20 eerie photos that show what happened to Sarajevo’s Olympic venues after the 1984 Games
August 5, 20240
The partially dismantled bobsleigh track which was damaged during past conflicts lay abandoned on Mount Trebevic, near Sarajevo on February 6, 2024.
ELVIS BARUKCIC/AFP/Getty Images
Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina, hosted the Winter Olympics in 1984.
Not even a decade later, the city was ground zero in the war for Bosnian independence.
Forty years after the Games, many of the Olympic venues have remained abandoned.
Forty years ago, the Yugoslavian city of Sarajevo hosted the 1984 Winter Olympics. Many new structures were built, and the games were seen as something of a reunion since many countries had boycotted the 1980 Summer Olympics held in Moscow.
But six years later, the country would be thrown into turmoil during the Yugoslav Wars, which led to the fall of Yugoslavia. Sarajevo became the capital of a new country, Bosnia and Herzegovina, in 1992, but the fighting didn’t end until 2001.
During the fighting, Olympic venues became battlegrounds, as ski slopes were heavily mined and hotels were turned into prisons.
While Sarajevo’s story is singular, it’s not the only former Olympics host city where venues now resemble ghost towns. Olympics host countries famously pour billions of dollars into building new venues, which sometimes fall into disrepair after the crowds have gone home.
Paris, the host of this year’s Olympics, hopes to avoid this costly mistake: 95% of its venues already existed before the games or are only in place temporarily, according to the Olympics.
Here’s what the 1984 Sarajevo Olympic venues look like in 2024.
The 1984 Winter Olympics were held in Sarajevo, Yugoslavia, from February 8 to 19.
The Olympic rings on the Jahorina Mountain near Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, on February 5, 2019.
Dado Ruvic/Reuters
The US boycotted the Olympics in Moscow in response to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979. More than 60 nations refused to take part, according to the US State Department.
In 1984, many of the events took place near Jahorina Mountain, seen here in 2019.
But soon after the Olympics ended, Yugoslavia was thrust into turmoil, with the country formally collapsing in 1992.
The bobsleigh track originally built for the 1984 Sarajevo Winter Olympics lies unused on Mt. Trebević.
Tim Goode/PA Images via Getty Images
This is what the bobsled track looked like in 2014 — it’s been almost completely left to nature.
Sylvia Hui at the Associated Press wrote that year, “Today, the abandoned concrete construction looks like a skeleton littered with graffiti.”
Sarajevo was under siege for almost four years, “the longest siege of a capital city in the history of modern warfare,” NPR reported.
The abandoned shell of a hotel constructed for the 1984 Winter Olympics and where competitors stayed.
Giles Clarke/Getty Images
According to Getty, 10 years after the Winter Olympics, “the hotel was turned into a prison and place of execution for Bosnian Muslims — all overseen by Serb Forces.”
Even the medal podium was turned into an execution site, Bloomberg reported.
By the time the war ended in February 1996, thousands of civilians were dead, and the new country of Bosnia and Herzegovina had to decide how to move forward.
Abandoned Igman Olympic jumps in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina on July 14, 2015.
Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images
According to Getty, “The area around the 90-meter hill was heavily mined during the Bosnian war.”
Here’s what they look like from another angle.
The abandoned ski jumping facility covered in moss at Mt. Igman near Bosnian capital of Sarajevo.
Amel Emric/AP
Moss and debris cover the jumps.
There are reminders of the Olympics scattered throughout the old venues.
Judges tower on the Igman Olympic jumps in Sarajevo on July 14, 2015.
Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images
East Germany’s Jens Weißflog and Finland’s Matti Nykänen each took home gold medals in ski jumping that year.
The bobsled track was located on Mount Trebević, which was reachable by cable car from the city. It closed in 1989 and was destroyed during the war.
Downhill bikers trained on the disused bobsled track from the 1984 Sarajevo Winter Olympics on August 8, 2015.
Dado Ruvic/Reuters
A photo from 2015 shows downhill bikers using the bobsled tracks for training.
There are hundreds of feet of concrete for artists to express themselves.
The bobsled track on Mount Trebević on January 16, 2018.
Dado Ruvic/Reuters
The track on Mount Trebević was covered in snow when it was photographed in January 2018.
However, the cable car, which ferried people to the bobsled events on the mountain, triumphantly reopened in 2018.
A picture taken on March 19, 2019, showed the Kosovo wartime cemetery in Sarajevo.
ELVIS BARUKCIC/AFP via Getty Images
Following the war, the Zetra Ice Hall was rebuilt in 1997 and reopened in 1999. It’s still in use and is now known as the Juan Antonio Samaranch Olympic Hall.
In 2024, Sarajevo marked the 40th anniversary of the Olympics.
Pedestrians walked past graffiti depicting the official Olympic mascot Vucko in an alley on February 7, 2024.
ELVIS BARUKCIC/AFP/Getty Images
Unfortunately, Sarajevo isn’t the only city that has to reckon with abandoned Olympic venues. There are empty stadiums all over the world.
