First, I was wondering who you think should carry the flag at the opening ceremony.

I think an obvious choice would be Novak Djokovic, but who else should be considered?

 

Ivan Miljkovic, Vanja Udovicic, Milorad Cavic. But Nole should really get it IMO.

Good topic btw, been meaning to ask our UK boys about tickets for events, are they still available?

 

that would be cool if miljkovic gets the honors, the whole world knows about djokovic it would be nice to let them know we have other great athletes.

 

Great thread! has Jasna Sekaric retired?if not than she should carry the flag.

Dimitri Gerasimenko just booked his visa to London after winning bronze in the 90k judo category at a world cup event in Tashkent:thumbsup:

 

Gerasimenko did medal at the World Cup, which is different from the World Championship.

The World Cup consists of several events throughout the year, and through which all athletes gain points in order to qualify for the 2012 Olympics.

That being said, Gerasimenko is virtually qualified thanks to the amount of points he gathered but it's not official yet. That's why I didn't put him in the list. :thumbsup:

 

Athletics

400m hurdles
Emir Bekric (m)

Shot put
Asmir Kolasinac (m)

Long jump
Ivana Spanovic (w)

Triple jump
Biljana Topic (w)

Discus throw
Dragana Tomasevic (w)

Javelin throw
Tatjana Jelaca (w)

Decathlon
Mihail Dudas (m)

20km Race walk
Predrag Filipovic (m)

50km Race walk
Nenad Filipovic (m)
-------------------------------------------------

Boxing

Middleweight (75 kg)
Aleksandar Drenovak (m)
-------------------------------------------------

Canoeing (flatwater)

K-1 1000m (m)
Marko Tomicevic

K-4 1000m (m)
Ervin Holpert
Aleksandar Aleksic
Milenko Zoric
Dejan Terzic

K-4 1000m (w)
Nikolina Moldovan
Olivera Moldovan
Antonija Panda
Antonija Nadj
-------------------------------------------------

Rowing

Pairs (m)
Nikola Stojic
Jovan Popovic

Fours (m)
Milos Vasic
Radoje Djeric
Miljan Vukovic
Goran Jagar
-------------------------------------------------

Shooting

10m air pistol
Damir Mikec (m)
Dimitrije Grgic (m)
Zorana Arunovic (w)

10m air rifle
Andrea Arsovic (w)

50m pistol
Andrija Zlatic (m)

50m rifle three positions
Nemanja Mirosavljev (m)
Ivana Maksimovic (w)
-------------------------------------------------

Swimming

100m butterfly
Milorad Cavic (m)
Ivan Lendjer (m)

200m breastroke
Nadja Higl (w)

The following athletes have obtained the selection time (OST), which means they will qualify only if there aren't enough swimmers with the qualifying time (OQT) to fill all the spots:

Velimir Stjepanovic (m)
Djordje Markovic (m)
Radovan Siljevski (m)
Csaba Szilagyi (m)
Miroslava Najdanovski (w)
-------------------------------------------------

Waterpolo (m)

Slobodan Soro
Marko Avramovic
Zivko Gocic
Vanja Udovicic
Milos Cuk
Dusko Pijetlovic
Slobodan Nikic
Milan Aleksic
Nikola Radjen
Filip Filipovic
Andrija Prlainovic
Stefan Mitrovic
Gojko Pijetlovic

(13 players)*
The above squad is not the official one, but rather the one we had at the last World Aquatics Championships.
-------------------------------------------------

Qualified athletes: 48 (so far).

We can expect the shooters to qualify for more events, thus increasing the chances of a medal.

Furthermore, I expect some representatives in judo, table tennis and wrestling.

Both volleyball teams should qualify with relative ease. The system is messed up as you would think the best team in Europe qualifies directly, but it's not the case. They have to go through an additional qualifying tournament.

Finally, the top tennis players on the ATP and WTA rankings (first 56) at the time will qualify directly. That means we can expect Novak Djokovic, Janko Tipsarevic, Viktor Troicki, Jelena Jankovic and Ana Ivanovic, unless something happens in the meantime.

 

I would rather Djokovic get it that way Serbia will most likely get TV time when they enter the stadium instead of all the TV stations going to commercial like they normally do

 

Nole will carry it, no doubt.

 

Olivera Jevtic obtained her visa after registering a time of 2:32:09 ("A" standard) in Turin. Meanwhile, Ana Subotic has also qualified by obtaining the "B" standard.

Serbia also gained 2 quota spots for road cycling, which will most likely be filled by Ivan Stevic (67th in Beijing) and Gabor Kasa.

The women's volleyball team has a record of 3 wins and 5 losses at the FIVB World Cup and as I've said before in another thread, their chances of qualifying are now slim which is a shame.

 

Great opportunity for us to confirm the title of the greatest sporting nation on the planet.

 

:howler::thumbsup:

I'm with you on that topic rsf.

 

Pound for pound baby roud:

 

For instance, Hungary has 459 medals at the Summer Olympics alone and has a similar population to Serbia's. If we would count all the medals won by Yugoslavia (which is much bigger than Hungary) along with all the medals won by each former republic from the beginning of time until today, we wouldn't even get to 150 medals.

Let's not get into the argument once more because there is no debate.

 

Olympics are an event that included 'Tug of war', croquet and polo in the past and nowadays includes non-sports like equestrian, weight lifting, archery, fencing, shooting, synchronized swimming, sailing and the worst one of all gymnastics.

It's like a fancy masonic carnival where you can play silly games for a bunch of medals.

Euro and World championships baby, pound for pound! roud:

PS when's bowling getting added Boris?

 

Very funny Krle... Out of the so-called irony I would agree with you possibly on equestrian, synchronized swimming, shooting and sailing. Thos are all sports, however I don't think they need to be in the olympics.

Gymnastics are something else mate... one of the toughest sports in my opinion. The muscles required are insane. Weigh lifting is insane as well.

 

Yeah why is dancing with a ribbon on mats a sport?

 

Why? Why?!

This is why Mrkela...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2A4vBYDfNHg

 

The Olympics usually very much depends on how much money the government pumps into most sports.

 

Don't get mad now, my post had a smiley, unlike yours.

Obviously Mara understood what I was doing, but I still don't agree with labelling all those events as sports. Weigh lifting involves a bunch of juiced up meat heads while gymnastics are for teenage girls (18 is like 36 in football here ) and ****, no offence to any gymnasts here. But you're entitled to your opinion as I am to mine surely?

As for Serbia not even being close, I doubt it mate. Considering our population and the top sports, I'd say we're definitely top 5 since the break up of Yugoslavia.

I get that in the Commonwealth countries the Olympics are considered the highest possible thing, but in Europe most kids grow up with the dream of becoming Euro or World champs. Probably because football is the main sport here and the Olympics haven't been an important football tournament for quite some decades now.

PS Rugby is definitely a sport and should have been added ages ago. :thumbsup:

PPS I asked about bowling cause I was thinking of giving these Olympics a shot myself. See what all the fuss is about!

(smiley indicates an attempt at humour and sarcasm btw, so you know this time).

 

I understand the sarcasm but behind every sarcastic post there is some truth. You say you were sarcastic, but then you go on and say that despite the sarcasm, gymnastics and weightlifting are still not sports. :howler:

First of all there are different kinds of gymnastics (aerobic, artistic, rythmic, etc.) and it's true that there are some young girls but that's not always the case and especially not for men. It requires a lot of training and it is more physically demanding than any sport.

I can't agree with your opinion that we are a top 5 nation pound for pound, especially not since the breakup of Yugoslavia. Since the breakup, there have been a few success stories but our sport has definitely been falling in the past few years. Also, most of our success since the breakup was due to players which were formed in former Yugoslavia and simply carried on afterwards. Players such as Divac or Bodiroga are certainly not the product of post-Yugoslavia sport. The same can be said for the vast majority of our good footballers in the last couple decades, and so on.

I don't know why you make such a difference between World Championships and the Olympic Games. What's the difference between our handball team playing at the WC and our handball team playing at the Olympics? I don't see any, so saying that we are one of the best nations in the world despite the fact we barely won any medals is ridiculous. What's the difference between our basketball team at the WC and our basketball team at the Olympics? Well the difference is that, at the Olympics, every team brings their best squad and therefore we can't do much better than finish 11th out of 12 teams (last time we played in 2004). I'm not talking about 1996 (final) which was clearly a result of pre-Yugoslavia.

We have failed to even qualify for basketball for London (and Beijing) but clearly we are one of the top basketball teams since the breakup of Yugoslavia. It just doesn't make sense mate.

I'm just saying that it's non sense to compare our Olympic results from before and after the breakup of Yugoslavia. Back in the time, we would be winning a lot of medals in basketball, handball, football, boxing, and even gymnastics D)... but ever since the breakup we haven't managed nearly as much. Our best medal was volleyball in 2000 which was a great moment but if we're actually one of the best pound for pound nations I would be expecting us to win at least 15-20 medals every time, not 2 or 3 at best.

 

I was sarcastic about the carnival part obviously , not about the sports. And like I said, we all have our own opinions and value sets. Gymnastics (and some other sports) just don't do it for me.

And of course we owe a large chunk of our success to Yugoslavia and I'm the last person to deny that. But even after those generations faded away, we've seen success in basketball in recent times, waterpolo the entire period, volleyball always to a certain level, but even more so recently and of course in tennis where we are quite a successful nation right now. So quite clearly the talent didn't die with Yugoslavia and to be brutally honest, in both basketball (2003-2007) and football we've actually been underachieving for a while.

As for the difference between the tournaments. I explained it the best I could mate. In Europe a World championship will always mean more and to be honest, I'm not that bothered with our results in the Olympics. It's a cool event, but I do actually prefer Euro and World championships and it's not our fault the US don't in basketball.

About your final point, it quite obviously has to do with infrastructure and investment in sports. We produce talented individuals in many sports these days as you know, but their facilities are still considered way below par compared to most of the big sporting nations. If anything that confirms my theory about our natural talent in sports.

But this discussion has been beaten to death over the years. I'd like to quit while I'm ahead this time and say you're right man, absolutely right!

 

Let's just say that I will never be convinced that any basketball player would rather win the FIBA World Championship instead of an Olympic gold in the final against Kobe Bryant and Lebron James. I think the only sport where the WC is actually more important than the Olympics is football. I would add tennis to that list as a GS tournament is more important as well. The list ends there.

Now I just wish rsf was here to confirm that Sweden, Belarus, Hungary, Bulgaria, Australia, Denmark, Cuba and a bunch of other countries are all much better pound for pound, let alone countries such as Russia, USA or Germany. roud:

 

Now I just wish rsf was here to confirm that Sweden, Belarus, Hungary, Bulgaria, Australia, Denmark, Cuba and a bunch of other countries are all much better pound for pound, let alone countries such as Russia, USA or Germany. roud:

Confirmation given. :thmbup:


Sorry, I missed this interesting discussion. Yes, we're good, we're competitive and we punch above our weight, but the "best sporting nation on the planet"? Come on.... :howler:

 

Ana Subotic has qualified with the B standard for the women's marathon.

 

I'm always disappointed by Serbia at the olympics, and I'm not expecting anything different this time either. The fact is we're only good at team sports (water polo, volleyball, basketball), but at individual sports we're not good. Occasionally a good individual comes along (like Milorad Cavic) but that's rare.

 

That's because most individual sports at the Olympics are amateur sports and they require plenty of government funding and sponsorship. This is something that our government can't/won't provide and therefore we struggle.

But what about Mihail Dudas, he did well in the World Championship Decathlon this year finishing 4th I believe?

 

Welcome to the forum. :thumbsup:

You're right about that, despite the fact that we've won more individual medals. Here is the medal table since 1992.

• Shooting: 1-3-3 = 7
• Waterpolo: 0-1-2 = 3
• Volleyball: 1-0-1 = 2
• Basketball: 0-1-0 = 1
• Swimming: 0-1-0 = 1
• Tennis: 0-0-1 = 1

For 2012, we can hope for a medal for Djokovic when it comes to individual sport but the list probably ends there unless Arunovic can grab a shooting medal.

 

He finished 6th at the WC and he's Serbia's biggest weapon when it comes to athletics as Olivera Jevtic is past her prime and Dragutin Topic is retired.

He's still very young (22) and he could become huge, but I don't know if that will happen in London.

 

What team sports are we (most likely) going to participate in?

 

Qualified
Waterpolo (M)

Qualification pending
Handball (M, W)
Volleyball (M, W)

Both volleyball teams still have a decent chance at qualifying while the handball teams stand no chance despite mathematically it is possible.

In the end, the most realistic option is to have the men's waterpolo team as well as one of the volleyball teams (men's or women's).

Eliminated
Basketball (M, W)
Football (M, W)
Waterpolo (W)

 

No faith in Cavic winning a medal?