For Sabahudin Delalic’s seventh Paralympic Games, he has only one goal as he leads Bosnia’s sitting volleyball team — to dethrone the long dominant Iranians. “Everyone fears us,” Delalic told AFP ahead of the Paralympic Games in Paris.
“Including the Iranians,” he beamed.
For months, Delalic and his reigning European champions team mates have been practising at least four days a week in Sarajevo, where they run through drills and focus on staying in fighting shape.
“Paris is really important for us because we want to recover the title. We know we are capable of doing it,” said the 52-year-old captain.
Bosnia last won gold in sitting men’s volleyball at the London Games in 2012 after beating Iran.
Over the course of his career, Delalic has helped lead Bosnia to winning 27 medals at international competitions — including two Paralympic Games golds, eleven European Championships and three World Championships. “People always expect us to come home with gold. When we come home with silver, they say ‘why isn’t it gold?'” said Delalic. The captain’s success on the court followed early tragedy after he was injured during Bosnia’s vicious inter-ethnic war in the 1990s amid the bloody breakup of Yugoslavia.