The dream of an Olympic medal
We need to be realistic and ask, Nikola, champion of Macedonia, how do you measure up to your peers in Europe and the world, do they go to the Olympics and what results do they achieve at the Olympics at 16 years old?
That is the sport, which works, can hope to achieve results.
You are not really a talent, but more than that, you are a swimmer (Nikola Gjuretanović, n.z.) who has a successful future for Macedonia.
Therefore, I have advice for you and if you are smart to accept it as a positive experience, you as a potential champion and those who work with you.
I would advise you not to repeat the mistakes of many young Macedonian athletes. Please, can any of you self-proclaimed experts or some of you so smart that you say you are very big intellectuals, and therefore know a lot about sports.
Do you know where those hundreds, thousands of Macedonian talents from the past 34 years are, and where those who have won medals at the European and World Championships for pioneers and youth have been lost. They were talents at one time, but someone helped to make them disappear as seniors, with ignorance, with incompetence, by prematurely declaring some kind of "champions" who lived in the delusion that they had done something, and did not even feel what real competition is.
These are their coaches, sometimes parents, with excessive ambition, their clubs and sports federations. At the top is the IOC, who cared about nothing but taking them to competitions so they could brag and walk next to the athletes.
And it is not important for the results and for the pride of this country. We are a young nation and it is important to fly the flag. How can it be a young nation now, when we know that Macedonia has existed since ancient times, under Alexander the Great.
If we don't believe in it ourselves, don't expect someone from abroad to respect us.
We should also be realistic and ask, Nikola, champion of Macedonia, how do you measure up to your peers in Europe and the world, do they go to the Olympics and what results do they achieve at the Olympics at the age of 16?
The people must know the truth before they write and judge about something, here we read how some make you a hero and lie that you won an Olympic norm.
I have to say that they are pretending to be nice to you, but that way they will only destroy you, as other Macedonian talents in many sports were destroyed with false words.
Listen Uncle Saban, you should know my life story at your age.
I was like you, a young boy, with a big dream, with difficult working conditions, we didn't even have a sports hall, at the beginning I didn't have any trainers or equipment, but I had the biggest dream.
And with only 6 years of training, my coaches, the legendary and now deceased Nase Nasev and Hajrush Sinani, had only one goal and one reason to make the dream come true.
I am not an Olympic champion and an Olympic vice-champion by chance, I have won 19 medals at European, world championships and at the Mediterranean Games, and therefore I am the one who, with a big heart, wants to motivate all young people who want to become champions.
Unfortunately, at this point, in my opinion, you are a victim of the Olympic Committee, they boast that we have a 16-year-old Olympic swimmer on the team. Ok, if the Olympic Committee has already nominated him for the Olympics, why don't they give him a whole year program with preparations, every day three times a day for the young promising athlete to swim in the pool.
Thus, they will take him to Paris, float and say he was young. Well done to everyone. They are playing with the child, and the whole crowd is arguing about whether he was young, whether he should have gone, whether to praise or criticize him.
With the last 10 days of preparation, you don't go to the biggest sporting event, the Olympic Games. That's not going anywhere.
Everyone should know that the last days should be trained more relaxed, the athlete's body should be ready for competitions, and not with strong trainings to leave tired.
Therefore, I would once again advise you and your team that you can achieve greater success in the future, of course only if you work hard. There is no rest for you and the others around you. Even if you stay until the end in Paris, from there you have to start training even more every day, harder, because in these next four years you have a world and European youth championship waiting for you, and you will be competing with adults, so you know for yourself where are you.
That's why you need to practice a lot, because you have a long way to achieve your dream, so I advise you with realistic words. The road to the top is not easy, but everything is possible. There is a place only for the best, for the most persistent, who never give up on their goal.
Finally, I greet you with this proud Macedonian Olympic image, we are the ones who proved to the world that we are the descendants of Alexander the Great from Macedonia, who conquered half the world with the hero of Tokyo 2020, Dejan, who in taekwondo returned with a silver Olympic medal medal. May he be an example of success for all.
We hope that now with the new government, with the minister of sports, they will do something positive, they will create conditions for young Macedonian athletes to train even harder and that someone from these new generations will repeat my feat from 40 years ago when I became the youngest in Los Angeles at the age of 19 Olympic champion (and still am) in all of Olympic history. I wish from the bottom of my heart that in Los Angeles 2028, one of the Macedonian athletes will return with a gold Olympic medal, but remember, everyone, you need a lot, a lot of work and always be optimistic in your sportsmanship for great success.
Sincerely your Olympic champion.
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(The author is an Olympic gold and silver winner at the 1984 and 1988 Games)
