Water polo was excluded from any serious predictions when discussing the number of Olympic medals.
"Aren't you ashamed of what you're talking about? You couldn't have uttered a greater shame," said a colleague, a little in jest, a little in truth.
"Water polo will take us out at these Games," was the reply, to which I received even more astonished looks.
The group stage has begun, not so ideal and perfect for the chosen ones of Uroš Stevanović.
Japan and France were defeated, then came a convincing defeat against Australia, Spain took our scalp in the third round and at the end of the competition the Hungarians defeated us with 17 goals.
"What do you say, we take the medal?", I heard that sentence after every water polo player's defeat.
"Let this all go, the quarterfinals are the most important", I persistently answered the "calls", and the calmness and confidence of the Serbian water polo players that they radiated after each game told me that I would be right.
I was aware of what was good, and realistic about what was not good, I deeply believed in what they were doing and what they would do.
Water polo has always somehow been "my" sport.
Ever since my days as a student journalist, I have the best professional memories of him, because it's hard to forget the first interview I did with an athlete.
It was April 2013, and Filip Filipović, then a water polo player for Radnički from Kragujevac, answered my questions with appreciation and respect as if a seasoned journalist had asked them.
Where will you find greater joy for a 19-year-old student and budding journalist?
We were lucky enough to be contemporaries of the strongest team in the history of water polo, we wrote and read about Dejan Savić's punitive expedition and admired their extraordinary successes on all meridians.
As everything was supposed to end, that team also had to say "goodbye", and new guys came into their caps burdened with great expectations. Six dragons from the pool left in 2021, Savić remained with the desire and hope to create a new team for the greatest range in the new cycle.
It started with fifth place in the World League in Strasbourg, the same position was taken at the World Cup in Budapest in 2022, and Serbian water polo reached its bottom in the same year at the European Championship in Split, when our national team was relegated to the B division.
Uroš Stevanović could not choose the moment, Serbia was calling and in that difficult moment, he accepted to continue Savić's mission to Paris and the Olympic Games.
He was trying to find a team, he tested the players, aware that with this generation everything would be more difficult and that the results would not come overnight, and that they would be far more modest compared to the previous generation that won everything that could be won several times.
We didn't have a medal in water polo for three years, and from Fukuoka and the World Cup last year, through the EP in Zagreb, the new world championship in Doha at the beginning of the year, everything was a well-traveled road to the Olympic goal.
Along the way, I tried to support the new team, by giving each media space as soon as the opportunity arose.
They knew how to appreciate it, from the most experienced to the youngest in the team, always willing to talk and tell their side of the story.
Through all these conversations, it was clear that it was time for them to pay for their pain in Paris.
Before the start of the Olympic tournament, in an interview with Sava Ranđelović, a thought stood out:
"We are ready for a medal, believe in us".
Confident and calm, there was no reason not to take the two-time Olympic champion at his word.
Then came the famous quarterfinal game, a phenomenal game against Greece, solved by captain Nikola Jakšić with a goal in the last second.
Uroš Stevanović's team played the best match, everyone played their role well.
The gates of heaven began to open, the barrier and the curse of the quarterfinals had finally been overcome and now only Olympus was the limit.
They were calm and confident in what they were doing, determined to let nothing sway them towards their goal.
You already know what it's like to rush from arena to arena, and in one attempt to get from Bersi to Arena Sud, a sign appeared on the side of the road.
We had to take the Bolt to transport to arrive on time for the volleyball match.
We crowded into the car, the driver was a little angry that there were four of us, not three, but he agreed to take us.
While we were driving, packed like sardines, I was hit on the head by something attached to the handle above the window glass.
I looked up and saw a small yellow dolphin.
"Golden dolphin. That's it, we're taking the gold," I said out loud, and the other colleagues laughed and said, "Here, now we're talking about gold."
Just a few days later, that gold was around the neck of the Serbian water polo players, for the third time in a row Serbia was the Olympic winner.
America fell, and so did Croatia for the Olympic podium. Because Serbia does not lose the finals - 17/17 in the fight for gold medals at major competitions,
The new gods have deservedly occupied Olympus, and the old ones are proud of their successors.
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