June 9, 2015
UCF Athletics Social Media Directory
By Jenna Marina
UCFKnights.com
ORLANDO, Fla. (UCFKnights.com) - Whenever Zana Krakic longs for home, the former synchronized-ice-skater-turned rower heads to the campus arboretum where she can feel secluded and among nature.
There are no stores in Sveta Nedelja, Croatia - sometimes she biked for 30 minutes to the nearest one if she had a chocolate craving and no sweets in the house (and maybe some other necessities were bought, too). But, she says, there was no beating the view.
Her hometown was 40 minutes from Croatia's capital city, Zagreb, where she attended school and practice. So every day, Krakic woke up to walk 15-20 minutes to her town's bus stop, where she caught the 5:10 a.m. bus into the city. She would spend the day there until returning home no earlier than 7 p.m. This routine repeated for four years.
"I remember every single bus I took, and I never missed it," she said. "If I wanted to get better in rowing, I needed to commit to it. And I really wanted to."
As a child, Krakic was well-versed in activities. She tried volleyball, badminton, ribbon twirling, dancing and gymnastics before her heart settled on synchronized ice skating.
"Since I knew how to walk, I had to do something. I had to run, I had to jump, I had to be somewhere," she said.
In synchronized skating, Krakic and 15 other girls aimed to express themselves in perfect rhythm in a mini story for four minutes on the ice. With only one rink in the city, Krakic's team had to find time on the ice when hockey, speed skating and figure skating weren't training. At 10 years old, she was practicing from 8-10 p.m., four times per week.
While Krakic was filtering in lessons of ballet, dancing, acting and conditioning on the ice in preparation for two main competitions a year, she watched her older brother travel every weekend to rowing races. She watched Ivo make friends who lived in different parts of the world.
She loved skating but the self-proclaimed people person grew jealous of her brother's experiences.
"I was begging him for a good two or three months to let me try and he was like, `No, you can't. That is my area, you cannot,'" she said.
Finally, once one of his friend's sisters took up rowing, Ivo relented his stance, and his younger sister was free to take up the sport.
She tried to keep up with synchronized skating for one year, but with rowing practice in the early morning, school during the day, and skating practice at night, Krakic knew she had to choose.
She excelled as a rower, and she has represented her country three times at the World Championships, twice with current UCF teammate Ivana Krkljus in the boat with her.
She likens the first time she received her national team uniform to UCF's first experience at the NCAA Rowing Championships in May.
"I remember getting chills. I was like, `Ivana, this is really happening. We are really part of the Croatian national team,'" she said. "I remembered that feeling when we raced at NCAAs. Every single girl is so inspired by NCAAs. I feel that we can do so much more."
She ended up at UCF because she wanted to be somewhere warm. Every now and then she runs into her brother, who rows for Drexel in Philadelphia, at races. Of course he tries to take credit for his sister's success, and she laughs it off.
Although she rowed in an eight-boat just once prior to coming to the United States and making UCF's Varsity 8, she finished the year as an all-conference selection and helped the Knights secure three honors as the American Athletic Conference Boat of the Week.
She takes pride in the results that her effort and work ethic produce. It's what drives her to push the tempo here at UCF.
"I knew that this team is not one of the top 10, and that's kind of what motivated me," she said. "I wanted to come here and start winning. UCF Rowing is not an old program, so I want to start the tradition."