I tuned in today to watch the world swimming championship in Rome with only one thing in mind - to see how my countryman, Milorad Cavic from Serbia, would swim his 100m buttefly semifinal race. Little did I expect to hear my national anthem being played for a girl that, completely out of the blue, won the world champion title at 200m breaststroke today.
Her name is Nadja Higl, a 22-year-old girl from Pancevo, a town that's about 30 minutes away from Serbia's capitol city, Belgrade.
Back in the day when I used to practice swimming, I would see her at meets. I don't recall ever being introduced to her, but I'm definitely positive that my sister socialized with her, since they both swam in the same age category.
I remember her father as well. He was a tall man with long hair always tied in a ponytial, and he worked as a swimming referee. He referreed many of the races I swam.
I knew that she qualified for the 200m breaststroke finals with fifth best time in the semis. But, I was absolutely not expecting to see her at the podium at all, much less her getting a gold medal.
The reason why is because of the competition she was going against was absolu...
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