Ivona Dadic is an accomplished Austrian athlete, renowned for her achievements in the heptathlon, where she has secured multiple national championships. She has earned a silver medal at the World Indoor Championships and a bronze medal at the European Championships.
Born on December 29, 1993, in Wels, Austria, Ivona Dadic began her athletic journey in her childhood, demonstrating remarkable talent. She participated in the 2010 Youth Olympics in Singapore, where she placed sixth in the long jump. In the heptathlon, she achieved a tenth-place finish at the 2011 Junior European Championships held in Tallinn.
In 2012, at the age of 18, she surpassed the Austrian national record previously held by Sigrid Kirchmann since 1985, scoring 5,959 points at the all-around meeting in Gotzis. This achievement qualified her for the London 2012 Olympics, making her the first Austrian heptathlete to compete in the Olympic Games. She concluded the event with a score of 5,935 points, finishing in 25th place.
In 2015, during the European U23 Championships held in Tallinn, Estonia, Ivona Dadic secured a bronze medal and set a new national record of 6,033 points. She was also a member of the Austrian 4x400m relay team, which unfortunately faced disqualification in the final. Despite her achievements, Ivona Dadic did not participate in the World Championships in Beijing. Following the World Championships, she further enhanced her national record to 6,151 points at the Decastar all-around meeting in Talence, France. Since 2015, she has represented Sportunion Saint Poelten. In recognition of her accomplishments, she was named Sportswoman of the Year in Lower Austria for 2016 and also received the title of Track and Field Athlete of the Year in Austria.
At the 2016 European Championships in Amsterdam, Ivona Dadic earned a bronze medal in the heptathlon, achieving a new Austrian record of 6,408 points. This outstanding performance qualified her for the Rio 2016 Olympics, where she finished in 21st place.
During the 2017 European Indoor Championships in Belgrade on March 3, she set a new personal best in the pentathlon with a score of 4,767 points, earning a silver medal behind Belgian Olympic champion Nafissatou Thiam. At the World Championships in London, Ivona Dadic achieved 6th place in the heptathlon, establishing a new national record of 6,417 points.
In February 2018, Ivona Dadic set a world record for the year in the pentathlon during the state championships held at the Ferry-Dusika-Hallenstadion in Vienna, scoring 4,692 points. At the 2018 World Indoor Championships in Birmingham, she secured a silver medal in the pentathlon with a season-best performance of 4,700 points. Ivona Dadic opted not to participate in the Gotzis all-around meeting in May 2018, choosing instead to dedicate three additional weeks to prepare for the European Championships in Berlin. At the all-around meeting in Ratingen, she finished second, narrowly missing a new Austrian record in the heptathlon with a score of 6,413 points, falling short by just 4 points in June 2018. During the European Championships in Berlin in August, the 24-year-old athlete surpassed her own Austrian record, achieving a score of 6,552 points and finishing in fourth place in the heptathlon. Following the assessment of the IAAF world annual best list for 2018, the trio of Austrian heptathletes – Ivona Dadic (6,552 points), Verena Mayr (6,337 points), and Sarah Lagger (6,225 points) – achieved a historic first by ranking first in the global nations standings.
In 2019, she achieved a commendable 4th place in the pentathlon at the European Indoor Championships held in Glasgow. With a total of 4,702 points, she finished just 21 points shy of the bronze medal and 29 points behind the silver. In June, she secured the second position at the Ratingen all-around meeting, trailing Verena Mayr, with a score of 6,461 points.
The outdoor season commenced later than usual due to the COVID-19 pandemic. On August 30, 2020, Ivona Dadic claimed the title of state champion in the all-around, setting a world annual record of 6,419 points, a record that remained unbroken for the remainder of the year.
In 2021, Ivona Dadic achieved a fourth-place finish once more at the European Indoor Championships, recording a season-best score of 4,587 points. During the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, she secured an eighth-place position with a total of 6,403 points.
In 2022, Ivona Dadic participated in the European Athletics Championships held in Munich but did not attain a medal. Nevertheless, she triumphed in the heptathlon at the Decastar event in France, earning a gold medal.
Ivona Dadic missed the 2023 season, but returned to the competitive athletics in 2024, competing at the Sollentun Swedish Indoor Combined Events Championships in pentathlon. After that she earned the 60m hurdles silver at the Mondo Indoor Games in Uppsala, before claiming the pentathlon silver at the Linz Austrian Indoor Combined Events Championships. By the end of the season, she finished 6th at the Gold Label’s Decastar in Talence.
On the national level, Ivona Dadic claimed the title of Austrian champion in the heptathlon in 2012, in shot put in 2017, and in long jump in 2018. Indoors, she won championship titles in the pentathlon in 2011 and 2012, as well as in 2017 and 2018. Additionally, she achieved victories in the long jump and the 4x200m relay in 2017, along with the long jump and high jump in 2019.
Ivona Dadic in numbers
1x World Indoor Championships silver medalist
1x European Championships bronze medalist
1x European Indoor Championships bronze medalist
1x European U23 Championships bronze medalist
18x National champion
Personal best: 6,552 points (heptathlon), 4,767 points (pentathlon), 6.49m (long jump), 1.87m (high jump), 8.32 sec (60m hurdles), 13.36 sec (100m hurdles), 14.97m (shot put)
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