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YUGOSLAVS AT OLYMPICS
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| Jasna Sekaric won three Olympic medals |
Yugoslav athletes participated for the first time at the 1912 Olympic Games in Stockholm - D. Milosevic ran in the 100-metre race, while D. Tomasevic ran marathon and placed 15th out of 68 runners.
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Out of 22 medals won by the Yugoslav athletes at four previous Olympics, shooters won nine.
Jasna Sekaric arrived to Seoul in 1998 as a favorite in air pistol discipline, considering that she was then actual world champion and record holder. Thanking her calm arm, she confirmed all predictions and won the gold medal.
It was expected, at the same Olympics, that Goran Maksimovic will also fight for one of the medals in 50 meters free rifle three position, but he surprised everyone when he masterfully won the first place in his weaker discipline 60 meters free rifle prone and even improved the Olympic record by five rounds!
At the Olympic Games in Atlanta, Aleksandra Ivosev, won the third gold medal for the shooters. She was victorious in 50 meters free rifle three position, although she entered the finals as second placed.
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Olympic Games in Los Angeles were the most successful for the Yugoslav boxers, because they won four medals - one gold, one silver and two bronze ones. Mirko Puzovic (in the picture) won the bronze medal in light welterweight
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In Moscow 1980, Slobodan Kacar won the gold medal in light heavyweight category and later became professional world champion
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Milan Janic won the bronze medal in kayak single 1000 meters race in Los Angeles in 1984
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Yugoslav football national team has won five medals at the Olympic Games so far. At three Olympics in a row (1948, 1952 and 1956) Yugoslav football players lost final matches and had to satisfy with silver medals.
Finally, in Rome, 1960, Yugoslavia won gold with a team made out of excellent players, but also with some luck. Namely, after 120 minutes in the semi final match against Italy the score was 1-1(Milan Galic scored a goal for Yugoslavia), so drawing of lots decided which team should go to the finals. Fortune was with the Yugoslavs, who then, in the finals, defeated Denmark with 3-1.
After 24-year break, Yugoslavia again won the medal in football, this time bronze. It was in Los Angeles in 1984. Member of that national team was Dragan Stojkovic, national team's captain at the recently finished European Championship in Belgium and Holland.
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Yugoslav water polo players took their first Olympic gold in Mexico City in 1968 after dramatic final game in which they defeated the Soviet Union 13-11 only after the overtime.
Sixteen years later, they are again the best. In the fourth quarter of the last match in the tournament the Americans led 5-3. However, in an unprecedented finish, the Yugoslavs scored two goals and came to a draw which was enough for a new Olympic gold.
At the next Olympic Games in Seoul the history repeated - Yugoslavia and the U.S. were again the ones to decide on the first place, and the Yugoslavs were better again.
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Mirko Sandic, member of the Yugoslav water polo players golden generation from Mexico `68.
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Igor Milanovic won two gold medals with Yugoslav water polo national team, in Los Angeles `84 and Seoul `88.
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In the final match of the handball tournament of the 1974 Olympics in Munich, Yugoslavia defeated Czechoslovakia 21-16. It was then in Munich that, up-to-then invincible Romanians, triple world champions, were defeated 14-13.
Twelve years later, led by Veselin Vujovic, the new golden generation of Yugoslav players defeated the FR of Germany 18-17 in Los Angeles finals and took another gold for the Yugoslav handball.
Yugoslav women handball players won the golden medal at the same Olympics, having ended their triumphal journey to the first place without a single defeat. They defeated South Korean national team 31-25 in the finals.
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After winning bronze medal in Atlanta 1996, Yugoslavia's male volleyball team crushed the Russians 25-22, 25-22, 25-20 to win gold medal at the Sydney Olympics.
The Russians, behind sensational hitter Roman Yakovlev, led 21-20 in the first game and were tied at 22 in the second, but Yugoslavia pulled away both times.
The third game was no contest. Yugoslav blocker Vladimir Grbic stuffed Yakovlev to give his team a 16-12 lead.
Ivan Miljkovic smashed down the unstoppable spike which gave the Yugoslavs the final point they needed for victory in a third set which had become one-sided towards the end.
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From left: Meneghin (Italy),
Zizic and Kicanovic (Yugoslavia)
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Yugoslav basketball team won a
total of six medals at Olympic
Games - one gold and bronze and
four silver.
The first and the only Olympic gold
Yugoslav basketball got at Moscow
Olympics 1980.
As a world champion from Manila
1978 and in the absence of U.S.
athletes who boycotted the Games, Yugoslavia is considered to have been
the main favorite for winning gold.
After the comfortable wins in the preliminary round Yugoslavia beat Soviet
Union in the semi-finals and Italy in the final match. A few seconds before
the end, Italian pivot Dino Meneghin brutally fouled Dragan Kicanovic.
Due to injury Yugoslavia's guard couldn't play for a few months.
Winning Olympic gold medal, Yugoslavia confirmed its superiority in the
world basketball of late seventies and early eighties.
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