Milka Babović

Milena "Milka" Babović (born 27 October 1928) is a retired Croatian sprint and hurdles runner and journalist. She won numerous sprinting events in the former Yugoslavia, was selected the best athlete several times. She also had a noted career as a sports journalist and editor in television.

Milka Babović

Personal information
Born	27 October 1928 (1928-10-27) (age 91)[1] Skopje, Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes
Sport
Sport	Athletics
Event(s)	Sprint, hurdles
Club	Mladost Zagreb
Achievements and titles
Personal best(s)	80 mH – 11.0 (1957)[1]

Babović was born in Skopje and grew up in Sarajevo, but moved to Ruma and Belgrade in high school. She graduated in pedagogy at the University of Zagreb.[2] Having taken up sports in Ruma, she joined Mladost in Zagreb and started to compete in sprinting events. Starting in 1953, she won the Yugoslav national titles in the 100 m (once), 80 m hurdles (seven), 4 × 100 m relay (seven), and 4 × 200 m relay events (two). She set several Yugoslav sprinting records, and won two international student competitions in the 80 m hurdles in 1953 and 1957; at the 1954 European Championships she placed fifth.[2] In the Sportske novosti awards polling, she was voted the best female athlete in Croatia three times and was twice the best female athlete of Yugoslavia.[2]

She worked as a sports journalist in Narodni sport since 1949, and moved to TV Zagreb in 1957 where she became the first sports editor. She served in that position, barring one four-year interruption, until 1975. She was a multiple-time president of the sport journalist section of the Croatian Journalist Association, served as a member of the Yugoslav Olympic Committee in two mandates, and was a one-time member of the Executive Council of the Assembly of the City of Zagreb.[2]

Babović was decorated with awards from the Journalist Association in 1974, the City of Zagreb in 1977, and the Yugoslav Order of Brotherhood and Unity with a silver wreath in 1979.[2]