sarajevo olympics
Soon after being in the spotlight and staging the first Winter Olympic Games in a socialist state, Yugoslavia’s collapse ignited a destructive war. The proposed future of the Olympic venues was lost for good. Let me invite you to explore the whole story of the 1984 Sarajevo Winter Olympic Games and see their former glory.
These white Olympiads may have been the best.
There is no doubt that Sarajevo will put its best foot forward for the Games. The problem is whether Sarajevo’s best foot will be good enough.
Sarajevo will be the site of the 1984 Winter Olympics, if there is an Olympics, and a Yugoslavia, and 1984.
The only thing anyone knows about Sarajevo is that Franz Ferdinand was killed there in 1914 and has been a code word for catastrophe ever since.
It is said that these Games were the best ever. I hope that the next Games in Tito’s Yugoslavia — when we get them again — will be even better.
The Sarajevo games have been a wonderful success, I am convinced they will remain forever in our hearts and memories.
The games have, beyond question, been the best organized and most smoothly run I have seen in a quarter-century.
With a great deal of effort, the organizers succeeded in staging, from nothing, an event of world importance.
The Yugoslavs’ efforts in order to secure the smooth management of the competitions have, effectively, been crowned with success, in spite of unfavorable weather conditions.
A resounding success with regard to organization, technical detail, the excitement of the competitions, the winning personalities and the popular enthusiasm which accompanied the events.