The largest gathering of Olympic athletes before leaving for Tokyo
OTP Banka Srbija and the Olympic Committee of Serbia held the “Socializing with the Olympians” event in the garden of the Olympic House in Belgrade, where media representatives had the opportunity to talk to as many as 15 Olympic athletes who will represent our country at the Tokyo Olympic Games.
Milica Mandić and Tijana Bogdanović (taekwondo), Dušan Mandić and Filip Filipović (water polo), Tijana Bošković (volleyball), Jasmina Milovanović and Sanja Vukašinović (shooting), Aleksandar Kukolj, Marica Perišić, Milica Nikolić, and Anja Obradović (judo), Bojan Zdelar (kayak), Marko Jevtović (table tennis), Velimir Stjepanović (swimming) and Mate Nemeš (wrestling) shared their expectations with media representatives before the world’s biggest display of top athletes.
This was also the last large gathering of Olympians before they leave for Japan, and it was attended by 15 athletes from various disciplines. This year’s Olympic Games are the fifth consecutive Games in which our sports competitors have OTP Banka by their side, as their loyal partner whose support represents the longest sponsorship in the history of Serbian sports.
“Our support for the Serbian Olympians started in the homeland of this competition, at the Games that were held in Athens in 2004, and in addition to Tokyo, it will continue in 2024 in Paris. We believe that our athletes, guided by the Olympic motto “faster, higher, stronger”, will do their best, and we, as faithful long-term partner, wish them a lot of luck and success in their fight for medals. It is the common values and striving towards the set goal that unites us and motivates us to support the best among us. We will proudly follow and encourage them as they represent our country by achieving great results”, said Mr. Predrag Mihajlović, the President of the Executive Board of OTP Banka Srbija, adding that, besides the top athletes, they also support the youngest:
“We try to promote the values of Olympism, playing sports and a healthy lifestyle also beyond the professional sports fields, primarily among school-age children. So far, we have organized more than 70 Olympic trainings for them”, Mihajlović pointed out at the gathering with athletes and the media.
In the last three Olympic cycles, in addition to the team as a whole, OTP Banka has additionally supported individual athletes during the years when the Summer Games were held. In London in 2012, those were: shooter Ivana Maksimović, who won the 100th medal for our country, long jumper Ivana Španović, rowers Nikola Stojić and Jovan Popović, and at the Games in Rio de Janeiro, swimmer Anja Crevar, shooter Andrea Arsović, water polo player Slobodan Nikić, and kayakers Marko Novaković and Nebojša Grujić. Crevar will have this kind of support at the upcoming Tokyo Olympic Games, together with the taekwondo representative Tijana Bogdanović, kayaker Milica Starović, judoka Nemanja Majdov, and water polo player Dušan Mandić.
The first vice president of OCS, Mr. Žarko Zečević, expressed his gratitude to OTP Banka for its long-term support.
“I would like to welcome our partners from OTP Banka and media representatives in the home of the Olympic Committee of Serbia. I cannot welcome our Olympians, as this is their home. It is great to see so many of them today. Our partnership with OTP Banka has been ongoing since the 2004 Athens Games, and I would say that this cooperation is not an example of good practice, but an excellent one, and we are proud of the relationship we have built over the years. The perfect organization of today’s joint event is one of the examples of synergy”, said Mr. Zečević.
Milica Mandić, the winner of the gold medal at the 2012 London Games and the president of the Sports Commission of the Olympic Committee of Serbia, greeted everyone present at the event and revealed an interesting detail that will mark the opening ceremony of the Tokyo Games.
“The Olympic Games are approaching, and I am glad that the number of athletes who will participate under the flag of Serbia is constantly increasing. In order to promote gender equality at the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games, for the first time in history, the flag of each country will be carried by a female and a male athlete. As the president of the Sports Commission of the OCS, I will have the opportunity to propose to the Executive Board of the OCS, together with other members of the Commission, who will be the representatives of Serbia who will carry the flag of our beautiful country at the opening ceremony. Selecting the athletes who will have that honor depends, of course, on who will be present in Tokyo on the day of the ceremony, as well as on the schedule of the competition the following day, so I kindly ask you to be patient regarding that information”, said Ms. Milica Mandić.
On the eve of this year’s Games, OTP Banka has issued a new Visa Gold Olympic card, with the aim of additionally supporting the Serbian Olympians in the phase of preparations for the most prestigious sports competition, together with its clients. The Bank donates a part of the income from each transaction, without additional costs for clients, to the Olympic Committee of Serbia, so it could create better conditions for our athletes, and in addition to this type of support, OTP Banka offers users of the new Visa Gold Olympic card numerous additional benefits.
For the fans to be as ready as possible for this spectacle, but also to have the time remaining before the start of the Games filled with quality and informative sports content, a series of three videos was recorded in which Dušan Mandić, Milica Starović and Nemanja Majdov describe their journey to Tokyo, laden with effort and numerous sacrifices and, above all, marked by the desire to win.