Meet Ivana PAVIC – New ParaVolley Secretary General

Following the resignation of Danuta Kowaleska-Helać (POL) in early December, the ParaVolley Board is pleased to announce the appointment of Ivana Pavić (CRO).

Ivana is no stranger to sitting volleyball in Europe as her career as both a player, referee and National Federation president spans over 20 years.

Born in Osijek (CRO), Ivana has been involved in volleyball since the age of ten. Unfortunately, a knee in jury in 1991 put an end to her career.

She started officiating as a volleyball Referee in the First National League.  Then in 1995 she started to work with  disabled War veterans.

In 1996, the Croatian Volleyball Federation in coordination with the Volleyball Referee Commission founded the Sitting volleyball National league which comprised of three club teams. This was the start of a successful sitting volleyball adventure as since then, many new sitting volleyball club teams started appearing on the scene.

In 2006 the number of Sitting volleyball club teams increased and the Croatian Sitting volleyball Federation was founded with 12 men club teams.

In 2012 Ivana started to work with women and kept on developing the concept for the Croatian Women Sitting Volleyball National team which had been started by the first Federation President.

Between 1995 and until 1999, Ivana was the main logistical support for the most successful sitting volleyball club team in Croatia, HVIDRA Osijek, which won 4th place in 2001 at the Euro Cup in De Lutte, Netherlands.

In 1998, she was the LOC Secretary General during the Euro Cup in men sitting volleyball in Osijek (CRO) that was organised as a high level competition and as a result, she was awarded by the Croatian Olympic Committee.

In 1999, Ivana attended a course for sitting volleyball Referees during the European Championship for sitting volleyball men and women in Sarajevo (BIH). Since then she officiated in many national, international, European, World and Paralympic games for sitting volleyball.

In 2015, she took the decision to resign as a referee and became President of the Croatian Sitting volleyball Federation.

Ivana is still active as a sitting volleyball player, both in her club and in the National Women’s team.

In her day to day life, Ivana works as a MD, Surgical Pathologist at the University Hospital Center and also at the University of Zagreb Dental School as scientific associate.

The board would like to officially welcome Ivana to her new role as Secretary General and would also like to thank Dana for all the work and dedication she showed to the sport over the last few years.