Post by radovic on May 9, 2008 9:50:36 GMT -5
Country cheers on first Olympic team
Friday, 25 April 2008 14:40
!The Secretary General of Montenegro’s Olympic Committee believes the country’s August debut in Beijing can help unify Montenegrins, especially its young people. Ðorðije Kustudiæ was in Cetinje on Sunday, April 20 to kick off a 12 city promotional tour of the country. The Olympic Caravan 2008 is an effort to get Montenegrins excited about the 18 strong contingent the country will send to its first ever Olympic games.
A crowd of approximately 400 people filled the town square on a sunny afternoon to cheer on several of the athletes who are Beijing bound and be entertained by a troika of the country’s most popular musical acts and a colourful troupe of traditional folk dancers. Three quarters of the audience were lively, boisterous school children and it’s those young citizens that Kustudiæ most wants to reach.
“Our idea is to put the Olympic spirit into our young people,” says Kustudiæ. The Secretary General sees the promotional tour and the country’s participation in the games as an exercise in nation building: “Maybe some of their parents are not comfortable with some ideas like cohesion of the country but hopefully the kids will be. I think this is the best possible way to make them proud of their country. Actions like these (the promotional tour) are perhaps the best possible way to make cohesion, to spread the good will and the Olympic spirit. This may be the best example of how eveveryone can find themselves in the bigger Olympic caravan. They can better understand their own country watching their Olympians on TV, on the biggest stage in the world.”
The Montenegrin debutantes have a good chance of returning from Beijing with medals around their necks, according to Kustudiæ. Thirteen of Montenegro’s Olympians will be in the pool, playing water polo, a sport the country excels in. The team went undefeated in the Olympic qualifying tournament in Bratislava, Slovakia, with victories over Italy, Slovenia, Greece, the Netherlands, Russia and Romania. Prior to the country’s 2006 declaration of independence, when it was half of Serbia-Montenegro, Serbia-Montenegro captured the water polo gold medal at Sydney 2004 Olympics. The other five who will represent Montenegro will compete in boxing, judo, swimming and track and field.
Montenegrins won 40 Olympic and world championship medals when the country was part of the Federation of Yugoslavia. When Serbia-Montenegro won volleyball gold at the Sydney 2004 Olympics there were three Montenegrins on the team, all of whom were on the starting six. Ten Montenegrins have mined gold out of Olympic pools as water polo competitors and seven more took home gold as champions of women’s handball in the 1984 games in Los Angeles.
“We have a long and proud sporting tradition in Montenegro, especially in team sports,” says Kustudiæ. “We have great athletes in basketball, volleyball, handball and water polo. We don’t have as great a tradition in individual sports but we are confident that will change. For a country of only 650,000 people, we have many great athletes.” Kustudiæ says proof of his assertion lies in the fact that of the 205 member Olympic family, more than 100 nations will send less than six athletes to Beijing.
Although Kustudiæ hopes to send a winter sports team to the Vancouver 2010 Olympics, Montenegro has, at this point, only two national federations for winter sports, one for alpine skiing, the other for figure skating. There are two young, female figure skaters who hope to represent Montenegro in Canada. Both are native born Montenegrins living outside the country, one in France, the other in Greece. “They are only 13 or 14 years old right now but we hope they will be ready in time for Vancouver.” However, Kustudiæ says hurdles will first have to be cleared before the girls can compete because they are no longer residents of Montenegro. The other hopeful for Vancouver is a 17 year old male who competes in alpine skiing.
If Montenegro is going to develop a tradition of winter sports it will likely have to look to it’s regional friends for a little help getting started. The country has several alpine skiing centers but no ice rink, so Kustudiæ says Montenegrin athletes hoping to compete in winter sports will have to train at facilities in Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia and Bosnia-Herzegovina until proper facilities can be built.
If anyone would know the country’s sporting history it would be Kustudiæ, who was a TV sports journalist for eleven years before winning the penultimate position in Montenegro’s administrative sporting hierarchy. “I know everybody, from the administrators to the athletes and I think that’s one of the reasons I was chosen.”
Kustudiæ ascended to his post in April 2007 and says that he has been loving every minute of it, “The job is very interesting and one of my motivations in taking it was to be a part of history being written. These are the first Olympic games for Montenegro and it’s history being made. It’s an honour for me to be a part of this organisation in this moment.”
Kustudiæ’s job sees him splitting his time more or less 50/50 between working with Montenegro’s national sporting federations and the International Olympic Committee (IOC). He works with the leaders of individual sporting bodies inside the country to help them develop, promote and fund their sports. However, his attention is focused almost 100% on his international responsibilities to the IOC as the games approach.
The Secretary General admits that the IOC could be considered a somewhat curious organisation to those who do not know its ways. The inner circle of the movement, who make the big decisions regarding where the games will be held and what sports will be contested, is a body of 115 individuals. And Kustudiæ stresses that they are individuals, “They are not representatives of national committees or their own countries. Once they are voted into the IOC they don’t have to report anything to their countries. They are totally independent of their native countries. It’s interesting or maybe somewhat strange for someone who is outside but they are all highly respected people who are very devoted to the goals of the IOC.”
As the world’s eyes begin to focus on Beijing, political activists, hoping to force China to allow Tibet to secede, are gearing up for what could be a clash in the Chinese capital. Some of those activists are calling for their own nations to boycott the games. Although Kustudiæ believes that all humans have rights, he does not think politics should be dragged onto the Olympic stage. “It’s our standing point, as it is of the IOC, that the games should be free of politics, so it would be madness for us to have some special thoughts on Tibet. There isn’t any place for our committee to get involved with that debate.”
Kustudiæ and his colleagues choose to kick off the Olympic Caravan 2008 in Cetinje because it was Montenegro’s capital when King Nikola reigned as sovereign when the first Olympic games of the modern era were held in 1896. Nikola was invited to send athletes to the first games, says Kustudiæ, “but it was all so new and there were no sporting organisations in Montenegro, so the King did not send anyone.”
Some of Montenegro’s future Olympians may have been on hand in Cetinje on April 20. The 300 or so school kids who laughed and played the afternoon away under a brilliant sun in the peaceful, beautiful town showed a great deal of enthusiasm for sports competition. The children, some sporting cotton-candy covered faces, all ran an 800 meter race through the streets of the town. Preceded by a police car with lights flashing and siren sounding, the children huffed and puffed across the finish line, most smiling, some clearly exhausted and all thrilled to find out what would come next. Kustudiæ, who looked on with a satisfied grin, can, no doubt, relate.
Friday, 25 April 2008 14:40
!The Secretary General of Montenegro’s Olympic Committee believes the country’s August debut in Beijing can help unify Montenegrins, especially its young people. Ðorðije Kustudiæ was in Cetinje on Sunday, April 20 to kick off a 12 city promotional tour of the country. The Olympic Caravan 2008 is an effort to get Montenegrins excited about the 18 strong contingent the country will send to its first ever Olympic games.
A crowd of approximately 400 people filled the town square on a sunny afternoon to cheer on several of the athletes who are Beijing bound and be entertained by a troika of the country’s most popular musical acts and a colourful troupe of traditional folk dancers. Three quarters of the audience were lively, boisterous school children and it’s those young citizens that Kustudiæ most wants to reach.
“Our idea is to put the Olympic spirit into our young people,” says Kustudiæ. The Secretary General sees the promotional tour and the country’s participation in the games as an exercise in nation building: “Maybe some of their parents are not comfortable with some ideas like cohesion of the country but hopefully the kids will be. I think this is the best possible way to make them proud of their country. Actions like these (the promotional tour) are perhaps the best possible way to make cohesion, to spread the good will and the Olympic spirit. This may be the best example of how eveveryone can find themselves in the bigger Olympic caravan. They can better understand their own country watching their Olympians on TV, on the biggest stage in the world.”
The Montenegrin debutantes have a good chance of returning from Beijing with medals around their necks, according to Kustudiæ. Thirteen of Montenegro’s Olympians will be in the pool, playing water polo, a sport the country excels in. The team went undefeated in the Olympic qualifying tournament in Bratislava, Slovakia, with victories over Italy, Slovenia, Greece, the Netherlands, Russia and Romania. Prior to the country’s 2006 declaration of independence, when it was half of Serbia-Montenegro, Serbia-Montenegro captured the water polo gold medal at Sydney 2004 Olympics. The other five who will represent Montenegro will compete in boxing, judo, swimming and track and field.
Montenegrins won 40 Olympic and world championship medals when the country was part of the Federation of Yugoslavia. When Serbia-Montenegro won volleyball gold at the Sydney 2004 Olympics there were three Montenegrins on the team, all of whom were on the starting six. Ten Montenegrins have mined gold out of Olympic pools as water polo competitors and seven more took home gold as champions of women’s handball in the 1984 games in Los Angeles.
“We have a long and proud sporting tradition in Montenegro, especially in team sports,” says Kustudiæ. “We have great athletes in basketball, volleyball, handball and water polo. We don’t have as great a tradition in individual sports but we are confident that will change. For a country of only 650,000 people, we have many great athletes.” Kustudiæ says proof of his assertion lies in the fact that of the 205 member Olympic family, more than 100 nations will send less than six athletes to Beijing.
Although Kustudiæ hopes to send a winter sports team to the Vancouver 2010 Olympics, Montenegro has, at this point, only two national federations for winter sports, one for alpine skiing, the other for figure skating. There are two young, female figure skaters who hope to represent Montenegro in Canada. Both are native born Montenegrins living outside the country, one in France, the other in Greece. “They are only 13 or 14 years old right now but we hope they will be ready in time for Vancouver.” However, Kustudiæ says hurdles will first have to be cleared before the girls can compete because they are no longer residents of Montenegro. The other hopeful for Vancouver is a 17 year old male who competes in alpine skiing.
If Montenegro is going to develop a tradition of winter sports it will likely have to look to it’s regional friends for a little help getting started. The country has several alpine skiing centers but no ice rink, so Kustudiæ says Montenegrin athletes hoping to compete in winter sports will have to train at facilities in Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia and Bosnia-Herzegovina until proper facilities can be built.
If anyone would know the country’s sporting history it would be Kustudiæ, who was a TV sports journalist for eleven years before winning the penultimate position in Montenegro’s administrative sporting hierarchy. “I know everybody, from the administrators to the athletes and I think that’s one of the reasons I was chosen.”
Kustudiæ ascended to his post in April 2007 and says that he has been loving every minute of it, “The job is very interesting and one of my motivations in taking it was to be a part of history being written. These are the first Olympic games for Montenegro and it’s history being made. It’s an honour for me to be a part of this organisation in this moment.”
Kustudiæ’s job sees him splitting his time more or less 50/50 between working with Montenegro’s national sporting federations and the International Olympic Committee (IOC). He works with the leaders of individual sporting bodies inside the country to help them develop, promote and fund their sports. However, his attention is focused almost 100% on his international responsibilities to the IOC as the games approach.
The Secretary General admits that the IOC could be considered a somewhat curious organisation to those who do not know its ways. The inner circle of the movement, who make the big decisions regarding where the games will be held and what sports will be contested, is a body of 115 individuals. And Kustudiæ stresses that they are individuals, “They are not representatives of national committees or their own countries. Once they are voted into the IOC they don’t have to report anything to their countries. They are totally independent of their native countries. It’s interesting or maybe somewhat strange for someone who is outside but they are all highly respected people who are very devoted to the goals of the IOC.”
As the world’s eyes begin to focus on Beijing, political activists, hoping to force China to allow Tibet to secede, are gearing up for what could be a clash in the Chinese capital. Some of those activists are calling for their own nations to boycott the games. Although Kustudiæ believes that all humans have rights, he does not think politics should be dragged onto the Olympic stage. “It’s our standing point, as it is of the IOC, that the games should be free of politics, so it would be madness for us to have some special thoughts on Tibet. There isn’t any place for our committee to get involved with that debate.”
Kustudiæ and his colleagues choose to kick off the Olympic Caravan 2008 in Cetinje because it was Montenegro’s capital when King Nikola reigned as sovereign when the first Olympic games of the modern era were held in 1896. Nikola was invited to send athletes to the first games, says Kustudiæ, “but it was all so new and there were no sporting organisations in Montenegro, so the King did not send anyone.”
Some of Montenegro’s future Olympians may have been on hand in Cetinje on April 20. The 300 or so school kids who laughed and played the afternoon away under a brilliant sun in the peaceful, beautiful town showed a great deal of enthusiasm for sports competition. The children, some sporting cotton-candy covered faces, all ran an 800 meter race through the streets of the town. Preceded by a police car with lights flashing and siren sounding, the children huffed and puffed across the finish line, most smiling, some clearly exhausted and all thrilled to find out what would come next. Kustudiæ, who looked on with a satisfied grin, can, no doubt, relate.