2026 MM Ilirija
- April 18-19, 2026
- Ljubljana, Slovenia
- LCM (50 meters)
- Results
Croatian freestyler Franko Grgic, who has had an extended absence away from the sport after emerging as a promising up-and-coming talent in 2019, is back in competition and gaining some momentum.
Grgic exploded onto the international scene as a 16-year-old, sweeping the boys’ 800 free (7:45.92) and 1500 free (14:46.09) at the 2019 World Junior Championships, setting a new World Junior Record in the latter.
After that breakout year, Grgic quickly fell off the radar. Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, he only raced once in 2020, and then across six meet appearances in 2021 and 2022, he was nowhere near his previous level in the 200 and 400 free, and he didn’t race his best events, the 800 or 1500 free, at all.
Although there are no clear documented reports of the timeline of how and why Grgic stopped competing and training consistently, he reportedly had shoulder surgery at one point, and there were reports in Croatia of overtraining and burnout.
After swimming a single relay in May 2023, Grgic was absent from competition for more than two years until this past fall, resurfacing at the Jadran Grand Prix in his hometown of Split in October, swimming the 1500 free (15:55.25) for the first time in six years.
He’s raced at three more meets since, most recently at the MM Ilirija (International Swim Meet) in Slovenia last weekend.
Grgic picked up the victory in the men’s 1500 free in a time of 15:41.61, his fastest since 2019, after clocking 15:43.31 in March. He also set a new season-best in the 800 free, clocking 8:11.05 to improve on his 8:20.27 clocking from last month.
He was also the runner-up in the 400 free (3:54.18) and took 4th in the 200 free (1:51.29), both slight adds from where he was last month in Rijeka (1:50.99/3:53.53).
Winning the 200, 400 and 800 free over Grgic was Slovenian Saso Boskan, who posted respective times of 1:49.12, 3:53.39 and 8:10.43 in those three events while adding a fourth victory in the 200 IM (2:04.41).
Boskan currently owns best times of 1:47.62 in the 200 free, 3:49.26 in the 400 free, 8:02.95 in the 800 free and 2:04.28 in the 200 IM.
On the women’s side, the top performer was Neza Klancar, a 2024 Olympian and current Slovenian Record holder in three LCM events.
Klancar, 26, won the three events in which she owns the Slovenian Record, topping the field in the women’s 50 free (24.97), 100 free (54.52) and 50 fly (26.50) while adding a runner-up finish in the 50 breast.
Her national record times stand at 24.35 in the 50 free, 53.96 in the 100 free and 25.81 in the 50 fly.
Slovenia’s Tina Celik impressed in the sprint breaststroke events, winning the 50 breast (31.59) and 100 breast (1:07.94), setting a new best time in the latter. Her 100 breast swim also brought her within four one-hundredths of the Slovenian Record of 1:07.90, set by Tjasa Vozel in 2020.
Most recently Grgic had sub 1:50 and sub 3:50 for 200 and 400 free.
Another precocious mid/long distance freestyler who disappeared is Galossi. I hope he’s back soon.
Always wondered what happened to him, good to see that he’s at least back competing again.
Now this is a name i thought i would never hear about again
lol I was expecting actually impressive times
Wow. I very often think about him and what happened
It blows my mind that he’s already 23.
Based on what have happened with some cross-country skiers, it seems that about 2 years or more is about the time needed to recover from over training and they you have to build back up, and you have the mental side as well. If you add shoulder surgery and rehab on top of that then several years can pass. Hope he has found the joy for swimming and working is way back.
That would be awesome if we could see a return to form for him. Such a talented swimmer