The Prime Minister of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Nermin Nikšić, and the Federal Minister of Culture and Sports, Sanja Vlaisavljević, have presented today the athletes, sports associations and coaches with the awards for outstanding sports results. The ceremony was organized by the Federal Ministry of Culture and Sports in the building of the Government of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina in Sarajevo.

Acknowledgments were presented, in addition to monetary prizes, to 141 athletes, 11 coaches/selectors and 9 team champions.

This is the first part of the awards in the total amount of KM 723.000 from the Federation Budget for 2023, for the results achieved as of the end of July 2023.

The Government of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina adopted on 21 September 2023 the Decision on Awarding the Top Sports Results on the basis of the Regulation on Determining the Criteria for Awarding Athletes, Sport Workers and Sports Associations from the Federation of BiH for Top Sports Results at International Competitions, pursuant to a proposal of the Federal Ministry of Culture.and Sports.

Minister Vlaisavljević said that after a long time, this Ministry had the opportunity to host and reward the best of the best, those who bring gold, silver and bronze medals to BiH from all over the world.

– We hope that by the end of the year there will be another event like this and that together we will encourage these great people to shine a light on our country and be a model for all of us on how we should do it and how we should represent our Bosnia and Herzegovina – said Minister Vlaisavljević.

Minister Vlaisavljević announced that the Ministry and the Government would provide even more funds for the next year and that the athletes will have a “wind at their backs”.

Prime Minister Nikšić said that as a former athlete, he had a feeling for sports and athletes. He recalled his first term as the Prime Minister of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and that even then he provided wholehearted support to sport associations, which resulted in the performances of the football and handball teams of Bosnia and Herzegovina at the world championships and the basketball selection at the European Championship.

– I am sure that in the period ahead of us, the Government will be backing our sportsmen, because they are the best ambassadors of BiH, much better than any of us, much better than any politician, and that is why it is a task of the Federal Government, of every politician and of governments at all levels to stand behind these people and to create better conditions for them to achieve results, which they achieve in unequal competition with their opponents. In order to achieve a true result, the whole team, the expert team, must stand behind it. This implies a huge renunciation of these people in their private lives and sacrifices through training, training processes to achieve results – said Nikšić.

European senior vice-champion in taekwondo Nedžad Husić, a member of the Novi Grad Taekwondo Club from Sarajevo, said that in BiH there is no systematic financing of athletes, which in his opinion is a big mistake, and that this will be felt in the coming years.

– It is very difficult to achieve a top result in these conditions, but we are still happy that we have such institutions as the Federal Ministry of Culture and Sports headed by the Minister and Prime Minister of the Government of FBiH, who introduced the Decision on Rewarding Athletes for Top Results. For me, as an athlete, it was a great motivation, in order to continue to do sports – said Husić.