Milorad Cavic

Milorad Čavić (Serbian: Милорад Чавић; born on May 31, 1984 in Anaheim, California) is a Serbian swimmer. Čavić participated in the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia, where he represented FR Yugoslavia in the 50 m freestyle. While swimming for the University of California, Berkeley and training with Mike Bottom, Čavić set a new school and Pac-10 record in the 100 yd butterfly (45.44 s).

At the European SC Championships in Dublin, 2003, the sprinter won the gold medal in 100 m butterfly and set a new world record. He also won a silver medal in 50 m Freestyle. On December 6, 2006, Čavić defended his European championship in the 100 m butterfly in Helsinki, finishing at 50.63 seconds. On December 14, 2007, Čavić defended his European championship again in the 100 m butterfly in Debrecen, finishing at 50.53 seconds.

In 2008, Čavić won the European championship in the 50 m butterfly, setting the new European record (23.11) in Eindhoven, Holland - a result briefly quashed when the European Swimming Federation (LEN) immediately disqualified the Serbian swimmer for wearing a T-shirt at the medals ceremony that read “Kosovo is Serbia.” Shortly afterwards, however, the disqualification was lifted and recognition of his record reinstated.

Čavić is representing Serbia at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, People's Republic of China in two swimming events.

Even though he qualified for the 100 metre freestyle semi-final Čavić withdrew in order to prepare for the 100 metre butterfly. On August 14, 2008 at the Beijing Olympics, Čavić broke the 100 metre butterfly Olympic Record during the preliminary heats, finishing ahead of Michael Phelps and also recorded the fastest time in the semi-finals. Čavić came in second to Phelps by 1/100 of a second in the final and won the first medal for Serbia.