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.
Phenomenal! What architecture... your city is true architectural poetry... As for your people, I must admit I was a bit surprised, not to say shocked, that you don't have that alienation, that isolation that is characteristic of all larger cities. Here, when a person goes out on the street, one gets the impression that everyone knows each other... It's as if the city radiates comradeship.
We have all somehow come to life, we are happier. It is a beautiful feeling for a Yugoslav, people from so many countries are participating.
I walk through the streets amazed. I see and hear how well the city has been worked on... and I am proud - just like that, like a host...
Sarajevo is now Yugoslavia in miniature, and the whole world is our guest. I can only repeat what is now on everyone's lips: Welcome - now and always.
If ever a city put its whole heart into the Olympic Games, it is Sarajevo. This was clearly shown at the opening ceremony.
A triumph of the human spirit.
Right from the start, the snow Olympics in Sarajevo shone in full splendor. If there were any doubts that Yugoslavia would not be able to successfully organize the WOG, then all doubts fell into the water on the very first day, and long before.
Obviously, everything has been done to ensure the Olympic holiday proceeds under the best conditions, simply everything is excellently organized.
From getting on the bus at the airport, it seems to the visitor that all citizens have thrown themselves heart and soul into the sports celebration... Yugoslavs are much more engaged in helping foreigners than any host city of the games I can remember.
The problem for future Olympic organizers will be how to surpass something that is unsurpassable.
Bosnia is conquering the world... all the buildings that had to be created from scratch were ready on time.
I would give a medal to the bus driver who brought me to the Press Center at two-thirty in the morning... I would give it to those two girls who, even at that time of night, were taking and giving out coats at the cloakroom in the restaurant in the Press Center, doing so with a smile.
My impressions of the city are wonderful. Sarajevo has what Austria or Switzerland will never have in a single city.
The Games glittered like a light. People would be walking around town and meet the King of Sweden or an English princess or Kirk Douglas. It was very normal at the time. We felt Sarajevo was the center of the world during the Games.