Nordic ski team – Romanija

Nordijski smučarski klub Romanija Pale > Nordic ski team – Romanija

On the occasion of celebrating “Fifty years of skiing in Pale”, the club made the first attempt to depict in one place and preserve from oblivion the rich tradition of this sport in the area of today’s Pale municipality. This introductory sentence is taken from a book published by the club in 1983, and authored by Milan Ždrale, a sports journalist from the newspaper “Oslobođenje”.

As the writer pointed out, the book vividly presents Pale, the cradle of Bosnian skiing. With the organization of the first organized skiing courses in 1933, it is considered the year of formation of the skiing club “Romanija”. The club worked in sections (cross-country skiing, alpine skiing, jumping, and a little later (in 1934) patrol running with rifles, the forerunner of today’s biathlon. It should be noted that in the same year we also had a ski jump, which was designed by a Norwegian expert for jumping Jar Bjorn At the first competition, which was held on February 11, 1934, Jar Bjorn also jumped.

Even in recent history, the club, with minor interruptions, has continued active work in all sports skiing disciplines. True, only for one short period was the commission for jumps active.

With the acquisition of the ZOI in 1984, a strategy was adopted for the development of winter sports and ice sports at the level of the City of Sarajevo and Bosnia and Herzegovina. A special part of the strategy referred to the professional coaching staff. The Skiing Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina has received the green light to hire coaches from Russia, Belarus, Czechoslovakia and Poland.

A great contribution was made by prof. Ph.D. Simon Krasicki. At the time of his engagement, significant sports results began to be achieved at the level of the then state – YU. The club had a good coaching staff that successfully followed and continued professional work in the club. It should be emphasized that the club had great support from the economy, the municipality and socio-political organizations and schools. A major contribution to the development, above all of Nordic skiing, was made by the company “ELAN” from Slovenia, by awarding 200 pairs of cross-country skis. A wide base was created, we had enough coaches, and our tracks were in the center of Pale.

Alpinists trained on Koran and occasionally on Jahorina. At the same time, we worked on the trails in Dvorište, the construction of the ski lift at Pale Station. So, we created the conditions for sports results. They came quickly. Pale received the first participants of the WOG/ZOI: Ajdin Pašović (born in our club) in alpine disciplines, and Tomislav Lopatić and Zoran Ćosić in biathlon. The resulting ascent progressed in cross-country skiing and biathlon, where we had the first YU champions.

The better competitors secured a place in the “A” and “B” national teams of biathlon and cross-country skiing, which was really a great success considering that it was a Slovenian sport and that they were unchallenged in those disciplines until then. Soon we took the primacy in biathlon. We proved that through the team placements in this discipline. We were YU team champions 15 times. We consider it a great success of the club that it gave 12 participants to the WOG/ZOI.

We consider the success of the club to be the fact that we were active during the war to the extent that the situation allowed. We owe a big thank you to the biathlon federations of Bulgaria, Romania, Greece and Serbia for helping us in the most difficult circumstances to maintain this sport, i.e. not to break the tradition. We were the initiators of the establishment of the Ski Association of the Republic of Srpska, with the support of other clubs and institutions of the Government of the Republic of Srpska.

With the dissolution of YU, a new ski association was formed, with new association bodies and new committee members. Important positions were held by our club members Miomir Zuber and Goreta Miroslav. Zuber was the president of the Nordic commission, and Goreta the director of the Nordic national team, i.e. the team leader. The ZOI were approaching. Time was short, and it was important for us to determine the Nordic national team. There were a lot of candidates, so we had to hold several qualifying competitions. In the end, the biathlon team consisted of: Tomislav Lopatić, Zoran Ćosić, Admir Jamak (Romania) and Mladen Grujić (Sarajevo). Momo Skokić (Romania), Bekim Babić (Sarajevo) and Aleksandar Milenković (Serbia) performed for the cross-country team.

Positive memories at the ZOI “Albertville” in 1992. There was one sporting result in the year. It was the victory of the YU biathlon relay team over Slovenia and a meeting of the skiing delegations of YU and Slovenia dedicated to sports separation. Namely, it was the sports property of the former ski Yugoslavia. With a friendly conversation and a pleasant gathering, we quickly resolved this issue, noting that they sportily congratulated us on the victory, which was achieved by a mistake in targeting the best Slovenian competitor, Jure Velepec.

Returning from the ZOI from France, we went to the Balkan biathlon championship in Romania, and then returned to Bosnia and Herzegovina. Unfortunately, we found out about the beginning of war conflicts at the border, but we returned safely to Pale. This was followed by an initiative from our club to form the ski association of the Republic of Srpska. Support also came from other clubs that were in Pale, but also from clubs that escaped from Sarajevo to Pale. Support also came from the then Ministry of Science, Religion and Sports. The Association created a work program and a competition calendar. elected commissions. One of the first tasks was to get in touch with the ski federations from which we expected and received support.

What is important is that in those conditions we held the championships of Republika Srpska, but we also went to competitions in Bulgaria, Romania, Serbia and Greece. We performed as a representative of Republika Srpska. Our competitors won medals at those international competitions.

On several occasions, we approached the FIS and the IBU for admission to membership, but the answer was that they only recognize the BiH Cross-Country Federation.

With the signing of the Dayton Agreement, the issue of sports, among others, was slowly but surely resolved. With the formation of the umbrella association, the way was opened for our male and female competitors to participate in the competitions that were on the IBU and FIS calendar. In the Nordic disciplines, they were mostly competitors from “Romanija”, “Eastern Sarajevo” and “Glasinac – Caravan” Sokolac. In that period, “Romanija” had the most numerous and the best quality team. Isina, there was strong competition and quality competitors in the other two clubs. The ZOI “Torino – 2006” was approaching.

The BiH national team performed in cross-country skiing, biathlon and alpine disciplines. The Nordics performed: Vučičević Vedrana, Vasiljević Aleksanda, Ćosić Miro, (ROP) and Samardjija Bojan, “Glasinac-Karavan”. They competed in cross-country running and biathlon.

At the ZOI held in Vancouver in 2010. Sochi in 2014 and PyeongChang in 2018. she performed.

Tanja Karišik-Košarac, in the disciplines of biathlon and cross-country skiing, and in Beijing in 2022. Sanja Kusmuk. Participating in three Olympics with several significant sports results at IBU competitions and the World Cup, Karisik Tanja is the most successful competitor in the history of the club. If we summarize the successes of Pale skiers, whether they are members of a club or have a skiing career started in our club, participated in:

1. ZOI – INSBRUK 1976. God.
2. ZOI Sarajevo ‘84 – biatlon
3. ZOI Nagano ‘ 88
4. ZOI Albertvil ‘ 92 – biatlon
5. ZOI Torino 2006 – biatlon
6. ZOI Vankuver 2010 – biatlon
7. ZOI Sochi 2014 -biatlon
8. ZOI Pjongčang 2018 – biatlon
9. ZOI Peking 2022

Club Structure
Club Assembly,
Board and Club President,
Club Executive Board,
Club Supervisory Board
The bodies of the executive board through which all club activities are carried out are:
Nordic Disciplines Commission – expert commission,
Competition Organization Commission,
Marketing Commission,
Information Commission,
Disciplinary Commission,
Judicial Commission,
The Executive Board may establish other commissions as opportunities arise.
Ciljevi i zadaci kluba
  • To gather the largest number of members with the aim of engaging in skiing sports on a voluntary and amateur basis,
  • To organize and participate in all types of sports competitions, from recreational to elite levels, to promote, assist, initiate, and implement systematic physical education through organized exercises and training, raising the physical and working capacity of its members to achieve outstanding results,
  • To monitor and encourage the work of active membership of elite competitors and coaches in achieving high sports accomplishments through quality and professional development,
  • To secure funds for operations and create the material base and assets of the club,
  • To organize the publication of publications, brochures, bulletins, and other publishing materials to promote the work and activities of the club,
  • To organize seminars, conferences, events, and lectures for sports professionals and carry out marketing activities to promote tourism, sports, and the popularization of Nordic skiing disciplines,
  • To carry out activities to strengthen sports morale, sports spirit, and protect the health of athletes,
  • To organize sports events, competitions, and manifestations, ensuring they reflect quality for the purpose of propaganda and affirmation of its membership and the club.