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I feel that the podium in London will be shared by Russia, Brazil and Poland but, like in Beijing and at a lot of other important tournaments, there are always surprises!
I think that Germany is a team who can surprise or cause an upset or two because they don't have any pressure, and they won against Bulgaria in Bulgaria in the Olympic qualifying tournament before losing to Italy 3-2 in the finals. They have a young team and an opposite in Georg Grozer who, on his day, can resolve a difficult situation with his serve.
Also Serbia are very interesting. Keep an eye on them. In my eyes the Serbian team is a good mix of players playing in such an important tournament for the first time but lacking experience, and players who have already played at the Olympics and are big names in the international volleyball arena. The good thing is that they don't have any pressure on them to win, so they can play in a more relaxed way.
We saw what they achieved in the European Championships when no one thought they could win it. What’s more, they don't have a star in the team like (Ivan) Miljkovic was last year so they are possibly stronger as a team, less individual.
There is no particular secret to winning a medal at the Olympics, other than trying to be the best you can and to give everything you have. After that the result is not important, because you couldn't have done better and at least you'll have a peace of mind. When we went to Atlanta we were satisfied just to be there, just to participate. If we got into the quarterfinals that would be great, but if not it was also ok. When we won the bronze medal, I was thinking that if I stopped playing volleyball at that moment it would be ok, because at the time that felt larger than life itself. Then Tokyo 1998 happened and a silver medal at the World Championships, and then Sydney!
The difference from Atlanta was that we weren't so anonymous anymore and that there where expectations to win the medal, so that created more pressure on us. Beating Italy in the semifinals and Russia in the finals 3-0 was a result no one could predict. The thing that I remember immediately after he victory is that we weren't completely aware of how important was that result that we achieved at the time. That came later, a few days after, when the emotions evaporated. To be an Olympic winner is the biggest achievement a volleyball player can obtain, it was a jump over the rainbow. Bigger than that is to do it again,which is more than difficult.
In terms of star players looking ahead to London, I would pick out (Michal) Winiarski (POL), (Alexander) Volkov (RUS), (Maxim) Mikhailov (RUS) and Groser. And of course there's a desire to be there, because just to be a part of the Olympic tournament with all those great athletes is a privilege.
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