Winter Olympic Cities Nostalgia: Sarajevo
Winter Olympic Cities Nostalgia: Sarajevo
When Sarajevo won the candidature to host the Winter Olympic Games in 1984, it became the first city worldwide to bring the notable sports event to a socialist state. The bid was tight, the say the least, as Sarajevo won with only three points more than the Japanese city of Sapporo. Another serious candidate was Gothenburg, which became the first Swedish city to lose a bid for hosting the Olympics.
As Radio Sarajevo recalls, this city got nothing to offer except for the snow on the surrounding mountains and, of course, the delicious Bosnian kebab. But there was also the eagerness and enthusiasm of people to make the Games happen. New sports venues started to mushroom inside the city and some were built in the surrounding mountains. Eleven ski-lifts connected Sarajevo with the mountains; the lifts were capable of supporting a crowd of around 18,000 an hour.
The sky-jumping venue at the surrounding Igman mountain, one of the Olympic venues back in 1984, photo credit
Concerning the mascot for the Games, it was readers of the Yugoslav newspapers who got the honors to select it. Six mascots were listed in the finale, and the winner was a little wolf–Vučko. It was designed by the Slovenian illustrator Jože Trobec. Chipmunk, a lamb, a mountain goat, a porcupine, and a snowball were among the other finalists, but as Vučko won, it remained to be a long-term symbol of Sarajevo.
Sarajevo’s famed abandoned bobsled track constructed for the Winter Olympic Games, now largely covered with graffiti by local artists, photo credit
Ahead of the Games, the atmosphere has been wondrous, Radio Sarajevo further writes. The city had been more than ready to welcome guests and proceed with the scheduled events. There was just one little problem. That winter had been particularly dry and moderate — there wasn’t any snow. The biggest fear of everyone was that the Games will turn out a fiasco. Until the day of the opening, when so much snow fell that people voluntarily went out on the streets to help and clean the snow.
The bobsleigh track from can be found on Mount Trebevic above Sarajevo. Though the terrain is said to be clean from mines, visitors in the area are advised to be careful, photo credit
The opening ceremonies were held at Koševo Stadium, while Zetra Ice Hall later hosted the figure skating competitions, the ice hockey finale as well as the closing ceremonies. Speed skating competitors fought for medals at the Zetra Ice Rink, and Skenderija II Hall hosted the rest of the ice hockey games before the finale. The Games run smoothly and the strong sense of community that local people of Sarajevo had, only added to the heart-warming atmosphere.
The medal podium at Igman Mountain after the siege of Sarajevo, photo credit
Whether anyone is curious who won the most medals at the 1984 Games, the big winner was East Germany with nine golds and nine silvers. Runner-ups were the Soviets, who received six gold and ten silver medals, while the United States came third with four gold and four silver. The host, Yugoslavia, claimed just one silver medal.
Not even a decade passed after the Games when Yugoslavia plunged into a civil war. For four years, in between April 1992 and February 1996, the city of Sarajevo heavily suffered under siege, which also meant the venues where athletes previously fought for medals, were now the battlefields of various military factions.
After the war, that brought too many horrific casualties, the Olympic venues have been left to decay, greatly abandoned. Some infrastructure such as the abandoned bobsleigh tracks has become a vibrant place for local artists to draw graffiti in the subsequent years. More or less, remnants of the Olympic infrastructure can be spotted all around Sarajevo today, and for sure, it is not your average Olympic ruins porn.
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