Although on the second plan, organizationally as well as in the plans and ambitions of the sports policy, which, due to its heritage from a great country, continued to emphasize team sports, Montenegrin competitors achieved great results in individual performances on the biggest stage.
The only thing missing is an Olympic medal, although some of the successes are above the podium of the world's biggest sports show.
In the last 15 years, some successes have been achieved that the sports scene of the former, great Yugoslavia would envy.
This primarily refers to the professional boxer Dejan Zlaticanin, who managed to win the championship belt of the lightweight world champion in the most prestigious, WBC version.
In the history of Yugoslav sport, and the space after its disintegration, only Mata Parlov succeeded.
That is why June 11, 2016 will be written in golden letters in the annals of Montenegrin sports.
By the way, Montenegro inherited its own sports system, since all senior successes were achieved in sports with a strong and rich tradition of results from the time of the joint states, whatever they were called.
The bright tradition continued in boxing, judo and karate, which became an Olympic sport in 2016, but already after Tokyo this summer, it will not be on the program of the next Olympics in Paris in 2024.
In Olympic sports, the greatest success is associated with the name of judoka Srđan Mrvaljević, who shone in Bercy in Paris in 2011 and won the world silver medal in the category up to 81 kilograms, winning an appearance at the London Olympics in 2012.
He won a visa for the Olympics four years earlier, in Beijing, where despite a serious injury he reached the quarterfinals, and he managed to get a visa in 2016 in Rio de Janeiro.
The most medals, although not so bright, were won in Olympic karate.
Marina Raković from Podgorica's Omladinac is the leader of the great wave.
She is the only one with a world medal in Olympic karate in the history of our sport - bronze in the World Cup in Linz 2016, and the only one who won a medal for Montenegrin sports at the 1st European Olympic Games in Baku.
Her clubmate Mario Hodžić has a European silver (Guadalajara, 2017) and a bronze two years earlier, and at the 2nd European Games in Minsk, he was the only one of our athletes with a medal - silver!
Onogošta fighter Nikola Malović won bronze at the European Championships in Guadalajara.
At the EP in Poreč, which is ongoing, Montenegrin karate players have secured their 10th senior European medal since independence, and Raković has the most - three bronze!
The low success of karateka from the biggest competitions in younger age categories is impressive, since they have won medals in every competition since independence!
Boxers have yet to shine in the senior competition, because Milovan Sekulović's junior bronze in 2016 came after a full 32 years in the younger age groups, and in the meantime eight medals were won in the junior and youth age groups - three tied European golds for Bojana Gojković, and the European gold and the first in history, the world silver in the youth, her club mate from Budva, Petar Liješević this year in Kjelce.
Admittedly, the Budva boxer, officially the best European boxer, was drastically damaged in the WC final in Poland.
Judokas had huge successes at younger ages, but long-term problems and struggles over legitimacy in representing the national federation have left their mark and the huge potential shown by the European junior title of Danilo Pantić or the world cadet silver medal of Ivana Nikolić has not yet been valorized on the biggest senior stage.
He is not in athletics either, so although Montenegrin sports do not have a history of success in the "queen of sports", two results have awakened hope for a bright future.
First, the high jumper Marija Vuković won the world junior gold in Moncton, Canada in 2010, and then the discus thrower from Tara, Mojovac, Kristina Rakočević, who won gold in Bydgoszcz at the under-20 WC, while a year earlier in Cali, Colombia, she entered the athletic annals with two junior medals in throwing disciplines, because she won silver in the discus and bronze in the shot put.
However, her valuable senior result is still awaited
In athletics, the discus thrower from Mojkovac, Danijel Furtula, and the marathoner from Nikšić, Slađana Pejović (then Perunović), managed to secure B norms.
We didn't have a tradition of results in tennis either, but Danka Kovinić, from Novlja, managed to bounce back, fight for two WTA finals, to qualify for the previous Olympic Games in Rio, and she is in the norm for the Olympic Games in Tokyo next summer. And her fellow citizen, sailor Milivoj Dukić, managed to win two OI norms, and then he received an invitation to Tokyo.
Apart from the Olympic, the list of successes is huge in sports that are not on the OI program. Montenegrin athletes have won world and European gold medals several times, mostly in jiu-jitsu, kick-boxing and bocce.
QUALITY IN BOXING AND KARATE A GUARD FOR FUTURE MEDALS
The fact that 15 years after independence, the Boxing Association joined the brilliantly organized karate, which even defeated Istanbul in the organization of the European Youth Championship, which will be held in Budva for the second year in a row (two tournaments - the Pearl of the Adriatic and the Montenegro Cup have already found their place in the calendar of the world federation) along with great generations, are a pledge of future success.
The guild's unorganized work was paid by numerous generations of great athletes, especially in judo and boxing.
The departure of two different judo selections to the European Championships in Vienna in 2010 will remain a dark stain on Montenegrin sports, while the Montenegrin Professional Boxing Federation profited from the previous decade-long chaos in boxing.
The president of the CPBF, former boxer Milorad Mijo Martinović, took advantage of the chaos in the BSCG, felt the potential, and along with Zlaticanin's world title, he led two boxers to fight for the titles of professional champions, with the fact that Nikola Sjekloća lost due to disputed referee decisions in the match for the WBO title from home boxer Artur Abraham in 2014 in Germany in super middleweight, while two years later in super welter Predrag Radosevic had no chance against Liam Smith in Liverpool, in the same federation.
However, in 2018, Radošević reached the title of European professional champion in the WBO version.
Bonus video:
