2017) champion and a record six-time European champion (2010, 2012, 2014, 2016, 2018, 2022) which no other female athlete achieved.

She is also a six-time Diamond League winner, prevailing in 46 circuit's meetings.

She became a member of the Croatian Parliament after the 2015 general election for the 8th Sabor.

She was MP for less than a year.

Elkasević started with athletics in the second grade of elementary school, and also played basketball and volleyball.

By the 6th grade, athletics prevailed and Elkasević concentrated on shot put and discus throw.

Her personal best and national record is 71.41 metres, set in July 2017 at the Galà dei Castelli meeting in Bellinzona, Switzerland.

At the time, it was the longest discus throw by a female athlete in 25 years.