~ Milica Puric ~
“I was skiing the whole day while it was still snowing. We ski and hope for the summer.” That’s how the Paralympian Jasmin Bambur spends the first days of May in Colorado, where he lives with his wife, Sarah, and two little daughters.
This exceptional athlete represented Serbia, his birth country, at the Winter Paralympic Games in Vancouver in 2010, as its first Paralympian. The same year, he got U.S. citizenship and became a member of American National Skiing team for the 2012-13 season. Shortly after that, he became a member of the U.S. team and went to the Winter Paralympic Games in Sochi, Russia, in 2014.
An incredible movie could be made about the strength of the mind and body and overcoming enormous difficulties based on the life of this successful Paralympic athlete.
Born in the city of Zrenjanin, former Yugoslavia, in a sports family, he became a successful athlete in his teenage years. He loved every sport, especially handball, and many predicted that he’d have a successful career in it. He soon made the first team in his town, but he was dreaming of coming to the U.S. Thanks to handball, that wish came true. He was given a scholarship and moved with his family to the U.S. in 1997. He started playing for the U.S. National Handball Team while attending Middle Georgia College. Everything looked bright and went as it should, until one tragic day in 2000. He remembers that it was Friday the 13th, the first in the new millennium. That day he suffered a horrible traffic accident that changed his life forever.
“At that time I was living in Georgia and I had trainings frequently. One night after a long day of training I fell asleep at the steering wheel. My car hit the curb and the front wheels fell off. I got launched through the windshield and the car fell on me. I sustained a spinal cord injury which made me a paraplegic. Since that day I’m in a wheelchair,” Jasmin said.
After the accident he went to a rehabilitation center. “When something like this happens, in the beginning, you can’t find yourself, you don’t know what to do and what you can do,” Jasmin said about the first months after the accident.
However, nine months after this unfortunate event, he got an invitation to come to Colorado for recreation. He came for seven days, and the first three he spent skiing. “It was phenomenal,” he said. “I immediately fell in love with skiing, because I was completely free. I was able to do everything I was doing before. No more wheelchairs. You can jump, you can stop, you don’t need help from other people.” That’s how he started skiing more and more on the mono-ski.
Seven years after the accident, in 2007. he and his girlfriend, Sarah, got married in North Carolina. A couple of months later he told her that he was moving to Colorado. “It was hard for her, but she understood that I was only happy when I was out of my stupid wheelchair. She knew that I was truly happy when I am skiing”
That’s when he came to the Winter Park in Colorado and joined their competitive program. The same season in February he attended the World Cup. His fast improvement was unbelievable, thanks to training every day.
“My trainings lasted for eight hours, five times a week, which was basically like a job,” Jasmin said. “That was the first season. In the meantime, I had won many medals and my achievements continued. That is how I got qualified for the Winter Paralympic Games in Vancouver. At that moment I still represented Serbia at the Paralympics, and that was for me a great honor. As the only athlete, I was holding the national flag, and that feeling can’t be compared to anything in the world. I went to Vancouver to get a medal. I went through, but we had big problems with the skis. Among the 10 fastest in the world, I think I was ninth on the descent, and that is a big success by itself. Because of that, the entire team was excited.”
When asked if Serbia helped him with the preparations he says it had helped him financially and through media. “I was in media, the newspapers were writing about the success of the Paralympic skiing,” he said.
However, because of the big costs of this sport, Jasmin had to stop skiing for Serbia. The money for sponsors just wasn’t there. His 2010 season cost him $45,000, and that money had to be found.
“I paid for the first season, and for a small country like Serbia, $45,000 was too much,” Jasmin said. Because of the hard financial situation with sponsors, the Olympic Committee helped him to find a team in which he could continue to train. It was decided that Jasmin would ski for the U.S. because that’s where he was living at the time. He competed for the U.S. in the 2014 Paralympic Winter Games in Sochi, where he was seventh in the super slalom.
In the meantime he and Sarah had three daughters who had already started skiing and will probably achieve great success in the sport like their brave father, who is an inspiration for all people and living proof that you can do anything if you set your mind to it.
~ Milica Puric ~ ©
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SRPSKI
Izuzetna životna priča paraolimpijca Jasmina Bambura iz Kolorada
Potpuno slobodan u invalidskim kolicima
Skijao sam se ceo dan jer ovde i dalje pada sneg. Eto, skijamo se i nadamo se letu – kaže paraolimpijac skijač Jasmin Bambur kako sa porodicom provodi prve majske dane u Koloradu.
Ovaj atleta predstavljao je Srbiju, zemlju u kojoj je rođen, kao prvi paraolimpijac 2010. godine na Zimskim paraolimpijskim igrama u Vankuveru. Te iste godine dobio je američko državljanstvo i postao član Nacionalnog skijaškog tima za 2012-13 sezonu, a ubrzo je kao, predstavnik Amerike, učestvovao na Zimskim olipijskim igrama u Sočiju u Rusiji 2014. godine.
Prema njegovom životu mogao bi da se napravi neverovatan film koji govori o nadljudskoj snazi duha i tela i prevazilaženju ogromnih teškoća.
Rođen u srpskom gradu Zrenjaninu, u sportskoj porodici i sam je postao uspešan sportista. Obožavao je sve sportove, a posebno rukomet i mnogi su mu baš u ovom sportu predviđali uspešnu karijeru. U Zrenjaninu je dogurao do tamošnjeg prvog tima, ali sve vreme je želeo da dođe u Ameriku. Zahvaljujući rukometu ta želja mu se ostvarila. Dobio je stipendiju i sa porodicom se preselio 1997. godine. Tu je počeo da igra za američku rukometnu reprezentaciju u Atlanti i nastavio da ozbiljno trenira. Sve je izgledalo dobro i išlo onako kako treba sve dok mu se jednog dana, 2000. godine, život nije potpuno preokrenuo. Seća se da je to bio petek 13. i to prvi u novom mileniju kada je doživeo tešku saobraćajnu nesreću koja mu je promenila život.
- U to vreme živeo sam u Džordžiji i imao sam često treninge. Jedne noći posle dugog dana treniranja zaspao sam za volanom. Moj auto je udario u ivičnjak. Prednji točkovi su su otpali, a ja sam izleteo kroz šoferšajbnu. Auto me poklopio celom težinom i slomio kičmu. Od tog dana sam u kolicima – kaže on.
Posle toga je otišao u rehabilitacioni centar. – Kada se desi nešto ovako vi u početku ne možete sebe da nađete, niti znate šta možete da uradite – priseća se prvih meseci posle udesa. Ipak, devet meseci kasnije dobio je predlog da dođe u Kolorado na rekreaciju. Došao je na sedam dana, a prva tri proveo je skijajući. Kaže da mu je bilo fenomenalno. – Odmah sam se zaljubio u skijanje – tu nije više bilo invalidskih kolica i ja sam bio potpuno slobodan. Mogao sam da uradim sve što sam radio ranije – da skačem, zaustavim se… Nije mi bila potrebna pomoć drugih ljudi.
Tako je, sve više i više, počeo da skija mono-ski. Sedam godina posle udesa, 2007. godine on i njegova devojka Sara, Amerikanka, venčali su se u Nort Karolini. Samo nekoliko meseci posle toga, u novembru iste godine rekao joj je da se seli u Kolorado.
- Nije joj bilo svejedno, ali je shvatila da sam jedino srećan kada sam izvan ovih glupih kolica, kada skijam.
Tada je došao u Vinter park u Koloradu i prilključio se takmičarskom programu. Te iste sezone u februaru je bio u svetskom kupu što je prilično neverovatno, ali istinito. Uspeo je u tome zato što je trenirao nonstop.
- Moji treninzi su trajali po osam sati, pet puta nedeljno, što je bilo bukvalno kao posao. To je bila prva sezona. U međuvremenu sam osvojio dosta medalja i moji uspesi su se nastavili. Tako sam ušao u tu vankuversku 2010. godinu Olimpijade. Bila mi je čast da predstavljam Srbiju na Olimpijadi. Kao jedini sportista nosio sam zastavu i taj osećaj ne može da se poredi ni sa čim. U Vankuver sam išao da dobijem medalju. Prošao sam, ali imali smo velike probleme oko priprema. Mislim da sam bio deveti u spustu, a biti među 10 najbržih u svetu veliki je uspeh. Zato je cela ekipa bila oduševljena.
Kaže da mu je Srbija pomogla u pripremama i materijalno i medijski. – Bio sam po svim medijima, sve novine su pisale o uspehu paraolimpijskog skijanja.
Međutim, zbog velikih troškova koje traži ovaj sport Jasmin je morao da prestane da skija za Srbiju. Novca za sponzore, jednostavno, nije bilo. Moja tadašnja sezona koštala je 45.000 dolara i te pare morale su da se nađu. Prvu sezonu je sam platio, a za malu zemlju kao što je Srbija bio je to veliki novac. Zbog teške finasijske situacije oko sponzorisanja Olimpijski savez mu je pomogao da nađem tim u kome bih mogao da nastavim da treniram. Rešenje je pronađeno i odlučeno je da Jasmin vozi za Ameriku. To je bilo lakše jer je on u tom momentu več živeo i trenirao u Americi. Posle učestvovanja na ZImskim paraolimpijskim igrama u Vankuveru 2010. Jasmin je na Olimpijadi u Sočiju u Rusiji predstavljao Ameriku, njegovu drugu domovinu, i osvojio sedmo mesto u super-slalomu.
Koliko je velika njegova ljubav prema skijanju najbolje objassnjavaju njegove reči koje stoje na naslovnoj strani veb sajta (home page of his website) koje stoje na njegovom koje je U međuvremenu je sa suprugom Sarom dobio tri ćerke koje već skijaju i koje će verovatno postići vrhunske rezultate u sportu, baš kao i njihov hrabri otac koji je inspiracija svima i dokaz da čovek može sve samo ako hoće.
What a great, inspirational story!!! I am very proud of him, very proud that he was a member of the American Paralympic team and went to the 2014. Winter Paralympic games in Sochi.