Mirsada buric biography

I once shared in this column the story of that Balkan girl from Bosnia, Mirsada Buric, who risked her life training under war-torn conditions in the streets of Sarajevo (the capital city) in the attempt to fulfil her seemingly impossible dream of running in the 1992 Barcelona Olympics.

A champion long-distance runner for the National Yugoslavia track and field team, Mirsada Buric was training for the Olympics when violence erupted in her homeland.

The background to this is that in the aftermath of World War I, 1914-1918, the Balkan states of Bosnia-Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro, Croatia, Slovenia, and Macedonia were absorbed into the Federal People’s Republic of Yugoslavia.

Yugoslavia was a country in south-eastern and central Europe for most of the 20th century.

It was ruled as a monarchy until the royal family was abolished in 1945. Of local interest is that an exiled prince of that royal family, Stefano Cantucozino, w Champion Runner and War Survivor Graduates - Columbia University TIQE