On this day, 39 years ago, at the Koševo Olympic Stadium, at exactly 2:30 p.m., fanfare marked the beginning of the opening ceremony of the ZOI Sarajevo 84. On behalf of the organizers, the guests were greeted by the president of the Organizing Committee, Branko Mikulić, and the president of the IOC, Juan Antonio Samaran, with the most beautiful wishes of the world Olympic family, he announced that we will witness the "great Games" in Sarajevo. Then the President of the Presidency of the SFRJ, Mika Špiljak, officially opened the ZOI.

Ice skater Sanda Dubravčić turned the Olympic flame into a big blaze, and the Olympic oath was taken on behalf of all participants by the ace of the white tracks, Bojan Križaj, who cutely forgot the words of the Olympic Oath, which the spectators supported with great applause, and on behalf of the judges of Sarajevo, Miodrag Perović. At that moment, Sarajevo and Bosnia and Herzegovina were the centers of the world.

The idea of ZOI was conceived back in 1964 when prof. Ljubiša Zečević from Sarajevo presents an idea to the leaders of the Olympic Committee of Yugoslavia by which the city of Sarajevo can host the Olympic Games. Prof. Ljubiša Zečević shared the idea of the Sarajevo Olympics with Mr. Ahmed Karabegović, and then with Mr. Brac Kosovec, who fully support the idea of candidacy.

Prof. Zečević went to the International Olympic Committee (Lausanne) with the great support of Mr. Emeric Blum and with a couple of sketches of the city of Sarajevo and the surrounding areas by the architect Braca Alikalfić in order to present the idea of Sarajevo as a future Olympic destination.

The candidacy was submitted to the IOC on December 30, 1977, and the candidacy was presented in Athens by Ante Sučić, the mayor of Sarajevo, and engineer Aleksandar Trumić. Mayor Sučić explained to IOC President Lord Kilanin that based on detailed studies that analyzed weather conditions in the last 100 years, Sarajevo guarantees snow and adequate temperatures, i.e. ideal conditions for the smooth holding of the Games.

Sarajevo had several opposing cities that also wanted the organization of ZOI 84. In the first round, Sarajevo received 31 votes, Goteborg 10, and Sapporo 33 votes. In the second round, Sarajevo won the city of Sapporo with 39-36 votes. Lord Kilanin announced that Sarajevo was the host of the Winter Olympic Games in 1984, and the legend of Bosnia and Herzegovina of journalism and commentator Nikola Noka Bilić announced with great excitement to the Yugoslav public the City of Sarajevo's candidacy for the ZOI 84.

From year to year, beautiful buildings sprung up: Zetra, bobsleigh and sledding tracks, ski jumps, halls, "white tracks", cable cars, hotels, the Olympic Village, and a journalist's village with 2,640 apartments, roads in the direction of the mountains and 28 winter sports centers in To the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, who confirmed that the Olympics, along with all the humanitarian and sporting benefits, are also a development opportunity for Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The president of OC ZOI Branko Mikulić said, "From the beginning, we claimed that the Olympics is a development opportunity for us. The built sports facilities and complete infrastructure in the Sarajevo region, 28 other winter sports centers in RBiH, hotel, and other facilities, enable us to take that step".

After almost 4 decades after the opening of ZOI 84, the awareness and vision of the managers at that time, as well as all the employees who were involved in the process and project of ZOI 84, is fascinating.

The city of Sarajevo as early as 1972. starts with projects of environmental protection and preservation of clean air and water in urban areas, which even today represents a huge problem for the entire BiH community. At that time, the City of Sarajevo brought in gas and established gas-fired boilers, and settlements were built that were heated exclusively with electricity, while households were prohibited from burning and heating coal. The sewage network is being restored and the wastewater is being completely purified.

At the ZOI Sarajevo 84, 1,272 athletes from 49 countries participated in 39 disciplines. Among the army of athletes was Jure Franko, with silver in the giant slalom, the first Yugoslav medal at the Winter Olympics. The SFRY team had 72 members, which included biathletes Tomislav Lopatić and Zoran Ćosić from Bosnia and Herzegovina, speed skaters Behrudin Merdović and Bibija Kerla, bobsledders Boris Radjenović, Borislav Vujadinović, Mario Franić, Nikola Korica, Ognjen and Zoran Sokolović, Siniša Tubić and Zdravko Stojnić, and lugers Dajana and Suad Karajica and Dušan Dragojević, who recorded the best result so far (16th place) in the history of BiH Winter Olympics at Trebević.

There were 7,825 accredited journalists at the Games; 10,450 volunteers with the participation of thousands and thousands of brigade members involved in the preparation of the Games. The consortium had 27,000 beds, placed 206,000 overnight stays in trips and one-day trips for about 40,000 guests. ZOI in Sarajevo was visited by about 5,000 American citizens (PAN-AM transported 2,000 and JAT transported the other passengers) and about 52,000 tourists. About 640 thousand visitors were recorded, and about 328 thousand overnight stays were achieved, about 1.2 million donors were recorded, a large number of sponsors and paid rights (about 120 million US dollars) to American TV ABC... Tens of millions of US dollars and 1, 6 billion dinars in revenue. And all that without serious complaints.

The snowy "Flake" by Miroslav Antonić and the brave "Wolf" by Jože Trobec, the symbol, and mascot of the Games, will bear witness to this for centuries, as will the words of Samaran's successor at the head of the IOC, Jacques Rogge, who said in an interview:

"The fourteenth Winter Olympic Games in Sarajevo in 1984 were the Games of inspiration and above all, they had their own human face, the highest that the human race can achieve when it works in harmony for a common peacetime result... Sarajevo will always have a special place in the heart of the Olympic movement".

Taking into account all the above and quoted, Bosnia and Herzegovina and all citizens of BiH must be proud of their Olympic past, which is demonstrated by this organization of the largest planetary sports event, and continued with the excellent organization of EYOF Sarajevo and East Sarajevo 2019.

It is up to us to inherit that tradition and realize our future great Olympic dreams, why not?!

Note: Some information was taken from the Depo portal article by Zoran Bibanović