From Competition Mat to Commentary Booth Crowd-Pleaser Fights, Adapts, Wins

Serbian Taekwondo legend Milica

Mandic - now sporting the surname Djuricic after marrying - left the game she had devoted 20 years of her life to on the ultimate high: her second Olympic gold.

Yet the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games was a bittersweet moment as she waved goodbye to the sport that she both loved and excelled at.

“Tokyo 2020 was my last competition with my coach and teammates, it was really emotional,” she said. “But for the first time in my life, found my true power inside just to go step by step to believe in everything had done for the last 20 years.”

Talk about a fairy-tale ending. “I never thought I would end my career like this,” she said. “It was amazing really - in Tokyo and after Tokyo.”

Mandic’s second Olympic gold medal was just as coveted as her first at London 2012 - which also happened to be Serbia’s first Olympic gold as an independent nation.

“Before London 2012, nobody knew about Taekwondo,” she said. “Nobody knew the rules. But after my first gold they knew everything about it!”

Taekwondo subsequently skyrocketed in popularity across Serbia.

“This was a goal for me and my coach, to show everyone in Serbia that Taekwondo is a nice sport that builds good character, a good fitness level and is for everyone from the professional to recreational levels,” she said.

Mandic led the charge of Belgrade’s Galeb (“Seagull”) Taekwondo, now a global powerhouse of the sport, and established the reputation of its owner, and Mandic’s coach, Dragan Jovic. But it wasn’t only the sport’s popularity that changed in the nine years between London 2012 and Tokyo 2020. She describes herself as a raw soldier during London 2012.

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“At Tokyo I was almost 30, and you have other aspects of your life: private life, family,” she said. “But when I went to the final in Tokyo, said to myself, ‘OK, I’ve been here before and it is the same.’ felt a lot more relaxed the second time.”

Post-Tokyo 2020, with a second gold round her neck, was clearly the right time for Mandic to retire. It proved hard.

“Honestly, when you’re at the top of professional sports it’s like some kind of addiction to the highs of winning, the adrenaline,” she said. “Going from Tokyo to a straight line zero was especially hard.”

Though she stepped off the mats, she was not ready to step out of the game. So when the opportunity came to commentate for the Paris 2022 World Taekwondo Grand Prix, Mandic stepped up.

“I gave a lot of interviews as an athlete, but to now be on the other side of the camera, as their friend, is different,” she said.

“I like it really, I just love being around the athletes. For me, this is a healthy community. We are all one family and this is best for me.”

It’s a good fit: few know the game as well as Mandic does, or it players.

Speaking of which: During the Paris Grand Prix, Milica caught up with her opponent for gold in London, France’s Anne-Caroline Graffe. Coincidentally, Graffe, after retiring from the sport, had also became a Taekwondo commentator for French TV.

Ruth Gbagbi yesterday added a fourth World Taekwondo Grand Prix gold to her name in Paris. It was an incredible feat, and a win for the crowd too - for Gbagbi is one of the sport’s most spectacular fighters.

“I feel happy that won yesterday,” she said. “It was a dream come true to win another Grand Prix gold medal.”

With 10 years of senior Taekwondo competition under her belt, Gbagbi was a sure-fire favourite to take the title. But her opponent, Korea’s up-and-coming star Min-seo Nam, was not going to make things easy.

“I think all the athletes in the Grand Prix have the ability to reach the final. I think Nam’s very smart. think she can reach more Grand Prix finals and she has a bright future in Taekwondo,” Gbagbi said.

Of course, this is not her first time fighting new-comers on the circuit. But she enjoys the challenge and the need to constantly adapt and improve to stay at the top.

“I think the Taekwondo fight has changed a lot in the last ten years,” she said. “But I like this, because in life all things change, so need to adapt if want to keep fighting.”

And standards keep on rising. “The level of all the athletes keeps going up and the young athletes are very fierce,” she said.