They fulfilled their dream, and qualified for London 2012 Olympics. Lucija and Ana Zaninovic will be the first twin sisters in Croatian history to compete in Olympic Games. There are good chances they might even be the first ever Croatian twins to win Olympic medal. Only once there were twins from Croatia competing in the Olympics. Brothers Zoran and Zlatko Vujovic played for Yugoslav national football team in 1980 Moscow games. They even came from the same city as Zaninovic sisters, from coastal center Split.
Besides sharing a dream, Zaninovic sisters are sharing a sport, too. They are world class taekwondo fighters; Ana is a world champion, and Lucija is the best in Europe. Fortunately for both of them, they are not competing in a same weight category.
" It wasn't easy, there were many obstacles to cross, but now we are so happy with this achievement," said their coach Toni Tomas after the qualifying tournament in Baku, Azerbaijan.
Ana had particularly heavy task. She fought in the third place match against Hamada of Japan.
"This was the hardest match in my life. I don't know how I managed to come back; "golden point" was really gold this time. And then I exploded, burst into tears when I realized that both my sister and I will travel to London," Ana said after her victory.
Ana had a tough job to qualify. There are fewer weight categories in an Olympic tournament than in the World Championship, so she had to fight in the same competition with three other world champions, two of them from heavier categories. Lucija did the same only day before her sister, but watching Ana fighting with a broken arm was even harder than fighting herself.
"It's hard to watch my sister on tatami; it was exhausting as having ten fights in a row. I knew she was injured, and how much she is in pain. But she always surprises me; she just likes to show what kind of 'beast' she is. She is the best," Lucija said in one post-tournament interview.
Winning a qualification tournament was the biggest success in Lucija's career. Unlike her sister, she hasn't won a World title, but has had a perfect record during the European championship.
They are aware that all credits from the past are now under challenge. In London they will start from the bottom, as anyone else in the Olympics. Before that, in May 2012 they will compete in the next European championship in Manchester. That will be the biggest test before the "big thing".
Ana and Lucija started their path to glory eleven years ago, with their coach Toni Tomas. They were young, even Tomas was only 20, and sisters were only 13. Ana and Lucija had their first encounter with taekwondo when they watched a performance by Croatian fighter Natasa Vezmar on Sydney Olympics. They were winning tournaments in all age categories, but also suffered injuries, surgeries, long recoveries. However, they always looked forward.
Only eight years after they started their practice a huge injustice struck them. Ana and Lucija didn't make it to national Olympic team for Beijing games only because national team coach said so. Nothing helped, not even a fact that Ana was the 2007 World championship silver medalist, and Lucija had a bronze from 2006 World Cup.
"We decided not to look back on that decision too much. Croatia won two medals in Beijing even without us, and we were determined to turn to ourselves, work as hard as we could and wait for the new opportunity," said Tomas.
Considering all their successes, Ana and Lucija might count on one of the Olympic medals, though they refuse even to talk about. It would be great to see them as part of the Olympic wall of fame in their city Split, a capital of Croatian sports with more than 60 Olympic medal bearers.
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