Lana Pudar They Made Us Proud

BLIDINJE

Lana Pudar was five years old when she started taking swimming lessons. Today she is 15 and is already accomplished in her own right. This year alone, she has achieved a number of outstanding results. She was the youngest B&H competitor at the Tokyo

Olympics placing nineteenth. She was announced the champion in the 100-metre butterfly final at the European Junior Championships in Rome, and she also won silver in the 50 fly and 200 fly. This was followed by a historic step forward for B&H at the World Cup in Kazan, where Lana earned a bronze medal in the 100 fly with a time of 57.39, which is the first such accomplishment for the country in a competition of this rank.

A PATH PAVED WITH MASSIVE SACRIFICE

We found Lana preparing for the senior World Championships in Abu Dhabi, and talked before the big competition where she placed third in the final race winning a historic bronze medal. She began her swimming career in “Orka” Water Sport Club in Mostar. Just a few days after her parents enrolled her in swim school so she could learn to swim, the coaches called them to let them know that they planned to enrol Lana in swim club. “In the meantime, I fell in love with swimming, the new people I’m spending time with, the coaches and the club. It all began quite spontaneously. I can’t complain, I certainly wasn’t wrong to take up swimming,” says Lana, who looks up to her swimming role model Sarah Sjöström, a multiple Olympic and World Champion and record-holder. “Achieving great results in any sphere of life, including sports, requires a great deal of sacrifice. The fact that there aren’t enough Olympic swimming pools is the biggest problem for the development of swimming in our country. I’d definitely make much more progress if an Olympic swimming pool were built in Mostar and if I wasn’t forced to spend a lot of time out of town preparing to compete. But there’s a certain charm to it, and it’s an additional motive for me to perform as best as I can.”

AN A-STUDENT

Despite her talent and results, school comes first for Lana. She attends the first grade of the Second Secondary Grammar School in Mostar. Mathematics is her favourite subject, and when she is not tied up with her swimming commitments she spends a lot of time practicing it. Lana has always had straight As. She spends nearly five hours every day in the pool, goes to the gym three times a week, and travels extensively, but with good organisation, support from parents, coaches and school, she maintains balance.

You Go, Girl!

“My father told me to never quit even in the face of obstacles, to persist and persevere in whatever I do and regardless of what it’s about”

Her father Velibor Pudar, who used to be the goalkeeper of Football Club Velež, offers Lana guidance with his sports advice when she needs it. “My father told me to never quit even in the face of obstacles, to persist and persevere in whatever I do and regardless of what it’s about,” Lana points out as she harbours a desire to win a gold medal for herself and for Bosnia and Herzegovina from some the largest championships in the world. “It’s not going to be easy at all, but I believe that with dedicated and persistent work nothing is impossible,” she says in the end.