Reblogged from matadornetwork

matadornetwork:

In 1984, the very first Winter Olympics taking place in a communist state was held in the unique and remarkable city of Sarajevo — then a thriving metropolis in the now-defunct host nation Yugoslavia, now the modern capital city of Bosnia and Herzegovina. In 2014 — 30 years after the Sarajevo Winter Olympics — the seaside Russian city of Sochi also held the attention of television viewers, in the way only a former communist nation in a world entranced by Western media can, as it played host to the XXII Olympic Winter Games.

Yugoslavia doesn’t exist anymore, except in the minds of Yugo-stalgic lovers of all things Tito. Bosnia and Herzegovina is a democracy. Russia has given communism the flick, moving toward a decidedly more corporatocracy. And the cities of Sochi and Sarajevo share something else in common — an abandoned Winter Olympic site. As Sochi begins its inevitable decay, perhaps the abandoned Winter Olympic bobsled track high on Mount Trebević above Sarajevo will be an eerily accurate bellwether for Sochi’s Imeritinsky Beach.

At the time, a record 49 nations participated in the 1984 Winter Olympics. Tens of thousands of spectators covering Mount Trebević cheered on the brave Sarajevo bobsled and luge competitors, as they raced down the 1.3km track at speeds of over 100 km/h, in snowy, blustery conditions. For several years after the Olympics, the Sarajevo bobsled track was used for world cup competitions. And then came the rub. When 1991 rolled around, the ugly and complex Yugoslav wars commenced, and the Olympic bobsled location was utilised by military forces as an artillery position.

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