BARCELONA ’92 OLYMPICS : Close Competition : Former Yugoslav Roommates Together on the Range but Apart at Home

Bosnian sharpshooter Mirjana Horvat could have won her country’s first medal, but just taking part was enough.

After four months of civil war, air raids and hunger, just being in the Olympics seemed like a miracle.

Horvat, a Sarajevo student, found herself on the Olympic air rifle shooting range, competing in Barcelona’s opening medal event Sunday. During the final round, she fired next to Yugoslav shooter Aranka Binder, who won the bronze medal.

The two women used to share a room when competing for Yugoslavia.

Horvat finished eighth as the first Olympic participant for her 4-month-old republic. Despite the bitter conflict at home, Horvat’s first act after the final was to turn and hug Binder. Binder, 26, refused to attend a news conference.

“I felt it wasn’t a very easy situation when they saw each other,” said Bulgaria’s silver medalist Vesela Letcheva of the Binder-Horvat encounter.

Binder is part of a squad of Yugoslav athletes who are officially competing only as individuals. Their flag and anthem will not be used, and their entries in team events were ordered to stay home as part of the U.N.-approved sanctions that stemmed from the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina.

Horvat’s teammates had nervously watched the final, knowing this was Bosnia-Herzegovina’s only real chance of a medal at its first Olympics.

“I ate very poorly and lost 22 pounds in weight (during the war),” said Horvat.

“There were constant air raids and planes flying overhead. I was always afraid those idiots would attack.”