opening night

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On February 8, 1984, a snowy evening in Sarajevo marked the city’s step onto the world stage. At Koševo Stadium, 50,000 spectators and millions watching worldwide witnessed something magical: the opening ceremony of the XIV Winter Olympic Games.

The Grand Parade

The ceremony began at 2:30 PM with fanfares echoing across the snow-covered stadium. Forty-nine nations marched in the "March of Continents," their colorful uniforms bright against Sarajevo's winter landscape. Athletes from around the globe waved to crowds who had traveled from every corner of Yugoslavia and beyond to witness this historic moment.

The parade showcased the Games' record scale: 1,272 athletes from 49 National Olympic Committees, contesting 39 medal events in 6 sports and 10 disciplines. First-time Winter Olympians included Egypt, Monaco, Puerto Rico, Senegal, and the British Virgin Islands. Senegal’s Lamine Guèye—an alpine skier who founded his nation’s ski federation—became the first Black African to compete at a Winter Olympics.

Spectacle and Spirit

What followed was pure Sarajevan magic. Folk dancers performed "Sounds of the Yugoslav Sky" while the crowd watched spellbound. The ceremony blended Olympic grandeur with authentic Balkan culture, creating an atmosphere that visiting dignitaries would remember for decades.

President Mika Špiljak officially opened the Games, Alpine star Bojan Križaj took the Olympic Oath for athletes, judge Dragan Perović for officials. The five-ringed flag was raised. But the evening's crescendo came when the Olympic flame arrived at the stadium.

The Moment of Glory

Then, in a moment fixed in local memory, figure skater Sanda Dubravčić climbed the final steps and lit the cauldron, her flame mirrored by breath in the crisp Balkan air. The crowd erupted as the Olympic fire burned bright above the city that had once been known mainly for a 1914 assassination.

A Perfect Beginning

Outside the stadium, the weather soon became a headline—overnight blizzards forced early schedule shuffles in the alpine races. Yet for Sarajevans, the timing felt like a benediction: the city that had worked for years to welcome the world finally received the winter it deserved. “For two weeks,” many would say later, “Sarajevo was the center of the world.”