1984 Winter Olympics

XIV Olympic Winter Games

The emblem symbolizes a stylized snowflake,
as well as the embroidery produced in the Sarajevo region
with the Olympic rings above.
Host city Sarajevo, Yugoslavia
Nations participating 49
Athletes participating 1272
(998 men, 274 women)
Events 39 in 6 sports (10 disciplines)
Opening ceremony 8 February
Closing ceremony 19 February
Officially opened by President Mika Špiljak
Athlete's Oath Bojan Križaj (Alpine skiing)
Judge's Oath Dragan Perović
Olympic Torch Sanda Dubravčić (Figure skating)
Stadium Asim Ferhatović Stadion
Winter:
<  Lake Placid 1980 Calgary 1988  >
Summer:
<  Moscow 1980 Los Angeles 1984  >

The 1984 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XIV Olympic Winter Games (French: Les XIVes Jeux olympiques d'hiver; Serbo-Croatian: XIV zimske olimpijske igre / XIV Зимске олимпијске игре; Macedonian: XIV Зимски олимписки игри), was a winter multi-sport event which took place from 8–19 February 1984 in Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Yugoslavia. Other candidate cities were Sapporo, Japan; and Gothenburg, Sweden.

It was the first Winter Olympics held in a socialist state. It was also the second Olympics overall, as well as the second consecutive Olympics, to be held in a Socialist country after the 1980 Summer Olympics were held in Moscow, Soviet Union. The only other games that have since been held in a socialist state are the 2008 Summer Olympics held in Beijing and 2014 Summer Youth Olympics in Nanjing, and the 2022 Winter Olympics which will be held in Beijing. All of these have been in China. During the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, numerous newspapers drew attention to the neglected venues of the Sarajevo Olympic games from 30 years prior.

Host city selection

The host city for the XIV Winter Olympics was announced on 18 May 1978 during an 80th session of the International Olympic Committee in Athens, Greece. Sarajevo was selected over Sapporo, Japan (which hosted the games 12 years earlier) by a margin of three votes. Gothenburg was the first city in Sweden to lose a Winter Olympic bid, as other Swedish cities such as Falun and Östersund would later lose their consecutive bids to Calgary, Albertville, Lillehammer, Nagano, and Salt Lake City respectively. Sarajevo, capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina, was part of the united Yugoslavia at the time.

1984 Winter Olympics bidding results[1]
City Country Round 1 Round 2
Sarajevo  Yugoslavia 31 39
Sapporo  Japan 33 36
Gothenburg  Sweden 10

Torch relay

Olympic torch Sarajevo 1984

The torch relay for the 1984 Sarajevo Olympic games started in Olympia and then proceeded by airplane to Dubrovnik. The total distance of the torch relay through Yugoslavia was 5,289 kilometres (3,286 mi) (plus 2,879 kilometres (1,789 mi) of local routes). There were two main routes – one in the west (SplitLjubljanaZagreb – Sarajevo with 2,602 kilometres (1,617 mi) of length) and the other in the east (SkopjeNovi SadBelgradeSarajevo with 2,687 kilometres (1,670 mi) of length). The final torchbearer, from a total of 1600, was figure skater Sanda Dubravčić, who received the torch from skier runner Ivo Čarman. Today one of the two original torches is in Slovenia in a private collection in Žalec, Slovenia. Also 20 more torches are in Greece owned by individual athletes, who were the torchbearers from Ancient Olympia to the nearby military airport and from Athens Domestic Airport to the Panathinaikon Stadium where the Ceremony of handing over the Olympic Flame to the Sarajevo Olympic Games Committee occurred.

Panoramic view of Koševo Stadium during the 1984 Winter Olympics opening ceremony.

Highlights

Official mascot

Readers of Yugoslav newspapers were asked to choose the mascot for the 1984 Winter Olympics from a list of six finalists. The winner was Vučko, the little wolf, designed by Slovenian designer and illustrator Jože Trobec. The other finalists were a chipmunk, a lamb, a mountain goat, a porcupine, and a snowball.[4] The Vučko is a long-time symbol of Sarajevo.

Venues

Bjelašnica alpine mountain
Olympic Symbol damaged during the Bosnian War

City venues

Mountain venues

Other facilities

Competitive events

There were 39 events contested in 6 sports (10 disciplines).

Demonstration sport

Calendar

All dates are in Central European Time (UTC+1)
OCOpening ceremony Event competitions 1Event finals CCClosing ceremony
February 7th
Tue
8th
Wed
9th
Thu
10th
Fri
11th
Sat
12th
Sun
13th
Mon
14th
Tue
15th
Wed
16th
Thu
17th
Fri
18th
Sat
19th
Sun
Events
Ceremonies OC CC
Alpine skiing 1 1 2 1 1 6
Biathlon 1 1 1 3
Bobsleigh 1 1 2
Cross country skiing 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 8
Figure skating 1 1 1 1 4
Ice hockey 1 1
Luge 2 1 3
Nordic combined 1 1
Ski jumping 1 1 2
Speed skating 1 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 9
Total events 2 3 2 7 3 4 3 5 2 5 3 39
Cumulative total 2 5 7 14 17 21 24 29 31 36 39
February 7th
Tue
8th
Wed
9th
Thu
10th
Fri
11th
Sat
12th
Sun
13th
Mon
14th
Tue
15th
Wed
16th
Thu
17th
Fri
18th
Sat
19th
Sun
Events

Medal count

 Rank  Nation Gold Silver Bronze Total
1  East Germany (GDR) 9 9 6 24
2  Soviet Union (URS) 6 10 9 25
3  United States (USA) 4 4 0 8
4  Finland (FIN) 4 3 6 13
5  Sweden (SWE) 4 2 2 8
6  Norway (NOR) 3 2 4 9
7  Switzerland (SUI) 2 2 1 5
8  Canada (CAN) 2 1 1 4
 West Germany (FRG) 2 1 1 4
10  Italy (ITA) 2 0 0 2
14 Yugoslavia (YUG) 0 1 0 1

Participants

A then record of 49 National Olympic Committees (NOCs) entered athletes at the 1984 Winter Olympic Games.

Egypt, Monaco, Puerto Rico, Senegal, and the British Virgin Islands participated in their 1st Winter Olympic Games.

The People's Republic of China ended its boycott of the Olympic Games over the controversy regarding the IOC's recognition of the Republic of China. The Republic of China (Taiwan) then competed as Chinese Taipei for the first time.

Many smaller countries competed in these games, due to the funding program created by the IOC. The IOC decided that it would cover all expenses for one male and one female athlete, per country. This allowed countries with smaller athletic budgets to participate in the Games.

See also

Notes

  1. "Past Olympic host city election results". GamesBids. Archived from the original on 17 March 2011. Retrieved 17 March 2011.
  2. Sarajevo Olympics 1984 opening ceremony on YouTube
  3. The 6.0 judging system has since been replaced with the ISU Judging System, therefore no other figure skater will earn perfect 6.0 scores in the future.
  4. Those Loony Olympic Mascots, Time Olympics, 21 May 2010
Wikimedia Commons has media related to 1984 Winter Olympics.
Preceded by
Lake Placid
Winter Olympics
Sarajevo

XIV Olympic Winter Games (1984)
Succeeded by
Calgary
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