WHAT REMAINS FROM THE 1984 WINTER OLYMPICS OF SARAJEVO?
20/03/2022
When walking down the streets of Sarajevo, a recurring buddy you'll meet will be Vučko. The little wolf with the orange scarf was indeed the mascot of the 1984 winter Sarajevo Olympics and is still used today to promote sports development in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Another common symbol is an orange star. The games occured from the 8th to the 19th of February and were a major economical success for the country. At that time, competitors from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo, Northern Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Slovenia were participating under the same Yugoslavian flag.
Several venues of the Olympics were abandoned after the games: the bobsled and luge track (which now is a touristic urbex spot), the ski jumps, the ice hall in Skenderija, the Olympic tower and some hotels. Some others are still being used and finally, some others have been rebuilt after the war... Because yes, eleven years after the Yugoslavian team showed its unity, the genocide of Srebrenica happened. In July 1995, 8 372 Muslims from Bosnia and Herzegovina were killed by the Serbs from Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The abandoned Olympic venues are a pretty cynical symbol. They show how a united country slowly turned into the host of the second biggest genocide of the 20th century in Europe. While the Olympics were promising an economic growth and promoting unity and human strengh, the bullet and shell holes on its remains today reveal a much darker side of the Yugoslavian history. The worldwide coverage of these Olympics also contrasts with the inaction of the international community during the war. The bobsled and luge track was became the frontline of the Serbs to encircle Sarajevo. As for the podium of the ski jumping competition, it was used as an execution wall from 1991 to 1995...
In Sarajevo, the very intense museum Gallery 11/07/95 exposes testimonies and pictures from the war. When I visited the museum, the local collective of graphic artists TRIO was exhibited. Their work consisted on mixing Olympic visuals with references to the war in order to draw a parallel between them. This is what it looked like:
I also want to share this very interesting graffiti that I saw in the city center of Sarajevo. It uses the official graphic design of pictograms of the 1984 Olympics, although none of the sports represented were actually part of the games. The design of the rings evokes handkuffs or barbed wire that we've already seen on the TRIO poster and that could also remind the front page of the Time in 1995, which was the first paper showing the concentration camps in Bosnia. Whilst the official Olympic color was the orange, the green color used by the artist has multiple meanings: the army, the color of Islam, the color of rememberance of the massacre itself, the bushes through which maybe the two runners are trying to escape...
Trebević: the bobsled and luge track
The bobsled and luge track is definitely the most famous abandoned Olympic venue of Sarajevo. It is accessible with the cable car going on top of mount Trebević and a hiking trail follows it. It is also a major spot for graffers. I actually found a graffiti from my tattoo artist from the Mustre i Šare shop!...
The inhabitants of the mount left their houses during the war as it was the front line for the Serbs to encircle the city. The demining of the place started in 2014 and is it now perfectly safe to walk around the bobsled and luge track, although it is adviced to venture further around only with a local.
On your way down along the bobsled track, you can also explore the abandoned observatory "Bistrik Kula" built during the Austro-Hungarian times. Just as many other buildings, the observatory is covered in bulletholes.
Igman: the ski jumps
Igman: the hotels
The most impressive hotel along Igman mountains road is Hotel Igman. It used to host more than 500 persons and contains a cinema/theater and a swimming pool. Although the place is in major disrepair, the cinema/theater was easy to identify with the projectionist room. The hotel is a great symbol of the economic growth brought by the Olympics as it used to host the athletes for the sports events in Sarajevo until the beginning of the war in 1991.
Zetra: the ice hall, the ice rink, the olympic tower
Zetra was the main place of the Olympics and is located in the city center. The Koševo stadium built in 1947 and still in use today, located near Zetra, also hosted the opening ceremony. A funny anecdote is that the flag was raised backward during the show!...
The ice hall was built before the Olympics and renovated for the event. It hosted the figure skating and the final of the ice hockey. It was destroyed during the war and rebuilt in 1999. At the entrance, the sign mentions its reconstruction but doesn't say anything about the important role of this place during the war. It was indeed used as a morgue and a storage space for the UN's equipments. The wooden chairs of the hall were used to make coffins and a cemetary related to the war now exists right in front of Zetra. More happily, the place also now hosts the new museum of the Olympics, as the former one in the city center was destroyed during the war. It is a small but worth visiting museum, displaying an interesting collection of a shiny time for the city, and not mentioning the war.
Skenderija: ice hall
The ice hall is located in the central neighborhood of Skenderija. It was also built before the Olympics and extended for the event. It hosted the ice hockey competition. The part of the venue dedicated to the Olympics is easy to identify as it is built out of concrete and the star symbol is carved on it. Although it is impossible to see from the outside, the place is now abandoned as the roof collapsed in 2012.
There's also an interesting sculpture outside obviously matching with the Yugoslavian aesthetics. It represents a woman seating with outstreched arms and represents the Bosnian resistance and female Bosnian resistance during world war 2. Funnily enough, it reminded me of another sculpture I'd seen a few days before at the Vraca memorial park in the city (a park commemorating the victims of world war 2), and I found out that both sculptures come from the same artist, Alija Kučukalič!
Dobrinja: the Olympic village
The neighborhood of Dobrinja was built for the Olympics in the western outskirts of Sarajevo. This neighborhood is now much appreciated by locals. It's actually also fun to wander in the neighborhood and try to find original items from the Olympics.
During the war, the neighborhood was highly damaged by the Serbs at it was the western frontline. Azra, a friend from Dobrinja, explained me that people of this neighborhood are very proud to have resisted the attacks.
Azra also explained me that after the war, the place was converted into a residential neighborhood. Her parents were allocated a flat there and just like all the other inhabitants, they became the owners of the apartment for free when Yugoslavia collapsed. The neighborhood is very cleary organized according to the classic Yugoslavian socialist urbanist plans for residential areas: the buildings are similar and form "bloks" in the middle of which a collective garden is.
