Hundred and fifteen Serbian sportsmen and women will compete in 15 sports at the 30th Olympics in London (July 27th – August 13th), and we’re hoping one of them will bring home Serbia’s 100th Olympic medal.
Seventy nine sportsmen and thirty six sportswomen competing in 12 individual and 3 team sports will try to improve the success of 98 medals won at the Olympics so far. Novak Djoković, one of the best tennis players in the world, will have the honor to carry the Serbian flag at the opening ceremony.
Serbia has its representatives in athletics, cycling, boxing, judo, kayaking, swimming, wrestling, table tennis, shooting, taekwondo, tennis, rowing, water polo, handball and volleyball at this year’s Olympic games. Our basketball team, the ones who got us used to winning and celebrations, won’t be participating this time.
The last Olympic gold for Serbia was won by the men’s volleyball team at the Sidney Olympic in 2000, while our national teams have also won three medals at the last Olympics in Beijing 2008. Swimmer Milorad Čavić took silver medal in the 100 m butterfly, and two bronze medals were won by Novak Djoković and men’s national water polo team.
Once again we can expect the most from our tennis players, water polo team and swimmers, while we’re hoping of seeing some medals also won by volleyball, handball and sports shooting team.
Novak Djoković, Ana Ivanović, Jelena Janković, Janko Tipsarević, Viktor Troicki, Nenad Zimonjić, well known around the world, are the Team Serbia’s best gold medal hopes.
Our men’s national water polo team got us used to winning Olympic medals (Sidney 2000 – bronze, Athens 2004 – silver and Beijing 2008 – bronze), so Serbia expects most of them.
We’ll be following both our men’s and women’s national volleyball teams at the Olympics. Our men’s volleyball team has won two Olympic medals: bronze medal in Athens in 1996 and golden medal in Sidney in 2000.
Current European vice-champions, Serbian men’s handball team, will also have great support at this year’s Olympics.
This will be the last competition for our best swimmer Milorad Čavić and he’s hopping of winning some medals to conclude his professional carrier. Beside him, we’ll be cheering for Nadja Higl, European record holder in the 200 m breaststroke, and Velimir Stjepanović who has had some remarkable results after having won the gold at the Youth Olympic Games (YOG).
Wrestling is the individual sport that has won the highest number of Olympic medals, 12 in total, and this year Aleksandar Maksimović, the winner of two golden and two bronze medals at European championships, will try to continue this tradition.
Asmir Kolašinac, this year’s third best European shot putter, is also leaving for London, while our representative in the 400m hurdles is Emir Bekrić, who won the second place at this year’s Universiade. This is the second time Ivana Španović, the second best in long jump at the EC for young seniors in 2010, is participating the Olympics.
After scoring top results in years behind us, our kayakers are heading for London, among whom is Marko Novaković, the holder of golden medal at the European Championships in Zagreb.
Among arhers, 8 competitors won their place in the Serbia’ national sports shooting team, and we can expect most from the most successful: Jasna Šekarić, Andrea Arsović, Andrija Zlatić, Zorana Arunović.
For the first time, Serbia will have representatives in taekwondo. Our great hopes are Milica Mandić who won the silver at EC 2012, Dragana Gavrilović and Damir Fejzić who won the first places at the qualifications for the Olympics.
This is the third time London will host the Olympic Games, after the Olympics in 1908 and 1948, which is a great honor for Great Britain as this is the only country that was entrusted with this role three times.
The Olympic park is located in East London, including the Olympic Village and the main press center. This complex is covering 2 square kilometers of what once was the industrial zone and it is the biggest project Britain has had and it included the planting of 4,000 trees, 74,000 plants and 350,000 swamp plants.
During 17 days of the Olympics in London 10,500 sportsmen and women from 205 countries will be competing in 26 sports and 39 disciplines. We’ll be with our representatives, cheering, supporting them and hoping of seeing them on the podiums.
Vanja Grbić and Jasna Šekarić wrote the pages of the Olympics history
The outstanding point won by Vladimir Vanja Grbić at the Olympics in Sidney in 2000, where our team took the golden medal, was declared officially the most amazing volleyball action in the history of volleyball.
Serbia has total 98 Olympic medals (28 golden, 35 silver and 35 bronze medals).
Wrestling is the most successful individual sport in the Olympics with 16 won medals (4g,6s, 6b), while the water polo team has won the most medals among team sports – 10 (3g, 5s, 3b).
The most successful among individual sportsmen and women is Jasna Šekarić who has won 5 Olympian medals in sports shooting (1g, 3s, 1b).
This year Jasna will be entering the history of the Olympics as the only woman among total 6 women who have participated at the Olympics 7 times.
