Serbia’s brightest moment came in the 100 meter butterfly event. Milorad Cavic (pronounced Chavich) in Serb is shown above nearing the wall in the finals. He was beaten by Michael Phelps by .01 second. It looked like he reached first but was gliding as he neared the wall while Phelps was coming forward with his arm. In my opinion, it was just a lucky break for Phelps and the race could have gone to either swimmer. It was the closest scare, besides the relay event that Phelps had in reaching his goal of 8 gold medals. It is also funny that Cavic has a name very similar to Nadia’s maiden name! Milorad set the Olympic record in a previous heat that still stands in the event. He received a hero’s welcome here in Belgrade with thousands coming to a rally in his honor upon arrival from China.
It was a bit sad to see Novak Djokovich lose to Rafael Nadal in the semifinals. He did come back and win the bronze medal in the consolation match against Blake. He was the second best tennis player in the games and deserved a silver medal, but was seeded in Nadal’s bracket. We watched his exciting quarterfinal match against Frenchman Monfils in the shopping mall here in Belgrade. Everyone went crazy when he won. I could tell that Novak wanted to win the medal very badly.
The third and last medal was won by the men’s water polo team. Serbia defeated neighbor and best friend Montenegro to win the bronze medal. Last Olympics, those two countries were together and I wonder how they would have done competing together. Serbia’s three medals were its first medals as an solo independent nation. With only 6.5 million people, three medals is pretty good. That is a ratio of just over 2 million people per medal. Compare that to the USA’s 2.7 million people per medal and it is slightly better. I wonder how the former Yugoslavia would have done together in this olympics? I also enjoyed listening to the Serbian Olympic Theme, Srbija Navija! or Serbia Cheers! Thanks Sanja I. for sending it to me.
I really enjoyed watching them but am glad they are over as it dragged on a bit with so many obscure and unwatchable sports. I think the Olympics could get rid of many sports like synchronized swimming and diving, equestrian, shooting, table tennis, judo, etc.
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