Sarajevo and Yugoslavia were the hosts of XIV Olympic Winter Games from 08. to 19. February 1984. The Festival of Youth and Sports has entered the history of the Olympic movement, not only by the number of records that were recorded in competitions, but also by those who made good achievements before the true start of the Winter Olympic Games held in this part of Europe. A year before opening ceremony of the XIV Winter Olympics all necessary facilities for their maintenance were built, which means that a total of 167 major and more than 400 additional projects were completed. For the XIV Winter participation 49 national Olympic committees applied, which was by then a record in the history of the Winter Olympics in general. In Sarajevo a record number of participants arrived – athletes and their followers – more than 2500. Sarajevo Olympics has become the driving force for development of winter – sports and continental tourism in the region. Hosts of Winter Olympics were Jahorina, Bjelasnica, Igman, Trebevic, Čvrsnica and other mountain ranges in the surrounding and wider area of Sarajevo as well as city of Sarajevo itself. The construction of facilities and infrastructure for Jahorina Olympic Games costed a total of 36,631,125 DM (Deutsche Mark). Competitions in giant slalom, slalom and downhill for women were organized on Jahorina.
On February the 13th 1984 an Olympic race in giant slalom was organized on Jahorina, for the first time. Giant slalom race was the first alpine discipline, held at the Olympic Games in Sarajevo in 1984. These were the first Olympic Games, where male and female competitions were held on the same tracks. Men’s giant slalom, downhill and slalom was held on Bjelasnica.
Starting day – on Monday, the weather was variably cloudy and the track was well prepared and loaded with audience. The track “Olympic giant slalom” now bears the same name. The race was judged and overseen by a quite of number of people from Pale, who were majority in the Olympics. The people of Pale have made a great contribution in bringing the Winter Olympics in Sarajevo, thanks to sports success, but also a great ability to organize many competitions in recent years, that were held on Jahorina. The race was remembered for great excitement and great results of two Americans. Debbie Armstrong triumphed in front of favored Christin Cooper. The third was French Perrine Diapers. There were four Yugoslav female participants. The most successful was Leskovšek Andrea, who finished the race as 16th. Race remained remembered by a few runs from the track, but fortunately, it all ended well. Medal awarding ceremony was organized in front of Skenderija. The Olympics in Sarajevo held in 1984 were the best organized games.
The downhill race took place on 16th February 1984. The day before there a training was held on Jahorina, which had been done under a dense fog, but thursday brought fine weather. Downhill was driven on the track “Olympic downhill” which still bears the same name. The fastest competitors were from Switzerland. Michela Figini triumphed with the score of 01:13:36. 5 hundred slower was her compatriot Maria Walliser, and the bronze went to famous Olga Charvat from Czechoslovakia with 17 hundredths of a second behind the leader. There was no Yugoslav competitors in the race.
Slalom race was held on 17th of February 1984. Slalom was driven on the shortest track on Jahorina “Olympic slalom”, which is still frequently used. With Friday came a big fog again, and the race was difficult. The Italian Paoletta Magoni won the gold with the score of 01:36:47, the second was Wormwood Perrine from France with a score of 01:37:36, and the third Ursula Konzett from Liechtenstein – 01:37:50. Best Yugoslav was Mateja Svet, and she finished the race in 15th position. The race remained remembered for as many as 17 runs out of track, one of which was Anja Zavadlav, and 4 runs out in the second run, one of which was another Yugoslav Nuša Tom.
Related article: History of skiing on Jahorina
