Serbia (SRB)

Serbia is unique in having 96 years between the nation’s first and second Olympic appearance. Serbia first competed at the 1912 Olympics, when it sent two athletes to the Games, a marathon runner and a 100 metre sprinter. On 4 December 1918, Serbia became part of the country that was then termed the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes and would later become Yugoslavia. Serbian athletes competed under that banner through the 1992 Olympic Winter Games. Despite the breakup of Yugoslavia, the former states of Serbia and Montenegro continued to compete as Yugoslavia, although the country’s name was later changed to Serbia and Montenegro.

This union dissolved with the secession of Montenegro in 2006, and Serbia competed independently for the second time at Beijing in 2008, where it won three medals, and again at Vancouver in 2010. Its most notable performance in Beijing was achieved by Milorad Čavić, a butterfly swimmer who was only beaten by star athlete Michael Phelps in the last inches of the race.

In 2012 Milica Mandić won the first ever gold medal for Serbia in the women’s taekwondo heavyweight class. She would repeat the feat nine years later, winning gold in Tokyo. Through 2022, the country’s medal count is 24 medals and six golds. Three Serbian athletes have won four medals, all in water polo: Andrija Prlainović, Filip Filipović and Duško Pijetlović, each with two gold and two bronze. Through 2016, Serbia has won three medals in men’s water polo, including the gold medal in 2016.

It can be claimed that Serbia was also represented at the first Olympics in 1896. Momcsilló Tapavicza (Serbian: Momčilo Tapavica) placed third in the Olympic tennis tournament. He represented Hungary, as his native Vojvodina, which is an autonomous province of Serbia, was at that time part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

Serbian athletes competed for Yugoslavia through the 1992 Olympic Winter Games. As an independent nation, Serbia has competed at the Olympic Winter Games of 2010, 2014, 2018, and 2022. They have had 17 Winter competitors, who have appeared in Alpine skiing, biathlon, bobsleigh, cross-country skiing, and snowboarding. Their best finishes have been 14th, by Nevena Ignjatović in 2018 women’s combined Alpine skiing, and 18th, by their 2010 four-man bobsleigh team.