How An Olympics Changed a City. The 1984 Winter Olympics and the Making of Sarajevo

This project is a goal-specific case study of the Fourteenth Winter Olympic Games held in the then Yugoslav city of Sarajevo in 1984. It explores the extensive infrastructural, socio-cultural and political transformations generated by the conjuncture of place (Sarajevo) and event (the Olympic Games). The project’s principal hypothesis is that the event provided the city with an opportunity to radically remake its image.

Based on this hypothesis the project has sought to map the cultural implications of the event, focusing on the change in representations of the city in the so-called period of late socialism (1960-1980s). Hence, the forthcoming monograph How the 1984 Winter Olympics Changed Sarajevo offers series of representation analysis structured around three three thematic parts, each embracing different perspective of the Olympics. The first part examines how the hosting of the event made city`s urban elites, local political regime and the general population increasingly aware of their city’s global position and its distinctive features and uniqueness. This is followed by a part that addresses how the Olympics contributed to emerging the tension between what it meant to be modern and non-modern in the city. Finally, the last part of the monograph is focused on ‘nationality’ dimension of the Olympics, particularly on how the Olympics influenced national and international self-perception and self-image of the city. Placing the Sarajevo Olympics in the global context, the project contributes to broader debates concerning the relationship between the Olympics and cultural identity and between the Olympics and modernity. It further contributes to discussions of the role sport plays in national and international politics and those concerning the urban impact of international mega-events.