European Athletics would like to offer its sincerest condolences to the family and friends of the renowned Serbian athletics official and statistician Olga Acic, who died on Friday night at the age of 92, just one day before her 93rd birthday.
Acic a philosophy graduate from the University of Belgrade, became a qualified athletics official in 1952 and subsequently officiated at an estimated 3000 meetings. She was a technical official at the 1991, 1993 and 1997 World Athletics Championships as well as at many European Athletics events.
In 1966, she and her husband Miodrag (1925-1981) were the first Serbian members of the Association of Track and Field Statisticians, and she was an international reference point for Yugoslav and Serbian athletics.
Often with her husband, Acic was a prolific producer of athletics statistics books both in the former Yugoslavia and then Serbia, editing the Yugoslavian Track and Field Yearbook from 1961-1988 and she was also one of the editors-in-chief of the annual Almanac of Yugoslavian Sport from 1963-1988.
Acic was a lifelong member of the Rad Star Belgrade – AK C.zvezda – athletics club and was, at various times, a member of its Board of Directors and President.
She was awarded receive the European Athletics Golden Pin in 1997 in recognition of her lifelong involvement in the sport and the IAAF (now World Athletics) Veteran Pin in 2003.
“On behalf of European Athletics, and also on a personal level, I would like to extend my condolences to Olga’s family. She was hugely respected around the world for her commitment and involvement in our sport – widely known, especially in Balkan athletics circles, as ‘Mama Olga’ – and her expertise. She will be sorely missed,” commented European Athletics President Dobromir Karamarinov.