Federal Minister of Culture and Sports, Sanja Vlaisavljević hosted today at the Olympic Museum a meeting with the President of the International Paralympic Committee, Andrew Parsons, who is in an official visit to Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Parsons’ visit comes after last year’s successes at the Paralympic Games in Paris, where the Bosnian volleyball team won a silver medal, and paraswimmer Ismail Barlov made history when he won a silver medal in the 50-meter breaststroke at the age of just 13.

In addition to Parsons and the President of the Paralympic Committee of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Sabahudin Delalić, the working meeting was attended also by the President of the Croatian Paralympic Committee, Ratko Kovačević, President of the North Macedonia Paralympic Committee, Branimir Jovanovski and President of the Serbian Paralympic Committee, Zoran Mičović.

In her address to President Parsons and representatives of delegations from the countries of the region, Minister Sanja Vlaisavljević pointed out to the specific activities by which the Federal Ministry of Culture and Sports was trying to improve Paralympic sports in Bosnia and Herzegovina:

 “I would say that in the last two years of my office at the Federal Ministry of Culture and Sports, we initiated activities that were not topical in BiH, nor in the Federation, until that moment. What the Ministry did in the past year was to prepare the first Act on maintenance, and I would add also on awarding the top and deserving athletes. Unfortunately, it seems that we are the only country in the region that does not have such an Act, considering that the neighbouring countries have them. It is sad to see our Olympians who are still not taken care of, they do not have retirement allowances or any support that restores the dignity they used to bring to the country.

Equally, in that Act we included something that until now, as far as I’m concerned, was discriminatory, and that is rewarding the representatives of the Special Olympics.”

The same situation is with non-Olympic sports. We have a large number of medals in that category as well, but unfortunately, even these young people are not really recognised”, pointed out Minister Vlaisavljević.

Parsons pointed out that the desire and intention of the International Paralympic Committee was to support the state committees. As for Bosnia and Herzegovina, he thanked Minister Vlaisavljević for allocating funds at the Federal level for the work of the Paralympic Committee of Bosnia and Herzegovina, for supporting the reconstruction of the Paralympic Committee premises, and as the main problem he pointed out the absence of a legislative framework and a systematic approach to supporting the Paralympic Committee of Bosnia and Herzegovina.