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“We don't care about who is Bosniak or Serb or Croat,” he says. “Madstyle is a few good
friends who have a passion for winter sports. That's all.”
A stuffed hawk stares out at us from the wall with glass eyes. Biogradlic, Vilić, and I are the
only customers in the only open bar in Bjelašnica. We sip hot bean soup and guzzle beer,
waiting for the snow gun to do its job. Biogradlic looks nervous. His cell phone rings every
few minutes: various teams for the upcoming Europa Cup calling with requests. The South
Africans need help with their Bosnian visas; another team wants to change hotels.
“This year the Austrians are coming,” Biogradlic says, taking a nervous swig from his
bottle. “I wouldn't be worried if it were just guys from Balkan countries—we could have a
few beers and talk things over. But the Austrians can be grumpy if the conditions are bad.”
Biogradlic fell in love with winter as a 10-year-old kid watching the Sarajevo Games. He
competed in two Olympics in luge, representing Yugoslavia in 1992 at Albertville and the
newlyindependentBosniaandHerzegovinain1998atNagano.Hecouldn'tcompeteatLille-
hammer in 1994; he was busy fighting off the Serbs. During the war, he sustained gunshot
wounds to his wrist and shoulder.
Biogradlic eventually dropped the luge, in part because the bobsled track on Mount Tre-
bević was in ruins. He began snowboarding, borrowing his first board from a Greek friend,
and soon opened a snowboard shop in downtown Sarajevo, in 1999. Three years later he or-
ganized the national team, which is now composed of three riders, ages 17 to 28. The mem-
bers have finished in the middle of the pack in big-air and slopestyle events at Europa Cup
competitions.SoonafterIleft,inApril,theywenttotheJuniorWorldChampionshipsinVal-
malenco, Italy, where they finished dead last in slopestyle.
Hanging around Biogradlic, you get the feeling that snowboarding is his life. It's difficult
to get him to talk about anything else, except for his wife, Nina, and his young son.
At the bar, I ask him about his role in the war, and he clams up. “I don't want to talk about
this,”herepliescurtly.“Alotoftimehaspassed,andweneedtomoveon.Peopleshouldjust
get a snowboard or skis or whatever and enjoy the simple pleasures of life. Snowboarding is
not nationalistic. Everybody can get together on the slopes. All we need is a bit more snow
and investment in the sport.”
Vilić chimes in loudly: “Our government is investing a lot of money into soccer, but they
don't seem to care that much for snowboarding and skiing.”
Indeed,fundingthealpineresurgencehasbeenachallenge.WhileJahorina,whichhasless
variedandexcitingterrain,hasreceivedsome$30millioninthepastthreeyearsforimprove-
ments like a pair of six-seat high-speed lifts, Bjelašnica has wallowed. Organizations such
as the International Rescue Committee provided $100,000 for reconstruction, but since 1997
only a fraction of the mountain has been open on a regular basis. One of the renovated lifts,
a triple, runs about halfway up the slopes and then abruptly stops. A few hundred weekend
