SPORTS | Striving for excellence
16 April 2008
Hearing My National Anthem
A Slovenian rower wins a medal for his newly independent country
By Iztok Cop
The Balkan nation of Slovenia broke away from Yugoslavia in 1991, the first of the republics to do so, declaring itself a free nation after a 10-day civil war.
Barely a year after independence, rower Iztok Cop gave his newly independent nation its first distinction in the Olympic Games – a bronze medal in his sport. Eight years later the Slovenian rower also brought home a gold medal. Cop recalls both wins and reflects on how time has helped him better appreciate the significance of their meaning.
A few months before the Olympics, we still didn’t know whether we would be able to compete for Slovenia or not, whether the International Olympic Committee would recognize Slovenia as an independent country. So the whole nation was very, very proud, very emotional about it. To see the Slovenian flag among medal winners in Barcelona was a big thing. I was a bit too young to realize it then because I was 20 years old and for me it was mostly a racing success.
To see it from the athlete’s point of view, Barcelona was not my best moment, not what I was hoping for. I was hoping for at least a silver medal, and a bronze medal was a little bit less than what I expected. Winning the gold medal in Sydney in 2000 was the bigger success. Before the Sydney Olympics, I was aiming for gold. It was a lot of pressure on me. I was aware that it could be the chance of a lifetime, and I wanted to grab it.
After I succeeded, I just felt so … I can’t even explain … a little bit relieved and proud. Proud of me, proud of my country, and everybody around me.
Listening to your national anthem at the winning ceremony, that is the most emotional moment in the athlete’s career. Very often, you see in the ceremonies on television, athletes who crack at listening to the national anthem. With the success, the relief of everything you’ve been through, seeing your flag on the middle bar, and listening to your anthem, this is a moment I would love everybody to feel once in their lifetime. I was even more proud for my country, and happy that I could give that to the Slovenian people.
In 2008, I’ll be going to the Olympics for the fifth time. I’m trying to do everything to succeed in Beijing because it’s about time to start doing something else in my life. It is not easy to admit that you have to retire. I think that’s why I am enjoying rowing even more than I did in the past. I’m aware that my career is coming to an end, and I’m more focused on everything. My body is not able to do the same things that I was able to do 10 or 15 years ago. I have to be very cautious about my training because the body can’t recover as it did before.
And I am having a family now, so rowing is not the only thing in my life. So I appreciate and respect those moments I spend in a boat.
In the last 10 years, what I enjoy most is being with my rivals. Off the water, we are really great friends, and on the water, we know what we have to do, and we try to beat each other. If you are friends with somebody, you try to do that even more so. This is such a good atmosphere, a healthy atmosphere with nothing phony. If you are the first one on the finish line, no matter whether people like you or not, if you look good or not, you are still the fastest one, and this is what I like. No subjective calculations.
I am asked to give speeches to young people sometimes, and I tell them they have to enjoy the sport, not enter it with the goal to become an Olympic champion. They have to go step by step. But mostly I tell young people if you enjoy your time in sports, even if you don’t make a top result, that is still time well spent. You can gain so much more from sports than just medals, like work habits. No pain, no gain, as they say. If you don’t work hard, you will not succeed. You get used to win, to lose, and to learn something from losing and to not get totally depressed after things are not going the way you want them to go. You learn to respect your opponent, and also you know the difference between work and fun.
I just hope I will be able to stay in sport, at least recreationally, that I’ll be able to sit in a boat a couple of times a week. I just can’t imagine how I can live in a future without sport or exercise. I just hope that I won’t feel comfortable getting fat and lazy.
