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
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

The 1984 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XIV Olympic Winter Games, was a winter multi-sport event which took place from 8–19 February 1984 in Sarajevo, Yugoslavia, in present-day Bosnia-Herzegovina. Other candidate cities were Sapporo, Japan; and Gothenburg, Sweden. It was the first Winter Games and the second consecutive Olympics held in a Communist state (the first was the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow, Soviet Union).

Host city selection [edit]

The host city for the XIV Winter Olympics was announced on 18 May 1978 during a 80th session of the International Olympic Committee in Athens, Greece. Sarajevo was selected over Sapporo, Japan by a margin of three votes. Sarajevo was part of the united Yugoslavia at that 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 [edit]

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 km (plus 2,879 km of local routes). There were two main routes – one in the west (Split – Ljubljana – Zagreb – Sarajevo with 2,602km of length) and the other in the east (Skopje – Novi Sad – Belgrade – Sarajevo with 2,687km 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 Naklo, 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.^{[citation needed]}

Highlights [edit]

• The Olympic flag was raised upside down during the opening ceremony by mistake.^[2]
• 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 win all but three out of the twelve medals in the sport.
• Austria, usually a formidable winter sports nation, won only one bronze medal.
• Biathlete Eirik Kvalfoss earned a complete set of medals.
• Twin brothers Phil and Steve Mahre took first and second place in the slalom.
• Torvill and Dean of the United Kingdom earned across-the-board perfect scores for artistic impression in the free dance ice dancing competition, a feat that was never matched.^[3]
• The Gold medals for Figure Skating were split among four nations. While Torvill and Dean won the Ice Dancing Competition for the UK, Elena Valova and Oleg Vasiliev of the Soviet Union won the Pairs Competition, Scott Hamilton scored Men's Gold for the United States, and Katarina Witt won the first of two consecutive Gold Medals for East Germany in Ladies Figure Skating.
• Disabled skiing was a demonstration sport for the first time.
• Bill Johnson became the first American to win an Olympic downhill event.
• Lamine Guèye of Senegal was the first Black African skier to compete in the Winter Olympics.
• The closing ceremony was held indoors in the figure skating venue. The next time the closing ceremony for the Winter Games would be held indoors was the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver.

Official mascot [edit]

1984 winter olympics in museum

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.^{[citation needed]}

Venues [edit]

Bjelašnica alpine mountain

Igman Olympic Jumps

Olympic Symbol damaged during the Bosnian War

City venues [edit]

• Koševo Stadium – opening ceremonies
• Zetra Ice Hall – figure skating, ice hockey (final), closing ceremonies
• Zetra Ice Rink – speed skating
• Skenderija II Hall – ice hockey

Mountain venues [edit]

• Bjelašnica – alpine skiing (men)
• Jahorina – alpine skiing (women)
• Igman, Veliko Polje – cross-country skiing, Nordic combined (cross-country skiing), biathlon
• Igman Olympic Jumps – Nordic combined (ski jumping), ski jumping
• Sarajevo Olympic Bobsleigh and Luge Track at Mt. Trebević – bobsleigh, luge

Other facilities [edit]

• Olympic Village, Mojmilo
• Press Village, Dobrinja
• Hotels: Igman (Igman), Famos (Bjelašnica), Smuk (Bjelašnica), Bistrica (Jahorina)

Competitive events [edit]

Demonstration sport [edit]

• Disabled skiing

Calendar [edit]

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 [edit]

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 [edit]

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 Republic of China ended its boycott of the Olympic Games over the controversy regarding the IOC's recognition of the People's Republic of China, and competed as Chinese Taipei for the first time.

Sarajevo 1984 winter olympics gallery [edit]

See also [edit]

Olympics portal

• 1984 Winter Paralympics
• 1984 Summer Paralympics
• 1984 Summer Olympics

• Winter Olympic Games
• Olympic Games
• International Olympic Committee
• List of IOC country codes

Notes [edit]

References [edit]

• "Sarajevo 1984". Olympic.org. International Olympic Committee. 
• "All the Medallists since 1896". Olympic.org. International Olympic Committee. 
• Official Report from the Organizing Committee on the AAFLA website
• Olympic Review 1984 – Official results

External links [edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: 1984 Winter Olympics

• "Sarajevo 1984". Olympic.org. International Olympic Committee. 
• Official website
• The program of the 1984 Sarajevo Winter Olympics

v t e Olympic Games Sports Venues Ceremonies Medals Medal tables Medalists Bidding IOC NOCs Country codes Symbols Torch relays Ancient Olympic Games Summer Games 1896 1900 1904 1906 1 1908 1912 1916 2 1920 1924 1928 1932 1936 1940 3 1944 3 1948 1952 1956 1960 1964 1968 1972 1976 1980 1984 1988 1992 1996 2000 2004 2008 2012 2016 2020 2024 2028 Winter Games 1924 1928 1932 1936 1940 3 1944 3 1948 1952 1956 1960 1964 1968 1972 1976 1980 1984 1988 1992 1994 1998 2002 2006 2010 2014 2018 2022 2026 1 Discounted ex post facto by the IOC. 2 Cancelled due to World War I. 3 Cancelled due to World War II.