The 1984 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XIV Olympic Winter Games, and commonly known as Sarajevo '84, were a winter multi-sport event held between 8 and 19 February 1984 in Sarajevo, Yugoslavia. It was the first Winter Olympic Games held in a Slavic language-speaking country, as well as the only Winter Olympics held in a communist country before the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, China. It was the second consecutive Olympic Games held in such a country after the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow, Soviet Union.
The Games were held in Sarajevo and at neighbouring resorts in the Dinaric Alps located less than 25 kilometres from the city. At the first days of the Games, the sports program was disrupted by extreme weather conditions and the alpine ski events started four days later than planned.
The Games brought together 1272 athletes from 49 countries, which represents a significant increase compared to 1980. Athletes participated in six sports and ten disciplines for a total of thirty-nine official events, one more than four years earlier. Five National Olympic Committees sent their athletes to the Olympic Winter Games for the first time, including Egypt, British Virgin Islands, Monaco, Puerto Rico and Senegal. Finland's Marja-Liisa Hämäläinen, who won all three individual races in cross-country skiing, earned the most individual medals of the Games. The host country Yugoslavia won its first-ever medal at the Winter Games after alpine skier Jure Franko came second in the giant slalom. East Germany, which won all gold and silver medals in women's speed skating and bobsleigh, topped the medal table for the first time with twenty-four medals overall, nine of which were gold.
The 1984 Winter Olympics, considered a success, made it possible to further modernize Sarajevo and develop winter sports in Yugoslavia, but the war in Yugoslavia, which broke out in 1992, heavily damaged the city and the Olympic facilities. Some sites have been renovated after the war but others remain abandoned, the former bobsleigh/luge track being one of the more well-known abandoned sites.
Host city selection Selection of the host city
A study entitled "The possibilities and problems of tourism development continental in Yugoslavia" and published in 1968 by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) first indicated that Yugoslavia and in particular the region of Sarajevo have favorable conditions for the development of winter sports. As early as 1970, the authorities in Sarajevo planned to host the Winter Olympics to promote this development and become a sustainable winter sports center. They first considered a candidature for the Games of 1976 or 1980 but, after having modernized the city within the framework of the project "Protection of the environment and of man", applied for those of 1984. The bid committee was created on 23 November 1977.
Two other bidding cities for the Games were Gothenburg in Sweden and Sapporo in Japan. If the IOC were to choose Gothenburg, the logistical costs would be very high because the competition places would be decentralized. Sapporo had previously hosted the Games in 1972, only twelve years before the proposed dates and Nagoya was also in a campaign for the 1988 Summer Olympics. The city therefore had experience and most of the infrastructure present and was in use since then, but after Lake Placid a European host city was seen as better option. Sarajevo presented a compact project, with all the planned venues within 25 kilometers of the city, and had experience of several international competitions such as Alpine Skiing World Cup events, and the European Figure Skating Championship.
+ 1984 Winter Olympics bidding results City Country Round 1 2 Sarajevo 31 39 Sapporo 33 36 Gothenburg 10 —
The host city for the XIV Olympic Winter Games was announced on 18 May 1978, during the 80th session of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in Athens, Greece. Sarajevo was selected by a margin of three votes over Sapporo, Japan. Gothenburg became the first Swedish city to lose a Winter Olympics bid; other Swedish cities, such as Falun and Östersund, would later lose consecutive bids to the Calgary (1988), Albertville (1992), Lillehammer (1994), Nagano (1998), Salt Lake City (2002), and Milan-Cortina d'Ampezzo (2026), respectively. Sarajevo, the capital of present-day Bosnia and Herzegovina, was the third-largest city of Yugoslavia at the time.
Politics The 1984 Winter Games took place during the Cold War, four years after the boycott of the Moscow Games by 66 National Olympic Committees including the United States and a few months before the boycott of the Los Angeles 1984 Games by the Soviet Union and another 17 National Olympics Committees. International tensions did not affect the Winter Games.
Organization Organizing
The organizing committee was created on July 13, 1978, and their final form with 79 members was formed as April 1980 by the Yugoslav Olympic Committee and the Sarajevo Municipal Assembly. Branko Mikulić, member of the presidency of the central committee of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia, was appointed chairman of the organizing committee. Ahmed Karabegović was appointed the secretary-general and Anto Sučić, then president of the Sarajevo Municipal Assembly, became the president of the executive committee. The organizing committee included the president of the Yugoslav Olympic committee and representatives of the Federal Executive Council, the League of Communists and the Socialist Alliance of the Working People.
Financial aspects According to the financial results of the Games, the revenues amounted to YUD 19.83 billion (approximately million) and expenses at YUD 17.3 billion ( million), a net amount of YUD 2.54 billion ( million). The official report for the games listed the final profit at million.
This was the first time in history that the Winter Olympic Games were organized in a socialist state, but the organizers did not hesitate to partner with private companies to finance the Games. The Organizing Committee argued it was not hypocritical because sport must be above political influence. The organizing committee signed 218 contracts and arrangements in Yugoslavia and 459 on the foreign market. This included the sale of television rights, sponsorship, sale of license rights, free delivery of goods and equipment, advertising, donations as well as Olympic coins, lottery and philately. Marketing brought in YUD 4.31 billion on the national market and YUD 9.42 billion on the foreign market, totaling YUD 13.73 billion ( million). The government also contributed to the financing of the Games: the Socialist Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina paid YUD 1.83 billion, the national government of Yugoslavia and the other republics and autonomous regions, YUD 780 million and the city of Sarajevo, YUD 1 billion. From 1982 to the end of 1984, a deduction made from citizens' salaries (0.2% for citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina, 0.3% for those of Sarajevo) brought in YUD 1.21 billion.
Building the facilities and purchasing the equipment for the Games cost a total of YUD 8.63 billion. The expenses were listed at 2.26 billion for equipment, 970 million for the Zetra hall, 600 million for the alpine ski slopes, 500 million for the ice rink and the Main Press Center, 560 million for the bobsleigh and luge track, 400 million for the speed skating track and 340 million for the ski jumps. The organizing committee also invested YUD 1.65 billion in posts, telegraphs and telephones, the television network, the expansion and modernization of the Sarajevo Airport, the road network, 23 sports centers and other facilities. Preparation and organization costs were listed at YUD 4.51 billion.
Transport The region's transport network was developed for the Games. Roads with a total length of 160 kilometers were constructed to improve access to mountain sites from Sarajevo or to link the sites to each other. The city's train station and the Sarajevo International Airport were renovated, and an international terminal was built.
Most of the athletes, accompanying persons, officials and visitors arrived in Yugoslavia by regular international flights to Zagreb and Belgrade and reached Sarajevo by trains, buses or charter flights that landed directly on the city. Spectators were transported to the venues by coaches, rental or personal cars, and minibuses. These options were also used for official transport.
Visual identity
The emblem of the 1984 Winter Olympics was a stylized snowflake which also used the national embroidery motif overhung with the Olympic rings by Miroslav Antonić Roko. The mascot for the competition was chosen by readers of Yugoslav newspapers from among six entries. The mascot was a wolf named Vučko and created by Slovenian Jože Trobec.
Media More than 3,000 employees of the Yugoslav public broadcaster, Yugoslav Radio Television, produced 204 hours of television broadcasts. The number of countries in which received broadcasts of the games on television increased from 40 to 100 and the broadcasting rights, which were million in 1980, stood at million. Media revenue is shared between the organizing committee which received two-thirds and the IOC which collected one-third. The channel ABC spent million to broadcast the footage in the United States, nearly 51% of all money spent on broadcasting rights.
The Games were covered by 7,393 representatives of the media from 39 countries: 2,363 journalists from the print media and 5,030 employees of television and radio channels. Seven Media Press Centers and International Broadcaster Centers were set at the various competition venues, the main one was inside the Skenderija Center.
Torch relay
The torch relay for the 1984 Winter Olympics started in Olympia After being lit in Olympia, the flame was taken by car and plane to Athens via Andravida Air Base, where it took off for Dubrovnik by airplane. The total distance of the torch relay through Yugoslavia was plus of local routes. There were two main routes: one in the west (Split – Ljubljana – Zagreb – Sarajevo), in length; and the other in the east (Skopje – Novi Sad – Belgrade – Sarajevo), in length. The final torchbearer, from a total of 1,600, was figure skater Sanda Dubravčić, who received the torch from cross country skier Ivo Čarman. One of the two original torches is held in a private collection in Žalec, Slovenia. There are also 20 more torches in Greece, owned by individual athletes who were the torchbearers from Ancient Olympia to Andravida Air Base, where it took off for Dubrovnik.
Highlights
The Olympic flag was raised upside down during the opening ceremony by mistake, a gaffe that was repeated at the 2024 Summer Olympics opening ceremony in Paris. First Games under the presidency of Juan Antonio Samaranch. The 20 kilometre race was added to women's Nordic skiing. Skier Jure Franko won Yugoslavia's first Winter Olympic medal; a silver in the giant slalom. Marja-Liisa Hämäläinen won all three individual cross-country races for women. Gaétan Boucher and Karin Enke each won two gold medals in speed skating, while East German women won all but three out of the twelve medals in the sport. Austria, usually a formidable winter sports nation, won only one bronze medal. Biathletes Eirik Kvalfoss and Peter Angerer earned a complete set of medals. Twin brothers Phil and Steve Mahre took first and second place in the slalom. Torvill and Dean of Great Britain earned across-the-board perfect scores for artistic impression in the free dance segment of the ice dance competition, a feat that was never matched.