One of the circuit’s best-liked characters seeks second Olympic gold …
How popular is Milica Mandic?
Put it this way: In the semifinals of the Manchester Grand Prix, as she faced off against Team GB’s Bianca “Queen Bee” Walkden, two of the Britons at ringside were rooting not for the hugely popular hometown girl, but for the Serbian.
Mandic narrowly lost that battle on golden point, going home with bronze but even that result was a relief, because the 2012 Olympic gold medalist was plagued by one injury after another in 2015.
Now she looks to be breaking out of the slump.
“It was really important to win a medal in Manchester because when you calculate [ranking] points, there was only a 30-point difference between me and the number six,” she said in reference to the fact that only the top six athletes in each weight category are guaranteed Olympic spots. “So it was important for my ranking and for my confidence.”
Mandic won medals at 2015’s U.S., Swiss and Dutch opens, but did not place at the Worlds or the early Grand Prix events. The fighting season saw her hammered by a string of injuries. She broke both her hands, and suffered a ruptured stomach muscle just before the World Championships in Chelyabinsk.
At the GP Series 3 in Manchester, she had no issues with the very noisy local crowd. “I like to come here, the crowd are very noisy but very nice – I could hear my coach, so I did not have a problem with that.” She was also happy with the result. “Fighting Bianca, I was ahead, but she won in golden point,” she said. “She is the world champion, so it was good for me before the Grand Prix Final and before Rio. After this Grand Prix I feel good, I feel sharp. “
The 23-year-old, named Milica but nicknamed “Comi,” started taekwondo as a schoolgirl. “I saw a poster in my junior school and went to see some fighting and a demonstration,” she recalls. “It was amazing! They were not the Kukkiwon demo team, but they were good.”
That was in 2002; she entered her first competition in November the same year. Ten years after that debut, she was fighting in the most prestigious, highest pressure venue on earth: the Olympic finals. When the battle ended in London 2012, she had gold hanging round her neck. It was an outcome that changed her life and rocketed the sport’s profile in Serbia.
“Nobody knew taekwondo in Serbia, now everyone knows me, my club and my sport, and they follow all the athletes,” she said. “In 2012, when I fought in the Olympics, everybody in Serbia was on Google, looking up taekwondo and searching for the rules!”
Mandic is not just one of the great ambassadors for the sport, she is also one of its most popular figures.
Given her picture-perfect features, sunny smile and even sunnier personality, she has – no surprise – a steady boyfriend back home in Belgrade. That fact may not put off boys with amorous ambitions. In Manchester, she was surprised to hear a rumor that one of the elite Iranian fighters has fallen madly in love with her, but laughed it off. Her hobbies include bowling, cinema and reading, though she said – ruefully, “There is no life for taekwondo athletes!”
Like a lot of fighters, she found that 2015 – which featured the Worlds, then the four tourneys of the Grand Prix in the second half, all with the long shadow of Rio 2016 looming ever closer – grueling. “It’s a crazy year!” she said. “It is really hard in the G1 and G2 tournaments, everyone wants the points so it is a very tough season, but it is the same for everybody. It’s fair.”
Her favored techniques are the punch and the high round kick from her leading leg. Asked to comment on her strengths as a fighter, she said: “My coach says I am like a soldier: I listen to what he says, and I am very persistent.” She admits, though, that she is not always able to capture her winning form. “Sometimes in a fight I am not in ‘the zone;’ I do something again and again and don’t get points,” she said. “I hope that is past.”
Now, with the 2015 fighting season having drawn to its end, the road to Rio 2016 is looking shorter and shorter.
After Mexico, Mandic will take a vacation, to rest and recover, and early in 2016 will attend several tourneys including the European Championships in Switzerland, just to keep her game sharp. “For me, it is better to be competing all the time,” she said. “Though maybe not every weekend!”
Her biggest fear is one common to many athletes. “I try not to think any more about injuries, I had three this year,” she said. “I hope they are finished. But maybe…it’s very tricky; every athlete is afraid of injuries…”
One plus about the Olympics is the manageable competitor field. “When you know the final 16 fighters, you can prepare for each,” she said. “It is easier than the Grand Prix or the World Championships.”
Regardless of her result in Rio, she will continue to play the game. “I want to compete more after Rio; I will only be 24, and when you see Gwladys Epangue and Brigitte Yague, they are in their 30s,” she said. “That is amazing for me.”
And what is striking about the elite end of the sport in the current era, is that almost all the competitors are so convivial.
“Everyone here, after the fights, are normal people and I like spending time with them,” she mused. “This is only taekwondo: Fair play is what we need to do on the court – and in life.”
