The birthplace of the modern Olympic Games is Ancient Greece. In a distinctive and rich state, these competitions were part of a religious cult. More than two thousand years have passed since then, but the tradition of holding the Olympic Games every four years has not died out. Each time, the number of countries wishing to participate in these competitions is growing.
Competition Venue
In 2014, the Winter Olympic Games were held in the Russian city of Sochi. Eighty-eight countries took part in this event. This is almost twice as much as Sarajevo, which hosted the 1984 Winter Olympics. At that time, this city was the capital of the socialist country of Yugoslavia. Sarajevo could hardly be called a modern metropolis. Rather, it was a huge village with narrow streets, the houses in which were comfortably located on the hills and hills. Until that time, the capital of Yugoslavia was famous for only one event: it was here that the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne was killed. This event was a turning point in the tense relations of the West, and asthe result - the First World War began.
The first Winter Olympics on the territory of a socialist country
Then, until the end of the 70s of the 20th century, this city did not show itself in any way. In 1978, the International Olympic Committee at its regular session decided that the 1984 Winter Olympics would be held in Sarajevo. In order to carry out the opening and closing ceremonies of the games, as well as for some competitions, the largest sports stadium "Asim Ferhatovich-Khase" was reconstructed on the territory of the city. It is noteworthy that the 1984 Winter Olympics was the first event of this magnitude held on the territory of a socialist country.
Start of games
The opening ceremony of the competition took place on a frosty February day on the eighth day. Some think otherwise. According to a small number of people, the beginning of the competition in a particular sport was the day when the 1984 Winter Olympics actually started. Hockey was the first game of the fourteenth games. It happened on the seventh of February. On that day, the USSR national team successfully advanced to the next stage, brilliantly beating Poland. The Soviet Union team became the champion of that year. Czechoslovakia ranked second.
Ten sports disciplines were offered to the attention of spectators and athletes at the 1984 Winter Olympics: figure skating, hockey, ski jumping, luge, biathlon, cross-country skiing, Nordic combined, bobsleigh, speed skating and alpine skiing. Total playedthirty-nine sets of medals.
Medal standings
It is noteworthy that it was at these competitions that many new names were discovered. Alpine skiers especially excelled. The delight and joy of the residents of hospitable Yugoslavia knew no bounds when their compatriot, twenty-two-year-old Jure Franko, took a silver medal in the giant slalom competition. As the Oslobodzhene newspaper later noted, this victory was a worthy reward for years of hard work and preparation for the “white” games.
On February 19, the 1984 Winter Olympics were officially closed. The medal standings of the competition is as follows. In terms of the number of valuable prizes, the first step of the podium is occupied by the USSR. In total, the athletes of the national team won 25 awards. However, in terms of the number of gold medals, the largest socialist country lost to the GDR. The German Democratic Republic won three more "yellow" awards. The 1984 Winter Olympics gave the United States only eight prizes. Norway received 9 medals, and Finland - 13. It is noteworthy that this time the Austrian team performed absolutely unsuccessfully. As a rule, this country has always achieved excellent results in winter sports. But not at this time. Austrian athletes took away only one bronze medal.
Boycott by the countries of the socialist bloc
In 1980, the Olympics were held in Moscow. 1984 gave the world (apart from the "white" games) also the summer games. They were held inUnited States of America - in Los Angeles. It is noteworthy, but these competitions were boycotted by the socialist states. The reason for this lies in the tense relations between NATO and the countries of the socialist bloc. It is worth noting that initially in 1980, the republics with a democratic system boycotted the Olympics in Moscow. Thus, the absence of the national teams of the USSR and other countries at the 1984 Summer Games was America's response.
Of course, good reasons are needed to boycott such an event. Formally, the socialist cell of countries refused to participate in the 1984 competitions due to the refusal of the leadership of the organizing committee of the games to provide athletes with security guarantees.
It should also be noted that the boycott of the 1984 Olympics is a kind of step against the "Carter Doctrine". That, in turn, implies helping anti-Soviet rebels in Afghanistan.
Aeroflot doesn't fly, Georgia doesn't fly…
Back in the fall of 1983, the government of the Soviet Union sent a sports delegation to the United States to determine the state of sports facilities and places for the future location of guests. Having revealed a huge number of shortcomings, the leadership of the countries of the socialist camp expressed concern about this. The greatest excitement was caused by the refusal of the US government to moor the ship "Georgia" off the coast of the city. It was planned that a delegation of the USSR would live on board the ship. The second negative point was the ban on landingSoviet aircraft of Aeroflot.
A few months later, the Politburo issued a resolution containing clauses describing the inappropriateness of the presence of the USSR team at the 1984 Summer Olympics held in the USA. The pages of the document also contained measures aimed at suppressing discontent among the people and creating a favorable image of the Soviet Union (in comparison with the countries of the democratic bloc). Neighboring socialist countries were also invited to take part in the boycott. Instead of the 1984 Summer Olympics, the Friendship-84 competition was held in Moscow. If we compare the performance of the two events, then the Soviet counterpart gave the world several times more world records than the games in the USA.
After the boycott of the 1984 Olympics, the International Olympic Committee issued a decree on sanctions against states that decided to continue to interfere with this kind of competition.
