By Isabella Disley
Ten-thousand kilometres away from their home dojang in Nepean, Radomir and Nikola Samardzic recently experienced the most memorable trip of their lives in the United Arab Emirates as the father-son duo claimed Canada’s first-ever silver medal at the World Taekwondo Cadet Championships.
“I feel very privileged to compete with Canada. It’s not something everyone gets to do. I take the honour of it, and I just do my best to represent the nation,” highlights Nikola, who won four of five matches in the under-15 men’s 61-kilogram division in Fujairah.
What made it all even more special was having his father, Radomir, there, not just as a proud parent in the stands, but also as his coach.
Radomir watched Nikola take his very first steps, and, a few years later, his first steps onto the taekwondo mat at the family’s Capital Taekwondo Martial Arts Academy. At just three years old, Nikola joined in out of curiosity, after watching classes with intrigue.
“There are so many favourite memories. It’s been incredible, an adventure, a journey,” Radomir reflects, trying to sum up the past 11 years of coaching Nikola in just a few sentences.
“It’s just watching his success and the growth that happens in front of my eyes, at that particular moment. In that particular competition and event, you see his growth and development, you witness it every day, but watching that on the world stage, it’s quite unique.
“Then you go from round to round and reach the world podium level. Sometimes I ask myself, ‘Am I dreaming? Is this real? Should I pinch myself?’”
Watching his son make history while they both represented Canada created an overwhelming amount of pride for Radomir, who previously competed in Canada and for his native Serbia internationally in the early 2000s.
In the best-of-three rounds knockout competition, Nikola opened with a 14-9, 18-15 win over an opponent from Morocco, then beat the Philippines 10-8, 8-8, Mexico 10-6, 19-6 and ensured his place on the podium with a 6-9, 11-2, 19-8 triumph over Greece before finally falling 0-2, 9-7, 15-17 to Kazakhstan’s Khamzaalper Romashkin in the nail-biting final.
“It’s an incredible accomplishment. Being able to represent your own country, your own nation, and on top of it being at the podium, at the Pan American Championships and the World Championships is just such a phenomenal success and a phenomenal memory just to witness that,” Radomir underlines.
There is often already a strong bond between coaches and athletes, but it’s abundantly stronger when it’s a father-son team. The Samardzics maintain a strong amount of professionalism the moment they enter the dojang.
“It’s obviously an interesting relationship,” Nikola indicates. “It has a little bit of a different affection, because he’s my dad, but we try and keep it as realistic as a coach and athlete as we can.”
Radomir says that Nikola has always been highly engaged in taekwondo as well as other sports.
“I see that he’s coachable, he’s willing to take proper recommendations and work on his improvement, and he’s constantly getting better,” he explains. “I always see it’s one of his great attributes.”
Radomir also notes that “the grind never stops” and that Nikola spent hours each morning and evening training in preparation for the biggest competition of his career so far. He’s earned a bit of a rest following the May 10-14 worlds, but Nikola has his eyes set on representing the country again, with Canada’s bright young star holding Olympic dreams farther down the road.
“It’s a long-term process. We start with a year’s training plan and program, and we try to plan everything as much as we can,” Radomir signals. “You have the deadline, you have the timeframe that you’re really preparing and you’re trying to be at the top of your game, and fortunately, it worked really well for us.”
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