Balkan Countries Eye Potential Medals at Paris Olympics
Source: Balkan Insight
Serbia is fielding a team of 112 people, competing in 20 sports. The country’s biggest hope at the 2024 Olympics is its male basketball team, the current runner-up and, as of February, fourth on FIBA’s world ranking list.
Members of selections are NBA starts like three times NBA MVP [most valuable player] Nikola Jokic and well as Bogdan Bogdanovic and Vasilije Micic, as well as other highly successful players from Europe and domestic teams.
In five preparatory games, Serbia scored three wins. Team coach Svetislav Pesic said after the match on Tuesday that he is still concerned with the players’ physical condition.
“Players came with injuries that have not healed, so we had to do that in this training process; we had to improvise a bit, we had to really dedicate ourselves to the players,” Pesic told the media.
Another favourite for medals is the Serbian women’s volleyball team – holders of a bronze from the 2021 Olympics and a silver from 2016.
Team captain Maja Ognjenovic said ahead of leaving for Paris that the team “did all the preparations in a very good way, and after many years of long preparations these were not so long. We know that we are ready, both physically and mentally.
“We are waiting with great impatience to enter the Olympic village, but also to start the competition. You all know our goals and ambitions, and we hope to fulfil them,” Ognjenovic said.
The original article: belongs to Balkan Insight .
