The Games in Rio de Janeiro were the third overall in history in which Montenegrin athletes had the right to participate. In Brazil, there were a total of 34 in seven sports - of which two were collective (handball and water polo players) and five were individual (sailing, athletics, tennis, judo and swimming).
The Lionesses went to Rio as the current Olympic vice-champions, and our flag was carried at the opening by the legendary handball player Bojana Popović, who played at the Olympics after a long break.
- My heart beats like in London before the final, which means I'm excited. It is a great honor and pleasure for me, thank you to everyone who trusted me to be the one to carry the flag in Rio in front of all these wonderful athletes. We will try to do our best to present a small country, not to allow anyone, if he is bigger, to be stronger than us character-wise, motivationally, emotionally and in any other way - said Bojana Popović.
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On the field, however, our ladies were not up to the task - the Rio Games ended as 11th, after suffering all five defeats in the group (to Spain, Angola, Romania, Norway and Brazil). A year later, legendary coach Dragan Adžić left the bench...
And the water polo players achieved an identical result as in Beijing 2008 and London 2012. They were again one step away from a medal, this time in the duel for bronze Italy was better 12:10.
The "Sharks" were fourth in the group, they won against France and the United States of America, lost against Croatia and Italy and drew with Spain.
Vladimir Gojković's team achieved a great triumph in the quarter-finals when they were better than Hungary (13:11 in total), and in the semi-finals they could not match the Croats who won 12:8 before Serbia defeated them in the final - 11:7.
Our selection believed in the bronze, but for the second time in the tournament, they had to come to terms with the defeat against "setebel".
It was probably the last twitch of a part of a great generation of "sharks", and the cap of Montenegro was worn in Rio by Zdravko Radić, Miloš Šćepanović, Draško and Darko Brguljan, Vjekoslav Pasković, Antonio Petrović, Aleksandar Radović, Mlađan Janović, Uroš Čučković, Aleksandar Ivović, Saša Mišić, Filip Klikovac and Predrag Jokić.
In addition to water polo players and handball players, sailor Milivoj Dukić, athletes Slađana Perunović (marathon) and Danijel Furtula (discus), tennis player Danka Kovinić, and judoka Srđan Mrvaljević and swimmers Maksim Inić and Jovana Terzić participated.
And these Games showed the power of swimmer Michael Phelps and the greatest sprinter ever, Usain Bolt. The American extended the Olympic records (28), as well as gold medals (23). Bolt, on the other hand, won the 100 and 200 meters and did it for the third time in a row, which no one has done.
And Phelps wasn't the only American swimmer to dominate in Rio. Kathy Ledecki grabbed four gold medals (200, 400 and 800 meter freestyle and 4x200 meter relay) and one silver (4x100 meter freestyle relay). Ledecka's performance in the 800-meter final was one of the most impressive in the history of Olympic swimming. She set a world record and broke it by almost two seconds, and was 11 seconds faster than her nearest rival.
The Games, by the way, had an announcement problem, as less than 50 days before the start the state of Rio de Janeiro declared a “state of public calamity,” which gave authorities the ability to coordinate basic public services and made the state eligible for federal emergency funds. ..
Despite the problems, the Games started on time, and it will be remembered that over 11 athletes competed in 42 sports. Notable new sports added for the Rio Games were golf and rugby.
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