She was born in the village of Grabovica near Despotovac on September 23, 1948. At the age of 13, she won the school cross-country race in Ćuprija. There, athletics expert Aleksandar Petrović noticed her and suggested they work together. After a year of collaboration, Vera began winning cross-country races throughout Yugoslavia. She achieved notable results as a junior. At 16, she became a representative, even a Balkan champion. In September 1966, at just under 18 years old, she participated in the European Championship in Budapest and won first place in the 800-meter race with a time of 2:02.8, defeating the favored and more experienced Žuža Sabo. It was the first gold medal at the European Championships for Yugoslavia. Due to this success, she earned the nickname Golden Vera. At the end of the year, she was named Athlete of the Year in Yugoslavia by the Sport magazine.
A year later, on July 20, 1968, Vera made a sensation at London’s “Crystal Palace” and set a world record in the 800m, with a time of 2:00.5, in a showdown with the biggest hope of British athletics, Lilian Board.
After the euphoria generated by this result, the expectations of athletics enthusiasts rose, anticipating a gold medal at the Olympic Games in Mexico. However, Vera succumbed to the pressure and withdrew from the final race. Afterward, she struggled to recover. She decided to change her environment and joined the “Dinamo” Athletic Club in Zagreb under coach Leo Lang.
She recovered, and at the European Championship in Athens in 1969, she won the bronze medal. She had two more successes before retiring from active athletics: at the European Championship in Helsinki in 1971, she won the gold medal, and at the Olympic Games in Munich in 1972, she secured fifth place with a new Yugoslav record of 1:59.5. She left athletics in 1974.
Until 2007, she worked as an athletics coach in Kruševac. She was married and had three children. In January 2021, she suffered a stroke and had been in a medically induced coma since then. She passed away on June 28, 2021, in Belgrade.
