Olympic weightlifting champion Carlos Nassar entered the top 10 in the 51st edition of the BTA “Sportsman of the Balkans” poll for 2024.
The national agencies of the countries of the region participated in the traditional survey – BTA (Bulgaria), ANA-MPA (Greece), ADJERPRESS (Romania), Anatolian Agency (Turkey), TANYUG (Serbia), MINA (Montenegro), MIA (Republic of North Macedonia ), HINA (Croatia), FENA (Bosnia and Herzegovina), KNA (Cyprus) and ATA (Albania).
The Bulgarian weightlifter Nassar was absolutely dominant in the category up to 89 kilograms during the season, and in addition to the title of the Paris 2024 Games, he convincingly became the world and European champion and set world records in the throw, in the push and in the bout.
The top ten of the “Sportsman of the Balkans” for 2024 also included the Olympic vice-champion in the 200-meter backstroke and the European champion in the 50 and 100-meter backstroke Apostolos Hristou (Greece), the Olympic and European judo champion in the category up to 70 kilograms Barbara Matic (Croatia), the Olympic and European champion in the 200m freestyle and bronze medalist in the 100-meter freestyle from Paris 2024 David Popovic (Romania), the Olympic champion in water polo with the Serbian team, scorer and most valuable player (MVP) of the Olympic tournament in the French capital Dusan Mandic, basketball player Kostas Slukas (Greece) , who won the EuroLeague title with Panathinaikos and was named Most Valuable Player in the Final Four at the tournament, athlete Miltiadis Tentoglu (Greece) – Olympic champion, indoor world champion and European long jump champion, Nikola Jokic (Serbia), who was selected as the Most Valuable Player in the National Basketball Association and helped Serbia win bronze at The Olympics in Paris, the Olympic tennis champion and record holder with eight first places in the “Sportsman of the Balkans” poll Novak Djokovic (Serbia) and the athlete shooting Yusuf Dikech (Turkey) – Olympic runner-up in the 10m pistol in the mixed team competition and European team champion in the 10m pistol.
A total of 32 athletes received votes in the poll this year, and the Bulgarians also named the Olympic wrestling champions Magomed Ramazanov and Semen Novikov, as well as the Olympic vice-champion in rhythmic gymnastics Boryana Kalein.
The winner and poll results will be announced at a ceremony in January.
Top 10 in the BTA “Sportsman in the Balkans” poll for 2024 (in alphabetical order):
Apostolos Hristo (Greece) – swimming
Barbara Matic (Croatia) – judo
David Popovic (Romania) – swimming
Dusan Mandic (Serbia) – water polo
CARLOS NASSAR (BULGARIA) – weightlifting
Kostas Sloukas (Greece) – basketball
Miltiadis Tentoglou (Greece) – athletics
Nikola Jokic (Serbia) – basketball
Novak Djokovic (Serbia) – tennis
Yusuf Dikech (Turkey) – sports shooting