Luka Mladenovic

On 17 May, Mladenovic placed 61st in the 100-metre breaststroke with a time of 1:03.10 at the 2020 European Aquatics Championships, contested at Danube Arena in Budapest, Hungary.[3] Two days later, he placed 41st in the 200-metre breaststroke with a time of 2:16.87.[4] At the 2021 European Junior Swimming Championships, held approximately two months later in Italy, Rome, he placed fourth in the 100-metre breaststroke, fourth in the 200-metre breaststroke, eleventh in the 4×100-metre medley relay, seventeenth in the 4×100-metre mixed medley relay, 53rd in the 50-metre butterfly, and did not start the 50-metre breaststroke.[5]

At the 2022 European Junior Swimming Championships, held in July in Otopeni, Romania, Mladenovic won the silver medal in the 200-metre breaststroke with a time of 2:13.21, finishing less than two-tenths of a second behind gold medalist Lucien Vergnes of France.[6][7] He also placed seventh in the final of the 100-metre breaststroke with a 1:02.48, placed seventh in the 200-metre individual medley in the semifinals with a personal best time of 2:03.79 before withdrawing from competing in the final, and placed fifteenth in the 50-metre breaststroke with a time of 28.68 seconds.[7]

At the 2022 European Aquatics Championships, with pool swimming competition at Foro Italico in mid-August, Mladenovic started off with a 30th-place ranking in the preliminary heats of the 100-metre breaststroke on day one with a time of 1:02.46.[8] Two days later, he achieved a 23rd-place ranking in the 200-metre breaststroke with a time of 2:15.98, which was the fastest time by an Austrian in the event at the 2022 Championships.[9] On 15 August, two days later, he ranked 40th in the preliminary heats of the 50-metre breaststroke with a time of 29.06 seconds and did not advance to the semifinals.[10] For his final event of the championships, he placed 19th in the preliminary heats of the 200-metre individual medley one day later with a 2:06.00, ranking as the fastest Austrian in the event.[11]

2022 World Junior Championships
	100 m breaststroke	1:01.30
	200 m breaststroke	2:12.94
	50 m breaststroke	28.32

Following his results at the 2022 European Junior Swimming Championships, Mladenovic entered to compete the same repertoire, 50-metre breaststroke, 100-metre breaststroke, 200-metre breaststroke, and 200-metre individual medley, at the 2022 FINA World Junior Swimming Championships, held in August and September in Lima, Peru.[12] On the morning of the second day of competition, he placed twelfth in the 200-metre individual medley, finishing with a time of 2:04.90.[13] Later in the day, in the evening finals session, he won the gold medal in the 100-metre breaststroke with a personal best time of 1:01.30, finishing 0.34 seconds ahead of silver medalist Uroš Živanović of Serbia and 1.50 seconds ahead of Filip Urbanski of Poland.[14][15][16][17] Two days later, he won the silver medal in the 200-metre breaststroke, achieving a second-place finish with a personal best time of 2:12.94, which was 0.13 seconds behind gold medalist Asahi Kawashima of Japan.[18][19] In the final of his fourth and final event, the 50-metre breaststroke on 4 September, he won the bronze medal in the 50-metre breaststroke, this time finishing 0.62 seconds behind gold medalist Uroš Živanović of Serbia with a personal best time of 28.32 seconds.[20][21] After the Championships, when he returned to his training base in Austria, Mladenovic received a welcome home reception at his swim club.[2]

At the 2023 Salzburg Indoor Short Course Swimming Championships in February in Hallein, Mladenovic won ten titles in individual events, which spanned freestyle (100-metre, 200-metre, 400-metre), backstroke (100-metre), breaststroke (50-metre, 100-metre, 200-metre), butterfly (50-metre), and individual medley (100-metre, 200-metre) disciplines.[22][23] Three months later, he placed fifth in the a-final of the 200-metre breaststroke at the 2023 Mare Nostrum stop in Canet-en-Roussillon, France, finishing in a time of 2:14.49.[24]