Copyright (c) 1984 Radio and Television of Bosnia and Herzegovina
The XIV Winter Olympic Games were held from 8 to 19 February 1984 in Sarajevo. The city, now the capital of present-day Bosnia and Herzegovina, was part of the SFR Yugoslavia at the time. It was the first Winter Olympic Games held in a socialist state and in a Slavic language-speaking country, and was the only Winter Games to be held in a communist country up until the 2022 Games in Beijing, China. It was the second consecutive Olympics to be so held, after the 1980 Summer Games held in Moscow, then the capital of the Soviet Union.
The city was elected as hosts on 18 May 1978 during the 80th IOC Session in Athens, Greece, being picked by a margin of three votes; 39-36, over bids from 1972 hosts Sapporo, Japan and Gothenburg in Sweden.
With 1,272 athletes competing in these games, a then-record of 49 nations took part at the 1984 Winter Games, with Egypt, Monaco, Puerto Rico, Senegal, and the British Virgin Islands made their debut at the Winter Olympics. The People's Republic of China ended its Olympic boycott over the controversy regarding the IOC's recognition of the Republic of China (Taiwan), and as a result, the latter had then competed under the name 'Chinese Taipei' for the first time.
Many smaller nations have also taken part at these Sarajevo Games, and it's all thanks to the funding program created by the IOC; the Lausanne-based body had decided that it would cover all expenses for one male and one female athlete, per country. This allowed countries with smaller athletic budgets to participate in the Winter Games.
The Sarajevo Games, considered a success, made it possible to modernize all of Bosnia and Herzegovina and started to develop winter sports in Yugoslavia, but the Bosnian war that erupted in 1992 had heavily damaged the city as well as the facilities that were built in time for the Olympics. Some sites have been renovated and repaired after the war, but others remain abandoned; the former Olympic sliding track situated at Trebević mountain was among one of the more well-known abandoned sites.
Additionally, what made the 1984 Winter Games so synonymous to both Sarajevo and Yugoslavia is the event's official mascot: a little wolf named Vučko.
The wolf, an animal typically found in the forests of the Dinaric Alps region, is considered to be a prominent figure in Yugoslavian fables: he embodies courage and strength and symbolizes winter. Through his smiling, frightened or serious facial expressions, Vučko gave the wolf a rather friendly appearance and even helped to change the usually ferocious image of this animal. Created by Jože Trobec, Vučko was chosen through a design contest entered by 836 participants; the other proposals were a snowball, a mountain goat, a weasel, a lamb and a hedgehog.
Vučko often sings "Sarajevooo~" aloud at times - particularly when he skis in the mountains, and the one who granted him his singing voice is none other than Zdravko Čolić, widely considered as one of the greatest vocalists and cultural icons of the former Yugoslavia.
