March the 19th, 2025 – Slobodan Kadić, columnist and photojournalist for Glas Slavonije (The Voice of Slavonia) and Total Croatia News – has received the Croatian Sports Journalists’ Association Photography Award for 2024.
The talented Kadić covered the Olympic Games in Paris last year, just like he did five years ago in Tokyo. In addition to writing, photography is his passion, especially sports photography. As such, he is a regular guest at major sports competitions around the world, from the Olympics to the World Cup to Champions League matches. At the last Olympics in Paris, he skilfully immortalised the masterful gymnastic magic of Aurel Benović, Tin Srbić, as well as Croatian water polo and handball players.
“I have an enormous love for photography, there’s some atomic energy that makes a person want to take more and more and more photos. It’s a privilege to be able to photograph major competitions and be alongside the world’s most famous photographers. And judging by the awards, my photos really do say something, maybe sometimes more than a thousand words,” Slobodan Kadić stated, thanking HZSN for this prestigious recognition.
According to Damir Tabaković, a journalist from Media Servis, photojournalists remind him of decathlon athletes who carry heavy backpacks on their backs with all their professional equipment and travel miles so that when they arrive at the stadium or hall, they can search for and shoot moving targets like the golden Giovanni Cernogoraz.
“From all this hard work come truly stunning photos, and for me that’s true art. Kudos to everyone who is involved in this hard work, and especially congratulations to this year’s winner of the award, my colleague Slobodan Kadić,” concluded Tabaković.
Ante Drpić, former editor of the HINA sports editorial office, received the Lifetime Achievement Award, while Dražen Brajdić from Večernji list was named Journalist of the Year. The Milka Babović Traditional Award went to Katarina Blažević from Novi list. The HZSN award for cooperation with the media went to the Olympic gold medalist, judo player Barbara Matić.
The award for non-fiction was shared by two books – Miroslav Tomašević and Mira Para’s “It was the most beautiful spring of my life”, and Jurica Gizdić’s “Ratni Hajduk”, while a special award for sports non-fiction went to “Olympic Beginner”, authored by Ana Popovčić and illustrated by Lara Žigić.
Ivan Forjan (Nova TV) won the award for work on social media, and the award for a story went to Slaven Alfirević (Slobodna Dalmacija). Valentina Miletić (MAX Sport) was also awarded for TV journalism, Edin Mahmuljin (HRT) for TV reporting, Branko Tabak (Basketball.hr) for commentary, and Damir Mrvec (Večernji list) for an interview.
The ceremony at the Croatian Olympic Committee was attended by the 4th President and Secretary General of the Croatian Olympic Committee Zlatko Mateša and Siniša Krajač, the envoy of the Minister of Sports and Tourism Jelena Kolar, as well as Dinamo president Velimir Zajec.
