XIV Winter Olympics were held in Sarajevo in 1984. Other candidate cities were Sapporo (Japan) and Falun/Göteborg (Sweden).
Sarajevo won its Winter Olympics organization within the competition of Japanese Sapporo and joint venture of the Swedish cities of Göteborg and Falun. IOC in making its decision led partly by political reasons – as a non-aligned country, former Yugoslavia gave less opportunity for the Cold War boycotts, but the main motive still was a desire to have Games, which are symbol of world peace and brotherhood among men, in the city which mostly so far has been linked with an outbrake of the World War II.
The official mascot of the XIV Winter Olympic Games in Sarajevo was Vučko.
For the Yugoslavia government Sarajevo Olympics was a great opportunity to show the world its potential in best possible manner, and in such an intention they were not disturbed by the big economic crysis that hit Yugoslavia in the early 1980s.
The Games have spent large resources, and built a number of impressive buildings and other infrastructure. In fact the government had the support of people of Sarajevo, and already the maintenance of the Games led to increased interest in winter sports, hitherto almost unknown in this part of Yugoslavia.
Opening Ceremony
Games among the participants, spectators and others have remained in a very good memory. Hosts were particularly pleased that a Slovenian alpine skier Jure Franko won the silver medal in giant slalom - the first medal that Yugoslavia won on the winter Olympics.
However, the biggest stars of the Sarajevo Olympics, participants were competitors in Figure Skating. Best impression was left by the British pair Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean, who won a gold medal in dance.
At the Games, won a gold medal was won by the East-German skater Katarina Witt, who Sarajevo Olympics made one of the biggest sports icon end of the 20 century.
Winter 1984 is often considered as the most beautiful moment in the history of Sarajevo and Bosnia and Herzegovina, and in many ways represented the antithesis of everything that happen to Sarajevo eight years later.
Therefore, there was an initiative that Sarajevo should be the new host of the Winter Olympics, which would be 2014th held on the 30thanniversary of the Winter Olympics in 1984, and 100th anniversary of the Sarajevo assassination, and thus forever bury the dark past.
The Battlegrounds
Major sport battles were held on mountains: Bjelašnica, Jahorina, Igman and Trebević, Olympic Hall Zetra, where athletes were competing amongst each other for the most valuable prize. Olympics medal.
Sarajevo Olympics Facts
