Nada Kujundžić was a Yugoslav national team table tennis player and winner of numerous medals for the national team. She was once proclaimed an Olympic prospect, but the civil war in the former Yugoslavia cut short her dreams.
With her club “Perućica” from Foča, Nada played in the final of the largest European club competition, the Nancy Evans Cup, in 1987, and today, as a coach, she is trying to save it and fight for the continuation of its golden streak and the tradition of producing champions from talents from that small town in Republika Srpska.
In order to help young talents from Foča and provide them with equipment and training conditions, Kujundžić, together with humane people from the Old Church of the Resurrection of Christ in Chicago, organized a charity tournament in which the organizers gave up the proceeds and the winners their prizes, all for the benefit of “Perućica.”
Even priests from two parishes of the Serbian Orthodox Church took part in the tournament and demonstrated remarkable skill (watch the video), and in an interview Nada spoke to us about her struggle, the golden days of Yugoslav table tennis, socializing and competing with giants of the sport such as Ilie Lupulescu, Jasna and Amela Fazlić, Zoran Primorac…
She recalled how she trembled while listening to the anthem on the winners’ podium, at a time when, as she says, sport was a chivalrous competition, not a business…
Watch this wonderful, nostalgic confession of a former champion, as well as a report from an interesting tournament where, as we said, people also played in cassocks…
HUMANE DIASPORA: Nada with the tournament winner Dejan Kuljanin, who was also the organizer of the humanitarian tournament at the Old Church of the Holy Resurrection in Chicago
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