Sport

During the siege, the continuation of normal life in the city, continuation of creativity, for all citizens of Sarajevo was as important as bread or medicine or water.

This segment in FAMA research period 1992-1996 contains the question "Could you describe a creation of yours?" and interviewees' answers. Sarajevans (in this case: interviewees) created and accepted this model in order to survive: "We were all innovators of our own methods of survival" – as put by one of the respondents.

Sources: FAMA Collection 1992-1996: Oral History, Survival Questionnaire, Sarajevo Life Magazine, archival video and photo collection.

CHESS

© FAMA Collection - Visual Archives 1992-1996 (Jelena Oksenfeld)

'People played chess sitting out in the stairwell, or in the basement, or in any protected corner they could find. That was their way of resistance, battle through sport, through something that meant that death does not reign in Sarajevo.'

A WIGHTLIFTER

© FAMA Collection - Visual Archives 1992-1996 (Jelena Oksenfeld)

'I had weight plates from before the war. I'd pull them out whenever I was in the house. If I wasn't on the move outside, I had weight trainings at home. A rhythm of weightlifting versus dynamic force of destruction.'

TENNIS

© FAMA Collection - Visual Archives 1992-1996 (Jelena Oksenfeld)

'I used to go to tennis trainings every day, knowingly taking risks. There were snipers, grenades ... shellings every day, but I think that was what forced me to go to training every day, to drain my excess energy, so it wouldn't turn against me.'

MARATHON RUNNER

FAMA Collection - Visual Archives 1992-1996

Islam Đugum, marathon runner: ‘I trained three times a day on the Sarajevo streets. I used to run 25 to 30 kilometers a day. Intensive training requires quality food, but I never thought about it because I struggled to survive like everyone else, and I just wanted to continue to do sports and to compete in a marathon some day’.