Quick Facts

Specialty: Para Alpine Skiing (Sitting) — LW11 Classification
Came to the United States through a high school foreign exchange program; granted U.S. citizenship in 2010
Parents: Dzafer and Miljana Bambur
Hobbies include fishing, hunting, kayaking, boating and camping
Fluent in English, Serbian, Bosnian, Croatian and Macedonian

Biographical Information

Jasmin Bambur was born in Zrenjanin, Serbia, in 1979 and raised in Bosnia. The Bosnian conflict of the 1990s forced his family to flee back to Serbia when Bambur was 12 years old. When Bambur was 18, his father found him a placement in the United States through a high school foreign exchange program, to pursue a handball career and continue his education. Bambur arrived in America with little more than his athleticism and an instinct for reinvention. While enrolled at Middle Georgia College in 2000, he was selected for the U.S. National Handball Team.

That trajectory was interrupted one night after handball training in 2000, when Bambur fell asleep at the wheel and his car crashed. The accident left him with a spinal cord injury that resulted in paraplegia. The physical and emotional aftermath was severe. Bambur struggled with depression through the early months of recovery, grappling with the loss of a body and a sporting future he had worked hard to build. The turning point came through a visit from Bert Burns, a 1992 Paralympic gold medalist, whose example showed Bambur with clarity what was still possible. He explored wheelchair tennis, wheelchair basketball, and waterskiing before discovering sit-skiing and recognizing it as the discipline he had been looking for.

Bambur's Paralympic debut came at the Paralympic Winter Games Vancouver 2010, but not under the American flag. Having not yet received U.S. citizenship, he competed for Serbia and made history as the first winter Paralympian ever to represent that country. He finished ninth in downhill and 20th in super-G. Later that year, Bambur was granted U.S. citizenship, and in 2012 he was named to the U.S. Paralympic Alpine Skiing National Team.

At the Paralympic Winter Games Sochi 2014, competing for Team USA for the first time, Bambur raced in downhill, slalom, giant slalom, super combined, and super-G, finishing seventh in super-G, his best result to that point. He returned at the Paralympic Winter Games PyeongChang 2018, competing across giant slalom, slalom, super-G, and super combined, placing 12th in super combined. At the Paralympic Winter Games Beijing 2022, he posted his strongest technical-event result in years with an eighth-place finish in slalom and 16th in giant slalom. He has also competed at IPC Alpine Skiing World Championships in 2009, 2011, 2015, 2017 and 2022, building a world championship record that mirrors the longevity of his Paralympic career.

Away from racing, Bambur's identity is shaped as much by the outdoors as by the competition. He fishes, hunts, kayaks, boats, and camps, activities that connect him to a version of the natural world that doesn't require a slope or a start gate. He is the father of three daughters: Lejla, Maja and Adelyn. His fluency in five languages (English, Serbian, Bosnian, Croatian and Macedonian) reflects a life that has crossed more borders and absorbed more cultures than most people encounter in a lifetime, and it remains one of the qualities he carries with unmistakable pride.

Paralympic Experience

4-time Paralympian
- Paralympic Games Beijing 2022, 8th (Slalom - Sitting - Men), 16th (Giant Slalom - Sitting - Men)
- Paralympic Games Pyeongchang 2018, (Giant Slalom - Sitting - Men, Slalom - Sitting - Men, Super-G - Sitting - Men), 12th (Super Combined - Sitting - Men)
- Paralympic Games Sochi 2014, (Downhill - Sitting - Men, Slalom - Sitting - Men, Super Combined - Sitting - Men), 7th (Super-G - Sitting - Men), 17th (Giant Slalom - Sitting - Men)
- Paralympic Games Vancouver 2010, (Giant Slalom - Sitting - Men), 9th (Downhill - Sitting - Men), 20th (Super-G - Sitting - Men), 25th (Slalom - Sitting - Men)

World Championships Experience

Most recent: 2022 – (Slalom - Sitting - Men), 13th (Giant Slalom - Sitting - Men)
Years of participation: Giant Slalom - Sitting - Men 2009, 2011, 2015, 2017, 2022; Slalom - Sitting - Men 2009, 2011, 2015, 2017, 2022; Downhill - Sitting - Men 2011, 2015, 2017; Super Combined - Sitting - Men 2009, 2011, 2015, 2017; Super-G - Sitting - Men 2009, 2011, 2015, 2017
Top finish: – 2009 (Giant Slalom - Sitting - Men), 2009 (Slalom - Sitting - Men), 2009 (Super Combined - Sitting - Men), 2011 (Downhill - Sitting - Men), 2011 (Super Combined - Sitting - Men), 2011 (Super-G - Sitting - Men), 2015 (Downhill - Sitting - Men), 2015 (Giant Slalom - Sitting - Men), 2015 (Super-G - Sitting - Men), 2022 (Slalom - Sitting - Men)

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