Nowadays, sport is an expression of contemporary national identity, and identity is at its core what an individual, group or country believe that they are. It is closely related to the image, which is what that same individual, group or country presents to the public. In addition to tourism and its natural beauty, the Republic of Croatia is recognized in the world for its top athletes and their results at the Olympic Games, World and European championships, and international competitions since its independence until this day. Although Croatia is a considerably small country in terms of territory and population, thanks to our many athletes such as Luka Modrić, Dražen Petrović, Goran Ivanišević, Davor Šuker and Janica Kostelić, foreigners have heard about our country in almost all parts of the world. This paper investigates the opinions of top former and current athletes, sports coaches and former coaches, and sports workers about the influence of top athletes on the promotion of the Republic of Croatia. The research was conducted on a purposive sample of 12 respondents through face-to-face interviews and video calls. The analysis of the research showed that the respondents believe that sport is one of the determinants of Croatian identity and that they positively evaluated the Croatian image. They also believe that top athletes and their achieved results have a significant, if not decisive, influence on the promotion of the Republic of Croatia, but that the institutions that are in charge of building the Croatian image are not doing their job sufficiently.