Croatia's Olympic medallist in swimming, Duje Draganja, was inducted into the Cal Athletic Hall of Fame of University of California, Berkeley at a ceremony held in Oakland on Saturday.

Later on Saturday, Draganja was introduced to 60,000 spectators at a college football game at the California Memorial Stadium in UC Berkeley’s campus.

Draganja had competed for Croatia at three Olympics between 2000 and 2008, and won the silver medal in men’s 50 metres freestyle race at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece, with a time of 21.94 seconds. This is the only Olympic medal in swimming won by Croatian athletes to date.

Born in Croatia’s second city of Split in 1983, Draganja left the country on a four-year athletic scholarship at Berkeley, between 2001 and 2004, and during his time competing for the college team California Golden Bears won eight NCAA National championships, 12 conference titles, and set the university’s record in men’s 50 m freestyle.

Between 2000 and 2009 he also won a number of medals in European and World championships in both long and short course competitions.

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