The birthplace of the modern Olympic Games is Ancient Greece. In an original 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 down. 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 attended the event. This is almost twice as much as it was in Sarajevo, where the 1984 Winter Olympics were held. 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, houses in which are 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 tensions of the West, and as a result, the First World War began.
First Winter Olympics in the territory of a socialist country
Then, until the end of the 70s of the 20th century, this city did not manifest itself in any way. In 1978, the International Olympic Committee decided at a regular session 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 in the city, the largest sports stadium Asim Ferkhatovich-Khase was reconstructed. 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 people think otherwise. According to a small mass of people, the start 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. This happened on February 7th. On that day, the USSR national team successfully went to the next stage, beating Poland with brilliance. The team of the Soviet Union became the champion of that year. In second place was the team of Czechoslovakia.
Ten sports disciplines were offered to the attention of spectators and athletes by the Winter Olympics 1984: figure skating, hockey, ski jumping, sledding, biathlon, cross-country skiing, Nordic combined, bobsledding, speed skating and skiing. A total of thirty-nine sets of medals were played.
Medal standings
It is noteworthy that it was at these competitions that many new names were opened. Athletes-skiers were especially distinguished. The delight and joy of the residents of hospitable Yugoslavia knew no bounds when their compatriot, twenty-two-year-old Yure Franko, took a silver medal in the competitions in giant slalom. 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 are as follows. By the number of valuable prizes the first step of the podium is occupied by the USSR. In total, the national team athletes won 25 awards. However, in terms of the number of gold medals, the largest socialist country lost to the GDR. The German Democratic Republic has 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 from the countries of the socialist camp
In 1980, the Olympics were held in Moscow. 1984 gave the world (except for the "white" games) also summer games. They were held in the United 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 aggravated relations between NATO and the countries of the socialist bloc. It is worth noting that initially in 1980, republics with a democratic system boycotted the Olympics in Moscow. Thus, the absence of the USSR national teams and other countries at the 1984 summer games was America's retaliatory move.
Of course, in order to boycott such an event, good reasons are needed. 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 assistance to anti-Soviet rebels in Afghanistan.
Aeroflot does not fly, Georgia does not go ...
In the autumn of 1983, the government of the Soviet Union sent a sports delegation to the United States to determine the state of sports facilities and the future location of guests. Having revealed a huge number of shortcomings, the leading link 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 Georgia ship off the coast of the city. It was planned that the USSR delegation would live on board the ship. The second negative point was the ban on the landing of Soviet Aeroflot aircraft.
A few months later, a Politburo resolution was issued that contained paragraphs describing the inappropriateness of the presence of the USSR national 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 (compared 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 effectiveness of the two events, then the Soviet counterpart gave the world several times more world records than games in the United States.
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.