Sport in Montenegro

A holiday in Montenegro guarantees wonderful scenery, an abundance of outdoor activities, beautiful beaches, relaxation and rejuvenation- the main requirements for a holiday. Behind the tourist scene, the nation has also got its foot in the world of international sport...

Every country has a national sport or at least one they are passionate for, New Zealand it is rugby, USA love baseball, the French are footie-mad and Bhutan prefer archery. For Montenegro, their sporting passion involves a swimming pool, 2 goals, a ball and a team of good ‘egg beaters’ (treading water!)

Montenegro has a small population of around 600,000 so impressively it is one of the smallest countries ever to win a gold medal in continental and world championship team sports. The country won first place (yay!) at the 2008 European championship, came a close second in 2012 and came seventh in the 2011 world championship.

Waterpolo is played along the south coast in the bay of Kotor and is played in Kotor, Herceg Novi and Budva. In the current National team one player is from Budva and those who aren’t from Kotor or Herceg Novi are from the smaller surrounding teams who don’t have a professional Waterpolo club. Talented players play for either Jadran in Herceg Novi or Primorac in Kotor.

The Montenegrin National team had high hopes for the 2012 Olympics. Interestingly, the country competed for the first time as an independent nation in 2008! So London 2012 was a good opportunity for Montenegro to showcase their passion to the world. The team made it to the bronze medal match where they were closely beaten by their neighbours Serbia with a result of 11-12.

It wasn’t all sighs though at the Montenegrin Olympians left London with their first ever Olympic medal with the Women’s Handball team winning silver, hopefully Montenegro will scoop their first Olympic medal in Waterpolo in Rio in 2016....

On a closing note, football fever will soon be heading to Montenegro as England team prepare to play Montenegro the host country in a world cup qualifier match in Podgorica on Tuesday 26^th March.