Sports
The city was the location of the 1984 Winter Olympics. Yugoslavia won one medal, a silver in men's giant slalom awarded to Jure Franko. Many of the Olympic facilities survived the war or were reconstructed, including Olympic Hall Zetra and Asim Ferhatović Stadion. After co-hosting the Southeast Europe Friendship games, Sarajevo was awarded the 2009 Special Olympic winter games, but cancelled these plans. The ice arena for the 1984 Olympics, Zetra Stadium, was used during the war as a temporary hospital and, later, for housing NATO troops of the IFOR.
In 2011 Sarajevo was the host city of the 51st World Military Skiing Championship with over 350 participants from 23 different nations. This was the first international event of such standing since the 1984 Olympics.
Football (soccer) is popular in Sarajevo; the city hosts FK Sarajevo and FK Željezničar, which both compete in European and international cups and tournaments and are have a very large trophy cabinet in the former Yugoslavia as well as independent Bosnia and Herzegovina. Other notable soccer clubs are FK Olimpik and SAŠK. Another popular sport is basketball; the basketball club KK Bosna Sarajevo won the European Championship in 1979 as well as many Yugoslav and Bosnian national championships making it one of the greatest basketball clubs in the former Yugoslavia. The chess club, Bosna Sarajevo, has been a championship team since the 1980s and is the third ranked chess club in Europe, having won four consecutive European championships in the nineties. RK Bosna also competes in the European Champions League and is considered one of the most well organised handball clubs in South-Eastern Europe with a very large fan base and excellent national, as well as international results. Sarajevo often holds international events and competitions in sports such as tennis and kickboxing. Rock climbing is popular; rock-climbing events and practices are held at Sarajevo's Dariva area, where there is also an extensive network of biking trails.
Popularity of tennis has been picking up in recent years. Since 2003, BH Telecom Indoors is an annual tennis tournament in Sarajevo.
In 2017 Sarajevo and East Sarajevo will host the European Youth Olympic Winter Festival (EYOWF).
| Club | Leagues | Venue | Established |
|---|---|---|---|
| FK Sarajevo | Premier League of Bosnia and Herzegovina
Football Association of Bosnia and Herzegovina |
Asim Ferhatović Hase Stadium | 1946 |
| FK Željezničar Sarajevo | Premier League of Bosnia and Herzegovina
Football Association of Bosnia and Herzegovina |
Grbavica Stadium | 1921 |
| FK Olimpik | Premier League of Bosnia and Herzegovina
Football Association of Bosnia and Herzegovina |
Otoka Stadium | 1993 |
| RK "Bosna" Sarajevo | Handball Championship of Bosnia and Herzegovina | Mirza Delibašić Arena | 1948 |
| KK Bosna | Premier League of Basketball of Bosnia and Herzegovina
Adriatic Basketball Association |
Mirza Delibašić Arena | 1951 |
| HK Bosna | Bosnia and Herzegovina Hockey League
Bosnia and Herzegovina Ice Hockey Federation |
Olympic Hall Juan Antonio Samaranch | 1980 |
| VK Bosna | Bosnia and Herzegovina Waterpolo League | Olimpijski Bazen Otoka | 1984 |
Famous quotes containing the word sports:
“There be some sports are painful, and their labor
Delight in them sets off. Some kinds of baseness
Are nobly undergone, and most poor matters
Point to rich ends.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“Sweet smiling village, loveliest of the lawn,
Thy sports are fled and all thy charms withdrawn;
Amidst thy bowers the tyrant’s hand is seen,
And desolation saddens all thy green;
One only master grasps the whole domain,
And half a tillage stints thy smiling plain;”
—Oliver Goldsmith (1730?–1774)
“Falling in love is the right adventure for those who dislike sports and travel.”
—Mason Cooley (b. 1927)