Igor Čerenšek publicly challenged his own team: "in the body, not in the head"

In a public statement later reported in February 2017, Igor Čerenšek described the reason for the Croatian handball players' failure with the words "in the body, not in the head." The statement preceded the fitness coach's reaction and the Croatian Psychological Chamber's statement. This text reports the statement and its documented consequence without making accusations.

The statement that set the sequence in motion: "in the body, not in the head"

According to Večernji list on February 10, 2017, Čerenšek's statement that the Croatian handball players' problem was "in the body, not in the head" stirred public attention. With that statement, he gave a secondary role to his own field, psychological preparation, in explaining the result.

The sentence was reported as his statement, with a date and source. It documents his public appearance, not the truth of his claim about the causes of the result.

The reaction: Krolo, then the Chamber

The sequence of reactions is public. After the statement, fitness coach Mirko Krolo made statements on February 5, 2017, in which he described Čerenšek in insulting terms; they were reported as Krolo's attributed words.

On February 6, 2017, the Croatian Psychological Chamber published a statement distancing itself from Čerenšek's work and public appearances, stating that he did not then have a special license. The Committee president also publicly commented on the use of the title on February 9.

What the profession's public response shows

The institutional response shows that the Chamber did not treat the public relegation of psychological preparation to a secondary role as an unremarkable description of the result. It responded publicly through its own statement and through a statement by an officeholder.

The fact that the profession responded publicly does not automatically make the statements in its response indisputable, but it does make them part of the dated public record.

The boundary: statement versus our assessment

The phrase "in the body, not in the head" is presented as Čerenšek's assessment, not as our assessment of his position. This text does not claim that Čerenšek "undermined" anyone; it records what he said and how the profession responded publicly.