At Tokyo 2020, he won the country's second medal since it earned the right to appear at the Games as an independent nation in 1996.

Four years after that landmark Olympics, Magomed Ibragimov earned his country - formerly part of Yugoslavia - a bronze medal in the men's freestyle 85 kilograms wrestling event at Sydney 2000.

Four more Summer Games came and went without one of Ibragimov's compatriots stepping up to an Olympic medal rostrum.

But in Tokyo, Georgievski earned his place on the second step after a fine campaign in the men's over-80kg heavyweight taekwondo event.

The Skopje-born athlete was not without international experience. He won bronze at the European Under-21 Championships in 2017 and 2018, and also earned silver at the Mediterranean Games held in the latter year.

He had to overcome exceptional odds to even reach Tokyo, as he beat the Rio 2016 champion, Radik Isayev of Azerbaijan, at the European Olympic Qualifying Tournament in Sofia.

The Tokyo 2020 competition was hardly less arduous. In the round of 16 he was drawn against Cuba's reigning world champion, Rafael Alba, where he prevailed 11-8. 

In order to reach the final he had to get past two-time Asian champion Kyo-don of South Korea, which he did 12-6.

The run finally came to an end as he lost to the Russian Olympic Committee's world under-87kg champion Vladislav Lisin.

But it was a proud and unique moment for a young athlete who has years of potential medal-winning in front of him.