Anita Horvat

Anita Horvat (born 7 September 1996) is a Slovenian sprinter and middle-distance runner. She placed seventh in the 800 metres at the 2022 World Athletics Championships. Horvat won the silver medal in the event at the 2023 European Indoor Championships.

She represented Slovenia in the 400 metres at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. She is the Slovenian record holder for the 400 metres out and indoors, and took 10 individual national titles (mostly for the 400 m).

Career
Anita Horvat competed in the women's 400 metres at the 2017 and 2019 World Athletics Championships.

She also represented Slovenia in the event at the postponed 2020 Tokyo Olympics in 2021.

In the 2022 season, Horvat gradually shifted to the 800 metres. In March, she won the 400 m at the Balkan Indoor Championships held in Istanbul. She finished second over the 800 m at the outdoor Balkan Championships in Craiova, Romania in June that year. The following month, she placed second in the 400 m at the Mediterranean Games staged in Oran, Algeria. At the 2022 World Athletics Championships held in Eugene the same July, Horvat for the first time broke the two-minute barrier in the 800 m (1:59.60) in her semifinal and eventually finished seventh in 1:59.83 in the first global individual final of her career. She lowered her personal best to 1:58.96 in August and competed in the event at the European Championships in Munich, where she fell and placed last in her heat.

In January 2023, the 26-year-old won her new specialist event at the Init Indoor Meeting Karlsruhe in Germany, a World Athletics Indoor Tour Gold meeting, beating 2022 world indoor silver medallist Freweyni Hailu. She continued her good form in March, claiming the silver medal in the 800 m at the European Indoor Championships held in Istanbul, her first major individual medal and the biggest success up to that point.

Personal bests

 * 100 metres – 11.79 (+1.2 m/s, Celje 2017)
 * 200 metres – 23.47 (0.0 m/s, Kranj 2017)
 * 200 metres indoor – 23.10 (Metz 2021)
 * 400 metres – 51.22 (Monaco 2018) 
 * 400 metres indoor – 52.22 (Madrid 2018) 
 * 600 metres – 1:26.26 (Milan 2023)
 * 800 metres – 1:58.96 (Chorzów 2022)
 * 800 metres indoor – 2:00.44 (Karlsruhe 2023)