European high jump bronze medalist Angelina Topic of Serbia was announced as the winner of the Piotr Nurowski Prize for Best European Young Athlete of Summer 2022 at the annual awards ceremony held at the International Olympic Academy in Olympia, Greece.
The award was voted on by the European National Olympic Committees and Angelina Topic received 33% of the vote, ahead of British diver Andrea Spendolini-Sirieix, who received 31% of the vote.
Angelina Topic won a gold medal at the European Under-18 Championships in the high jump in Jerusalem in July, before seamlessly adapting to women’s competition by winning bronze at the European Athletics Championships in Munich 2022. At the age of 17, Angelina Topic was the youngest medalist of all championships.
Angelina Topic also equaled the under-18 girls’ world best of 1.96m at the Serbian championships and the teenager has aspirations of not only winning major women’s titles but also rewriting the record books as she moves up the age group rankings.
“I would like to make history in the high jump and become one of the greatest in history. My dream is to set world records in every age category and finish it off by winning a gold medal at the Olympics”, said Angelina Topic, whose shorter-term goals may include next year’s European Athletics Indoor Championships in Istanbul and the European Championships in athletics for boys and girls under 20 in Cluj-Napoca, Romania.
When asked what it means to her to win the award, Angelina Topic said: “Both my parents are Olympians, so I had no choice but to be raised with Olympic values at home from a young age. Winning this award is a dream come true. It gave me extra motivation to train hard and inspire other young athletes to achieve their dreams”.
Angelina Topic, whose father Dragutin won European gold in the high jump in 1990 and whose mother Biljana won a bronze medal in the triple jump at the 2009 World Athletics Championships, follows in the footsteps of reigning European champion Yaroslava Mahuchikh, who won the award in 2019.
The Piotr Nurowski Prize for Best European Young Athlete was established in 2011 in memory of Piotr Nurowski, President of the Polish Olympic Committee, who died tragically in a plane crash a year earlier.
The annual award is given to up-and-coming young athletes who demonstrate not only outstanding sporting achievements but also exceptional behavior on and off the sports field.
In addition to the Piotr Nurowski Prize, Angelina Topic will also receive a 15,000 EUR training scholarship.
