SportBusiness Insider4d ago 21 eerie photos show what happened to Sarajevo's Olympic venues after the 1984 Games
SARAJEVO, BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA â" JANUARY 4: Snowfall blankets city as winter weather affects the capital Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, on January 4, 2025.
Samir Jordamovic/Anadolu/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.
Four decades after the Games, many of the Olympic venues have remained abandoned.
Over 40 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, with ski slopes heavily mined and hotels 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 millions of dollars into building new venues, which sometimes fall into disrepair after the crowds have gone home.
Milan Cortina, the host of this year's Olympics, hopes to avoid this costly mistake.
"The Games are capitalizing on existing infrastructure and local winter sports expertise, aiming to create lasting socio-economic benefits for the local population," said Marie Sallois, the IOC director for sustainability.
Of the 13 venues being used across northern Italy, 11 either already exist or are set to be torn down after the games. The country only needed to construct two new permanent venues, per the IOC.
Here's what the 1984 Sarajevo Olympic venues look like in 2026.
The 1984 Winter Olympics were held in Sarajevo, Yugoslavia, from February 8 to 19.
The medal podium at the ski jump venue.
Ioanna Sakellaraki / Barcroft Im / Barcroft Media via Getty Images
The 1984 Games were the first Winter Olympics to be held in a socialist state and the second consecutive Games to be held in a socialist country after the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow.
The 1984 Games were seen as a grand reunion, since many Western countries had boycotted the 1980 Summer Olympics, including the US.
The Olympic rings are seen on the Jahorina mountain near Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina February 5, 2019. Picture is taken 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.
In this picture taken on Friday, Feb. 21, 2014, graffiti by London creative collective The Lurkers "The Lurkers do Sarajevo" is written on a destroyed hotel at Mt. Igman. Wartime destruction and negligence have turned most of Sarajevo's 1984 Winter Olympic venues into painful reminders of the city's golden times. The world came together in the former Yugoslavia in 1984 after the West had boycotted the 1980 Olympics in Moscow and Russia boycotted the 1984 Summer Games in Los Angeles. Just eight years later, the bobsleigh and luge track on Mount Trbevic was turned into an artillery position from which Bosnian Serbs pounded the city for almost four years. Today, the abandoned concrete construction looks like a skeleton littered with graffiti.
Amel Emric/AP
A destroyed hotel at Mount Igman, where events including ski jumping were held in 1984, is pictured in 2014.
Sarajevo was almost immediately put under siege — just eight years after the Olympics ended, the bobsled track was turned into an artillery position by the Bosnian Serbs.
The bobsleigh track originally built for the 1984 Sarajevo Winter Olympics lies unused on Mount Trebevic
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.
BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA - FEBRUARY 20, 2014: Former Winter Olympic Venue now abandoned
Giles Clarke/Getty Images
NPR reported the Bosnian war led to 100,000 deaths and the "worst atrocities in Europe since World War II."
This hotel, which was built as part of the Olympic Village, was turned into a prison during the war.
BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA - FEBRUARY 20, 2014: The abandoned shell of a hotel constructed for the 1984 Winter Olympics and where competitors stayed. Ten years later, the hotel was turned into a prison and place of execution for Bosnian Muslims - all overseen by Serb Forces
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.
Sarajevo 1984 Winter Olympics logo is seen on the tower near the Zetra hall in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina on July 14, 2015.
Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images
Many of the Olympic venues had been damaged or destroyed by the constant bombing and warfare.
Decades later, many of the tracks and venues are still empty and abandoned, like these ski jumps at Mount Igman.
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.
IGMAN, BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA - FEBRUARY 20, 2014: Children gather at foot of the 1984 Olympic Ski jump hill at Igman just 25km from downtown Sarajevo. The area around the 90m hill was heavily mined during the Bosnian war just 8 years after the 1984 Winter Olympics.
Giles Clarke/Getty Images
The mountains border the city.
The ski jump was left to the elements.
In this picture taken Friday, Feb. 21, 2014, the abandoned ski jumping facility is seen covered in moss at Mt. Igman near Bosnian capital of Sarajevo. Wartime destruction and negligence have turned most of Sarajevo's 1984 Winter Olympic venues into painful reminders of the city's golden times. The world came together in the former Yugoslavia in 1984 after the West had boycotted the 1980 Olympics in Moscow and Russia boycotted the 1984 Summer Games in Los Angeles. Just eight years later, the bobsleigh and luge track on Mount Trbevic was turned into an artillery position from which Bosnian Serbs pounded the city for almost four years. Today, the abandoned concrete construction looks like a skeleton littered with graffiti.
Amel Emric/AP
Moss and debris cover the jumps.
There are reminders of the Olympics scattered throughout the old venues.
Destroyed Olympic rings on the abandoned Igman Olympic Ski Jump in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina on July 14, 2015.
Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images
These Olympic rings have fallen into disrepair.
Here's where the judges sat during the ski-jumping competition.
Judges tower on the Igman Olympic Jumps in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina 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.
picture taken on February 5, 2014 shows Sarajevo's abandoned Sarajevo's bob sleigh track near Sarajevo. Built and used as an Olympic venue during Sarajevo's 1984 Winter Olympic Games, the track was heavily damaged during Bosnia's 1992-95 war. It was never rebuilt and it's large concrete fragments remain standing as a memento of past and training ground for young generations of graffiti artists
ELVIS BARUKCIC/AFP via Getty Images
"The remains of destroyed restaurants, hotels, sports facilities and mountain huts were left to rot and the thousands of mines were cleared at a painstakingly slow pace" after the war ended, The Guardian wrote in 2018.
After the war ended, the track gained two new uses: a place for graffiti artists to paint and a place for bikers to practice.
Downhill bikers Kemal Mulic (C), Tarik Hadzic (L) and Kamer Kolar train on the disused bobsled track from the 1984 Sarajevo Winter Olympics on Trebevic mountain near Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, August 8, 2015. Abandoned and left to crumble into oblivion, most of the 1984 Winter Olympic venues in Bosnia's capital Sarajevo have been reduced to rubble by neglect as much as the 1990s conflict that tore apart the former Yugoslavia. The bobsled and luge track at Mount Trebevic, the Mount Igman ski jumping course and accompanying infrastructure are now decomposing into obscurity. The bobsled and luge track, which was also used for World Cup competitions after the Olympics, became a Bosnian-Serb artillery stronghold during the war and is nowadays a target of frequent vandalism
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 bobsleigh track originally built for the 1984 Sarajevo Winter Olympics lies unused on Mount Trebevic
Tim Goode/PA Images via Getty Images
The walls are covered in tags and street art.
This is what it looked like in early 2018.
The bobsleigh track is seen on Mount Trebevic in Sarajevo, 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.
Sarajevo below the Mount Trebevic cable car in 2018.
Tim Goode/PA Images via Getty Images
The cable car follows the same route today as it did during the Olympics.
People can now walk the old tracks without fear.
People walk along the Sarajevo bobsleigh track on Mount Trebevi, built for the 1984 Winter Olympics and later repurposed by Bosnian Serb forces as an artillery position during The 1992-1995 siege of Sarajevo on July 13, 2025 in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. The war ended with the signing of the Dayton Peace Agreement in 1995, which established Bosnia and Herzegovina's current political structure
Pierre Crom/Getty Images
"The mountain has slowly returned to something like its former self," The Guardian wrote in 2018. "Hotels, restaurants and cafes have been rebuilt, mines swept away and hikers from all over Sarajevo visit en masse."
Yet, the reminders of the war will always be part of Sarajevo's history, along with the Olympics.
A picture taken on March 19, 2019 shows the Kosevo wartime cemetery in Sarajevo. - The cemetery was established on an auxiliary football pitch of the Sarajevo city stadium, next to the "Zetra" Olympic Hall (seen in the background).
ELVIS BARUKCIC/AFP via Getty Images
A wartime cemetery was built right next to the Zetra Olympic Hall.
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.
Olympic rings adorn ski slopes at Mount Jahorina, used as one of Alpine skiing Olympic venues during Sarajevo's XIV Winter Olympics in 1984, south of Sarajevo, on February 6, 2024
ELVIS BARUKCIC/AFP/Getty Images
In 2024, some of the slopes remain abandoned. Olympics branding, like these rings, was still visible.
Even though it's been four decades, graffiti with the Olympic mascot Vucko is still seen on the streets of Sarajevo.
Pedestrians walk past graffiti depicting the official olympic mascot "Vucko" from the XIV Winter Olympic Games held in Sarajevo in 1984, on a painted wall painted mural in a an alley, in Sarajevo city center, 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.
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