Stability amidst change
We are sitting in the athletes’ recovery room
on the shores of Lake Bled in Slovenia. Nikola
Stojic is in Bled for Rowing World Cup;I of
2010. He has just raced for Serbia in the
semifinal of the men’s pair and finished
fourth. Stojic is out of the final but as a
seasoned rower, unlike his new partner in the
pair Marko Marjanovic ( 11;years Stojic’s
junior), Stojic is taking it in his stride.
Stojic certainly stands out among Serbians. The
country has more than 7 million people but he is
one of just 15 elite rowers in a nation where about
300 people row. Stojic is the most senior member
of this elite group in both experience and age.
© Detlev Seyb/ MyRowingPhoto.com
“I’m the oldest by far,” says Stojic. “I’ve competed
every year since 1995 and I’ve competed for
three di;erent countries at three Olympics.” Such
has been the state of rowing for the past two
decades in what is now Serbia. In comparison to
his transforming and changing homeland, Stojic’s
rowing career is like a stable, dependable rock.
Stojic can look back to first getting in a rowing boat
as a Yugoslavian at the tender age of 11. As a kid
he had tried other sports but had to concede that
ball sports were not his talent. A teacher asked
Stojic if he wanted to try rowing. “I liked it,” says
Stojic, “and I’ve kept going until now.”
In 1993 Stojic went to Brown University in the
United States on a rowing scholarship. It was,
he says, the best thing to do as the political
situation in his homeland at that time was not
good. “It was good for me too because I went far
from home at the age of 19. I got independent
and had to work [Stojic worked in the university
library] and train hard.” Stojic was rowing in the
university team at that time under coach Scott
Roop. “It helped me develop as a rower,” says
Stojic. “If I’d stayed at home that wouldn’t have
happened.”
