Kosovar judoka Majlinda Kelmendi (C) waves Kosovo's national flag during the flag handover ceremony in Pristina on July 29, 2016. PHOTO: AFP
Serbia will lead the nations who will not be celebrating if the 25-year-old succeeds in putting Kosovo’s name on the Olympic map.
The 52kg champion leads eight Kosovo athletes at the Rio Games following its recognition by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in 2014.
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Olympic fever is mounting among the 1.8 million Kosovars and with it the pressure to succeed.
President Hashim Thaci set Kelmendi’s photo, Kosovo flag and the Olympic rings logo as his Twitter account background. “We may get gold, we may not, still we are heroes,” he tweeted in a reflection of the growing national pride.
Kelmendi and her coach Driton Kuka went into hiding ahead of Rio.
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Having made her international debut in 2011, Kelmendi is unbeaten since 2013. “This girl is a machine,” said France’s Priscilla Gneto after losing the European title final to Kelmendi in April.
But Kelmendi only assured local media she wanted “to win a medal this time”.
The judo star went to the 2012 London Olympics for Albania as the IOC had not yet recognised Kosovo.
Kelmendi said she chose to compete for Kosovo because she wants to show the world “it is not just a little country with a history of war. I want to show the good side, where young people do sport, show they can win and be creative.”
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Kosovo declared its independence in 2008 a decade after a war in the former Serbian province between Serb forces and ethnic Albanian fighters.
More than 100 countries now recognise Kosovo as a country, but not Serbia, which opposed its membership of the IOC as well as major sporting federations such as football’s FIFA and UEFA.
Kuka — who will coach Kelmendi and another judoka, Nora Gjakova, in Rio — has a special reason to be happy. The six-time national champion should have taken part in the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, but Serbia blocked Kosovo.
“First ever Olympic Games for Kosovo ... Proud of my judokas who achieved Olympic quotas for our country,” he recently tweeted.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 31st, 2016.
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