MAGNIFICENT MANIFESTATION!
In the period from 8 through 19 February 1984, Sarajevo was the host of the 14th Winter Olympic Games. Sarajevo Games, the largest and the best-organised up to that point, will be remembered as the games that took place in a Socialist country for the first and only time in the history of Olympic Games. There were 49 national Olympic committees participating in the Games, and the number of participants was the highest ever in the history. Beside the 2,500 sportsmen, also the record figure of 7,283 media (radio, TV) representatives, as well as several tens of thousands winter sports’ fans from all over the world were there.

All those numerous sportsmen, trainers and officials of the international sport organizations experienced in Sarajevo the true victory of the Olympic spirit, peace and human happiness. The Sarajevo Olympic Games were inspiration for all the people working on behalf of peace and cooperation, for this city welcomed and welcomes all the good-will people, no matter race and religion, ideological and political orientation. In 1984, Sarajevo became a synonym for overcoming the numerous barriers which burden the modern world - Sarajevo was a city of friendship without frontiers, the city of piece and international respect. The Olympic Games held in Sarajevo were kept in the memory of the whole Olympic family. The people of Sarajevo gained high marks for their hospitality, for the city itself and its citizens, did their best to make everyone feel great during this magnificent manifestation. There was no indication of the tragic events that would engulf the city only a few years later.

DE NEDERLANDSE BIJDRAGE!.
Uit het Olympisch dagboek:

“16 februari 1984, ergens in Bascarsija (de oude stadskern van Sarajevo). Ik weet in de binnenstad een heel wat leuker restaurantje, zei Hugo…Mag je niet missen, adviseerde Hugo, die inmiddels heel enthousiast was over de cultuur en architectuur van Sarajevo… Na veel omzwervingen zag ik ineens een restaurant. Mijn Bosnisch liet nog veel te wensen over om de man aan de ingang uit te leggen dat het ons om twee kopjes koffie gaat. Plechtig toonden wij onze olympische accreditaties. De gevolgen waren verbijsterd. Hij kwam nauwelijks enkele seconden later terug met een lachende man die ons in heel gewoon en dus zeer verstandbaar Nederlands welkom heette. ‘Ik spreek uw taal best goed’ zei hij met ontwapende bescheidenheid, ‘want ik heb een poosje in uw land gewerkt. ‘U bent hier midden in een bruiloft terecht gekomen’, terwijl we in een bloeddruk zaaltje aan een tafel werden gezet. We kregen een fles stevige rode wijn voor ons neus gezet, en niemand bleek er bezwaar tegen te hebben dat ik m’n schoenen en sokken op de verwarming te drogen legde en verder blootsvoets door de zaal dansende bruiloftgasten op verkenning ging. Er werd ons zelf nog een tweede fles wijn gebracht met een hoeveelheid uiterst pikante vleesgerechten. Het korte tijd later bleek het hoe verstandig het was geweest om onze kelen te smeren. We kregen beiden een gitaar in de handen gedrukt en er werd ons duidelijk gemaakt dat een vertolking van enige puur Hollandse liederen bijzonder op prijs zou worden gesteld… Wij boekten een grandioos succes. Dat dan dankzij onze gastheer, die wel enige klanken aan gitaar wist te ontlokken: een zeer herkenbare melodie waarop we gedrieën uit volle borst de evergreen zongen ‘Ard en Keessie, geef ze van katoen” Door Henk Boer (Coach schaatsen).

Nederlandse Olympische deelnemers in Sarajevo
Coaches schaatsen
Henk Boer
Tjaard Kloosterboer
Gauke Nijholt

Heren
Hilbert v/d Duim
Yep Kramer
Geert KuiperFrits Schalij
Hein VergeerRob Vunderink
Jan Ykema

Dames
Alie Boorsma
Yvonne van Gennip
Thea Limbach
Ria Visser

Coach bobsleeën
Jan van Spaandonk

Deelnemers
Job van oostrum
John Drost

Service-men
Rob Geurts
Arian Tiekstra

Hoogtepunten in Sarajevo

• Hilbert van der Duim liep met de Nederlandse vlag tijdens de openingsceremonie.
  
• Voor het eerste in de Nederlands geschiedenis neemt Nederland deel aan de Olympische Bobsleecompetitie.
  
• Helaas viel er weinig Nederlands nationalisme te vieren. Geen plakken mee naar huis, zelfs geen brons.
  
• Yvonne van Gennip liep droeg de vlag tijdens de sluitingsceremonie.
  

THE TRAGIC PAST!
After the Winter Olympic Games, Sarajevo kept tradition of the winter sport center through organizing numerous international sport competitions. When the aggression against Bosnia and Herzegovina started in 1992, Sarajevo found itself in the epicentre of the huge destruction which caused immense human victims and losses of the Olympic objects which the citizens of Sarajevo were especially proud of. During the whole 5-year war period, the Olympic spirit had been living among the citizens and sportsmen of Sarajevo who endeavored to participate in the international sport competitions including the Olympic Games as well. On the other hand, the Sarajevo’s athletes and sport workers had not been forgotten by the international sport community in those hardest days. We had been receiving different kinds of support, adjusted to the conditions we had here, but the most important of anything was the awareness that we were not abandoned, nor alone.

SARAJEVO - THE OLYMPIC TOWN AGAIN?
Seventeen years on, the Bosnian Olympic Committee, NOK, announced it would support the city's bid to host the games in 2010. The announcement was made in the partially reconstructed Zetra Olympic Hall, pulverised by mortar attacks in 1992.

Nowadays, the whole international community is making strong efforts toward helping the reconstruction process in Bosnia and Herzegovina and its capital. The international sport family would give the best contribution to that process if they would entrust Sarajevo the organization of one of the forthcoming Winter Olympic Games. Until then, we would be able to provide all the necessary conditions for the successful organization of the Games. The organizing of the new Games in Sarajevo would result in promoting sports as a factor of piece and friendship, rebuilding of the sport objects and supporting the citizens of Sarajevo in their attempt to create conditions for the mass sport engagement.

Many people in Sarajevo believe in the benefits of sport diplomacy.
The outgoing president of the International Olympic Committee, IOC, Juan Antonio Samaranch, whose first job was to officiate at the 1984 Games, revisited the Bosnian capital in 2004 for the inauguration of the newly reformed NOK. If successful, Sarajevo will become the fourth city to host the Winter Olympics twice over. Furthermore, it will also be an extraordinary testament to the capital in which thousands died during its three and a half year siege.