Sarajevo's Olympic spirit still alive despite siege
SARAJEVO, BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA
War-scarred Sarajevo is looking back to happier times from February 1984 as it celebrates the 40th anniversary of staging a successful Winter Olympics.
“Our Olympic spirit is alive,” said Izet Radjo, president of the Bosnia-herzegovina Olympic Committee, with Sarajevo eyeing a bid to play host to the 2032 Winter Youth Olympic Games.
It was a time of opportunity for Yugoslavia, of which Bosnia was then a part, but less than a decade later everything had changed. Bosnian Serb forces laid siege to Sarajevo in the early 1990s during the bloody breakup of Yugoslavia. About 350,000 people were trapped, for 46 months, subjected to daily shelling and sniper attacks and cut off from the outside world.
And its Olympic venues lay in ruins.
Ahmet Karabegovic, who served as secretary general of the 1984 Winter Olympics, said the sporting legacy aided the city's postwar recovery.
Nestled among mountains, Sarajevo had successfully welcomed thousands of tourists and nearly 3,000 athletes, coaches and officials from 49 countries. The sleepy socialist town built new alpine and Nordic ski trails, ski jumps, bobsled and luge runs, a skating rink, dozens of apartment blocks and numerous hotels.
Bosnian and international athletes and officials gathered this week in Sarajevo to mark the city's 40th Olympic anniversary, and IOC president Thomas Bach offered words of encouragement by video.
The Sarajevo Winter Olympics “stood out because at the height of the Cold War, they brought together the best winter sport athletes from political rivals and sworn enemies in a peaceful competition.”