Sitting Volleyball - HRUSTEMOVIC Mirza

General
STRENGTH THROUGH ADVERSITY
Numerous members of the Bosnia and Herzegovina sitting volleyball team acquired their injuries and impairments during the Bosnian War in the 1990s, and he believes the experiences they endured have contributed to their success. "Bosnians are quiet people, but they can endure a lot. And when they put their mind to something, nothing can stop them. To get over the war, we trained all the time. That gave us positive energy. I believe that the war conditions we experienced have developed a number of other skills that have helped us with the development of sitting volleyball, for me both as a player and as a coach. Our country knows that we, the kids of war, don't lose. But sometimes we forget to check the score." (aljazeera.com, 06 Mar 2013; coaches.moonfruit.com, 2015)

EARLY DAYS
He lost the function in his left leg due to the effects of a polio vaccination at age two. He later began playing sitting volleyball in 1982, and was asked to join the Yugoslav national team in 1986. Along with his old teammate Zoran Stojanovic, he started the sport's first club in Sarajevo, the Uporni Sitting Volleyball Club. "I've played sitting volleyball for 30 years. I'm proud of what I've done so far. My everyday life was challenged [and] I had to fight through it. It taught me how to overcome what came later in life. In 1982, my friend who used to play at the Hrabri Athletics Club in Croatia, introduced me to sitting volleyball, I immediately fell in love with the game." (aljazeera.com, 06 Mar 2013; infobiro.ba, 09 Jul 2006)