SARAJEVO – A city desperate for snow suddenly had too much.
The biggest blizzard in 50 years hit Sarajevo the night before the 1984 Winter Olympics were to begin, and rumors of cancellation grew with the snow piles. Aida Cerkez remembers her mother waking her at 3 a.m. Standing in her pajamas, she looked out the window with pride as she watched soldiers from the Yugoslav Army marching down the street to pack the snow as it fell.
“There were whole neighborhoods going down with tea and cookies,” she said with tears in her eyes. “I will never ever in my life forget that.”
When daylight came, Sarajevo was covered in clean, white snow. The city was ready. International Olympic Committee President Juan Antonio Samaranch opened the 14th Winter Games at Kosevo Stadium.
“Hvala, Yugoslavia,” he said. Thank you.
The Olympics marked Sarajevo’s entrance to the world, and the city welcomed foreigners with an “Olimpijske osmijeh,” an Olympic smile learned through television and radio campaigns. For the first time there was Coca-Cola.
As the world turns toward Sochi, Sarajevo will celebrate its Games’ 30th anniversary, rousing memories of the turbulent years that followed.
Tales of 1984 are met with tears and smiles from Olympians and locals, and many recall 1984 as some of their happiest times. Torvill and Dean scored perfect sixes skating to “Bolero” under the roof of Zetra Hall. And the Mahre brothers and Debbie Armstrong of Washington brought glory to the U.S. Alpine team.
Sarajevo’s transformation
Sarajevo won the bid over Sapporo, Japan, by three votes and spent $135 million to prepare for the world. Citizens even voted to have money taken from their paychecks to help construct new venues.
The city was a stop on the 1983 Alpine World Cup circuit. Armstrong, a Seattle native and member of the 1984 U.S. Ski Team, remembered the city as dreary and gray.
“There was still a long way to go,” she said. “Then we show up in ’84 and it was so evident that this city was ready. I felt like it was a coming-out party for Yugoslavia and Sarajevo.”
The dirty air and thick smog that hung over the Miljacka Valley in 1983 was gone. A new gas pipeline replaced the coal people used for heat, leaving the city with clean air and revealing pristine, white snow for the first time.
“They rolled out the red carpet for the world,” said Phil Mahre, a member of the 1984 U.S. Ski Team. Mahre, a Yakima native, competed at Olympics in Innsbruck, Austria, and Lake Placid, N.Y., but for him 1984 is most memorable, and not just because he won gold.
“They were probably the most colorful Games I went to,” he said. “It was just a completely different atmosphere.”
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