SERBIA: Youth Unified Sports® in the Spotlight

National Unified Sports® Basketball tournament in southern Serbia highlights the European Youth Unified Basketball development project

On 13 June, six teams from different parts of Serbia came together for a national Unified Sports® Basketball competition at the top class Basketball Hall “Kej” in Pirot in southern Serbia. The aim of Special Olympics Unified Sports is to break down social barriers between individuals with intellectual disability (called athletes) and without intellectual disabilities (called partners) by bringing them together on teams for sports training and competition.

Special Olympics Serbia is part of a European Youth Unified development project which aims at recruiting 1,000 new young Unified Basketball players aged 12-25 in six countries (Serbia, Russia, Bulgaria, Germany, Lithuania and Ukraine) between June 2008 and May 2010. The tournament was the highlight event following a series of local and regional Unified Basketball competitions among youth teams all over Serbia since summer 2008.

The athlete Milos Kostic, 23, is playing with the local Pirot team and was happy to be part of this national tournament. His mother, Zorica Kostic, 52, and his sister Danica Kostic, 25, came to cheer him and his team. “I am proud of my son when I see him playing in this Unified Basketball team,” his mother said. “Since childhood, Milos has always been keen on sports. Playing on this team helps him physically and mentally.” With a mother a former gymnast herself, and a sister doing sports in her leisure time whenever possible, sports is definitely a part of the family spirit. Zorica Kostic talks about how sports help people and how it helps her son: “Sports can connect people who were not connected before, people can overcome barriers through sports. Since Milos joined the team he is much more open, he talks more, he enjoys being on this team”.

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The Youth Unified Basketball development project is supported through a Special Olympics Christmas Record Grant. Special Olympics awards funds each year through its Christmas Record Grants initiative. These grants funded through the sales of A Very Special Christmas® albums support Special Olympics Programs around the World.
   

Photo (from left to right): Danica, Milos and their mother Zorica Kostic. (photo Sabine Brecklinghaus, SOEE)