Serbia at the Winter Olympic Games in Sochi

On the 22nd Winter Olympic Games in Sochi Serbia will be represented in 5 sports by 8 athletes who will get the opportunity to win the first Olympic medal in winter sports wearing the colours of Serbia. This year Serbian representatives will compete in Alpine skiing, Nordic running, biathlon, snowboarding and bobsleigh.

Serbian team competing at the Winter Olympic Games, taking place from the 7th to the 23rd of February in Sochi, consists of Nevena Ignjatović and Marko Vukićević (Alpine skiing), Ivana Kovačević, Rejhan Šmrković, and Milanko Petrović (Nordic running), Milanko Petrović (biathlon), Nina Micić (snowboarding), Vuk Rađenović, and Aleksandar Bundalo (bobsleigh).

Serbia at the Winter Olympic Games

These are the second Winter Olympic Games where Serbia competes as an independent country. At the Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver in 2010 our Olympic team competed for the first time under the name of Serbia (previously they competed as the representatives of Serbia and Montenegro, and before that representing the colours of Yugoslavia). The best result at the Winter Games in Vancouver was achieved by the team in the four-seated bobsled placing 18th in the formation: Vuk Rađenović, Slobodan Matijević, Igor Šarčević, Miloš Savić.

The Olympic team will travel to Russia on the 3rd of February, while Milanko Petrović, the winner of two Gold medals and one Bronze at the 2013 Winter Universiade in Trentino, will be carrying the Serbian flagat the Games opening ceremony.

In Sochi, the Serbian flag-bearer will compete in biathlon and Nordic running. At the Vancouver Olympic Games he placed 81., but has since advanced, which he demonstrated at the last Universiade when he won two gold medals in biathlon (10km) and cross-country (10km), as well as a bronze medal in biathlon (20km). Milanko Petrović will aim to top the previous best result set by our athlete Aleksandar Milenković (65th) who also participated in biathlon and Nordic running in Torino in 2006.

Besides Milanko Petrović, the skier NevenaIgnjatovićis considered a great asset to Serbia at this year’s Olympic Games. Nevena, also, proved her worth at the last Universiade by placing first in slalom skiing and, thus, bringing Serbia its third Gold medal.

The Serbian bobsleigh team competed in a somewhat different formation at the Olympic Games in Salt Lake City in 2002 and Vancouver in 2010 when they placed 18th. At the European Bobsleigh Championship in Austria in 2013 they placed 10th, while the bobsleigh team pilot, and the most successful Serbian bobsledder Vuk Rađenović is currently in the world’s top 50. What is interesting is that he inherited the love towards bobsleigh from his father Boris Rađenović who was a member of the SFRY national team in the Olympic Games in Sarajevo in 1984. Along with Vuk Rađenović, Aleksandar Bundalo will be inside the two-seated bobsled.

This year, for the first time, Serbia will have snowboarding athlete thanks to the most awarded and the most successful Serbian snowboarder Nina Micić who, despite her injury, qualified for the Winter Olympic Games.

Sochi, the town hosting this year’s Games, was chosen on the 4th of July 2007, and this will be the first time Russia organized the Winter Olympic Games. Seven winter sports were announced and fifteen disciplines as parts of the Olympic Games. The official motto is “Hot. Cool. Yours.” which depicts the Russia’s national character, while the snow leopard, the polar bear and the rabbit were chosen as the mascots for this year’s Games.

Photos: The Olympic Committee of Serbia