Данило Икодинович: Суреткер, спортшы және саясаткер өмірі

Serbian water polo player

Danilo “Dača” Ikodinović (, born 4 October 1976) is a Serbian former professional water polo player who played on the bronze medal squad at the 2000 Summer Olympics (with Yugoslavia) and the silver medal squad at the 2004 Summer Olympics (with Serbia and Montenegro). He received a Golden Badge, award for the best athlete in Serbia and Montenegro.

He spent the 2005/06 season playing for VK Partizan. He appeared for the Serbian national water polo team in 304 matches, scoring 299 goals. In 2006, he appeared as a model in an underwear campaign for ExtremeIntimo. During the summer of 2006 he signed for Russian club Sintez Kazan. In his first season in Sintez Kazan, Ikodinović led the team to 2006/07 LEN Cup trophy as well as the Russian league title. In late March 2008, he reached an agreement with PVK Jadran to play for them in 2008/09 season.

Ikodinović endorsed the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) for the 2018 Belgrade City Assembly election, however, later he became a strong critic of SNS and its leader Aleksandar Vučić. On 17 March 2021, Ikodinović joined the People's Party (NS) and became the president of its Sports Committee.

In 2000, Ikodinović married his girlfriend Anja who later that year gave birth to their daughter Andrea. The couple divorced in 2003. For a few months during 2004, he dated professional karate fighter Snežana Perić. The relationship was high profile with coverage in Serbian tabloids and lifestyle magazines. Later that year Ikodinović began a relationship with Serbian pop singer Nataša Bekvalac. Once the relationship became public on New Year's 2005 it inspired even more press coverage. In July 2006 the couple married in Sremski Karlovci. They have a daughter named Hana who was born in March 2007 while Danilo was playing at the World Championships in Melbourne. The couple divorced in January 2011. In 2016, Ikodinović married to professional volleyball player Maja Ognjenović.

On Friday, 27 June 2008, around 8:20pm, Ikodinović was involved in a traffic accident while riding his Yamaha R1 motorcycle on the Zrenjanin Novi Sad regional road near the town of Kać. The thirty one year old professional water polo player was transferred to intensive care in Novi Sad where he got immediately taken in for surgery that ended up lasting almost eight hours. As a result, his condition was stabilized, but remained critical. Reportedly, of the numerous injuries he sustained, the heaviest trauma occurred on his right arm with severe tearing of blood vessels (nerves and arteries). The next day, in the evening hours of 28 June 2008, almost twenty four hours following the accident, he underwent another vascular surgery on his arm. His condition has since improved. Investigation of the crash finished by mid November 2008, determining that Ikodinović had been driving at a speed of 173 km/h while having blood alcohol content of over 2 per mil (considered to be the medium level of alcoholic intoxication) when he rear ended the Yugo driven by Pajica Dejanović that had just begun overtaking a tractor vehicle driven by Miroslav Kukić. Ikodinović was charged with violating traffic safety. His case went before a judge in Novi Sad Municipal Court on 5 March 2009 where he was found guilty of causing the accident and got ordered to pay RSD70,000 (around €760 according to the exchange rate at the time). He also received an eight month ban on driving a motorcycle. District public persecutor submitted an appeal on the court's decision due to not being satisfied with the amount of the fine. The damages part of the case was settled out of court on 26 May 2009, which is when Ikodinović paid a sum to Pajica Dejanović that was in some media outlets reported to be €6,000.