المپیک سارایوو: تاریخچه بازی‌های زمستانی 1984

by Jason Vuic, Mahtab Safdari

Sarajevo, the unlikeliest of candidate cities in the unlikeliest of candidate countries did what many had thought impossible: it hosted an international sports competition at the highest level. Jason Vuic reconstructs the history of the Sarajevo games, the first Winter Olympics held in a communist country, and places its memorable competitions in the context of Cold War geopolitics. The book reminds readers that less than a decade after it hosted the Olympics, the Bosnian city of Sarajevo found itself at the vortex of a bloody and brutal civil war that would end with the dissolution of the multiethnic Yugoslavian state.

The first book analyzes the inner workings of the International Olympic Committee during the troubled 1970s through spring 1978, when Sarajevo was chosen to host the 1984 Winter Games. It also describes Bosnia’s status within Yugoslavia, the republic’s decision to bid for the games and the reasons it ultimately won, and follows the Sarajevo Olympics Organizing Committee through the early 1980s, a turbulent period when domestic and foreign politics and issues of finance threatened to derail the Games.

124 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2022

About the author

Specialist in the history of former Yugoslavia and in 1997-98 was a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar at the University of Novi Sad, Serbia.

He has published articles and op-eds in the South Slav Journal, Serbian Studies, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, and the Indianapolis Star. His next project is a book-length history of the 1984 Sarajevo Olympics.