A famous joke here
Who has the better team?
A Serb and a Bosnian were arguing about who has better sports teams.
The Serb “We have a great football team, a great handball team, a great volleyball team, a great water polo team. What do you have?”
The Bosnian “We have our sitting volleyball team. They are European and World champions. They even won a gold medal at the Paralympics!”
The Serb “Yeah, you have… But who made that team?”
Today, Bosnia and Herzegovina has a population of about 3.5 million people. The Bosnian war, which lasted from 1992 until 1995, was devastating for the country and its people. Now, more than 500,000 disabled people live in Bosnia and Herzegovina, but they are hardly visible from the streets. Prejudice, lack of understanding and, above all, stares are what they face every day.
Fortunately, most of the team members have regular jobs and normal everyday problems. While the majority of their competitors in developed countries can focus fully on the game, the Bosnian players must work to find funds for their next contest. Bosnia and Herzegovina’s most successful team receives no assistance from the government for trainings or rewards for medals won.
To the Bosnian volleyball team, the sport has brought back their life, mentally and physically. They are a lot more stable than the majority of persons with disabilities who are not involved in sports.
Everything began in 1997 for this team, when they won their first medal – a bronze at the European Championships. Since then, there has not been an important sports festival that does not feature them on the podium.
The National team holds six European championships and two World championships, and won a silver medal at the Athens Paralympics, a gold medal in Sydney and a silver medal in Beijing.
However, the importance of their medals goes far beyond the game itself. For Bosnians and Herzegovinians, they will always be heroes in war, volleyball and life.