Hrvoje Kačić

Water polo player Hrvoje Kačić won his first international medal for Yugoslavia at the age of 18, when his nation took bronze at the 1950 European Championships. He captured a national championship with VK Jug the following year, but found disfavor with the Communist regime and was prevented from playing at the 1952 Helsinki Olympics. He therefore had to wait until 1956 to win an Olympic silver medal, and he would just miss a second medal in 1960 when Yugoslavia placed fourth. He did, however, take silver at the 1958 European Championships and gold at the 1959 Mediterranean Games and Summer Universiade.

Kačić earned a law degree in 1956, and then a doctorate in law almost a decade later from the University of Zagreb. He served in the Croatian Parliament from 1990 through 2001 as an independent and was also involved in many international, European political bodies.