A city of sports without an athletics track: The most expensive thing is not to build it

Montenegrin sports have talent. That has never been a problem. The problem starts later, when the talent needs to become an athlete.

Between the first training sessions and senior sports, a large number of children disappear from the system.

Some give up, some change their priorities, but the result is the same, sports don't keep them going long enough.

One of the key reasons is working conditions.

In this context, the athletics track in Podgorica becomes more than an infrastructure issue. It becomes a measure of the attitude towards sport.

There has been talk of its construction for years. There have been plans, announcements and promises for years. But the track still doesn't exist.

And it's no longer a question of one sport.

Athletics is not an addition to sport, it is its foundation. It is not just athletes who work on the track. Football players, basketball players, handball players, volleyball players, wrestlers and children who are just getting into sports train there.

Everything we see as a result later is built there.

That's why its absence is not a small omission. It's a systemic deficiency.

A special signal that requires serious attention comes from the Montenegrin senior athletics championship in Bar.

Without going into the numbers, it is enough to look at the competition structure to make it clear that senior athletics is in a phase where the competition is seeking strengthening and stability. What should be the top of the system is today its narrowest point.

It is a warning that must not be ignored.

In a city of almost 300.000 inhabitants, the question is no longer whether an athletics track is needed. The question is why it isn't there yet. Because sports aren't built on promises. They are built on infrastructure.

A track changes more sports than meets the eye. It doesn't just make athletes, it elevates the entire system of physical training.

And perhaps most importantly, it keeps kids in the sport long enough that talent doesn't just remain potential.

We demand discipline, perseverance and patience from athletes. It is time to demand the same from the system.

The future of Montenegrin sports will not depend on whether we have talent. It will depend on whether we have the conditions not to lose it. Because talent is not the problem.

The problem is when the system has nowhere to turn it into a result.

Author Marko Rajović, Master of Sports Medicine