In my previous post, I was ranting about the catastrophe known to the world as OLYMPIC AUGUST or, if you prefer it that way, August of the leap year. Now, there’s something good in OLYMPIC AUGUST. If I put aside the fact that I’m broke, moody and definitely too self-conscious these days; the good thing about this month are, of course…Olympic Medals!
We got three of them. One silver and two bronzes. And they’re our first medals ever, as the only time we went to the Olympic Games as a separate country before was back in 1912 and, well, we have not won anything in 1912.
Milorad Čavić lost by 1/100 in men’s butterfly 100 metres from the oh-so-famous Michael Phelps. There have been many things said about that race. All I can say is that some people will always be big and some will always be small. Either way, the guy is the European record holder and he was better in his heat (where he was “accidentaly” placed one lane next to Phelps…to have his motivation broken, perhaps?) and in the semifinals.
Novak Đoković won the bronze medal in men’s tennis. He narrowly lost to Rafael Nadal in the semifinals to beat James Blake in the third place match. It was sad to see him lose to Nadal, but then, he won the medal and he was as happy as a little child. He was running around, he tossed half of his gear into the audience and he was genuinely happy.
Waterpolo team unexpectedly lost to USA (clearly outsiders in waterpolo) in the semifinals to, ironically, beat Montenegro for the lowest step of the podium. And they were pretty lucky, too; as the day after semifinals, one of the best strikers and the goalkeeper beat each other up. The goalkeeper had his arm broken, the striker had his leg broken and had to be sent home to be operated. Also, back in June, another top-player was almost killed in a motorbike accident. So, in such circumstances, getting a medal is more than incredible. And shall I add that the replacement goalkeeper turned out to be perfect? Either that or Montenegro players had the worst off-day ever.
However, I’m extremely sad for Jelena Janković who couldn’t make it to women’s tennis semifinals and the volleyball team who, guess what, lost to USA. I guess the other unexpected option would be losing to China, as both China and USA are suddenly good in sports the majority of their cititens have never heard about. Oh yes, and Ana Ivanović didn’t even get to compete because of problems with her thumb.
The worst case would, however, be our female marathon runner, Olivera Jevtić. She’s 31 years old, but still a promising, great athlete, yet she had to pull out in the middle of the marathon due to enormous stomach pain and dizziness. And she was crying. I so hope she’ll soon have a good chance to win something, as this was really not her fault.
Shall I add that I’m not sorry for the female volleyball and male football team at all? They both played like major losers. I didn’t expect that from the ladies, so it was like a slap in the face and…as for the guys; for the past eight years I’ve believed that we should simply give up on football in general.
Roll on the next Olympics: with horrible weather, etc. If I’m not dead broke by 2012, perhaps I could make it there…thought I doubt so, as I’ve never gone that far in my whole life.